200B/C Lab Series Presents

Using the Scanner in the 200B Instructional Lab

Importing images into the computer is very easy using the EPSON scanner and the Twain software. To begin, you will first need to open Adobe Acrobat. This can be found near the top of the Apple Menu in the upper left corner.

In Acrobat, go to the FILE menu, choose the IMPORT submenu, and select "Scan..."
 
You will see the dialog box at right. The radio button for "Open New PDF Document" should be hilighted. If it not, see the note below. Leave everything as it is, and click the Scan button.

NOTE: If you are working with an existing Acrobat file, then the "Append to Current Document" radio button will be hilighted by default [see the slightly different image below]. If you would like to add pages to the open Acrobat file, then leave the button as is and continue. However, if you wish to begin a new document with the scan, select the other radio button "Open New PDF Document" before continuing.)
A short progress bar will appear, with legend "Pre-scanning in Progress." Wait for the pre-scan to finish, and then you should see a screen that at right [Click the image to enlarge it; details may not be apparent on the image ].

The controls at the left of the screen control color, brightness, contrast, positioning and many other qualities of the scan. By deafult, the EPSON Twain software will select those which it thinks appropriate to the image. The most important setting is the Image Type menu near the top of the screen [the menu displayed below]. You should check the type to make sure the software has chosen correctly:

  • If you are scanning a document where color is essential (like a photo), select "Color Photo"
  • If you are scanning a document with text, charts, and diagrams, select "Black and White Document" (Note: if color is employed and cannot be eliminated, choose "Color Document," but the scan will take considerably longer.)
  • If you are scanning a book or paper of mostly text, select "Text (Background Removal)". This will minimize the size of the PDF file.
  • If you are not sure what to use, "Color Document" will usually preserve everything in the original document, at the cost of a somewhat larger file.
The other settings should be appropriately set by the EPSON Twain software. Unless you know specifically what you are doing, we do not recommend changing these default values.

Click the Scan button once you have ensured the image and settings are correct. A longer progress bar will appear, with legend "Scanning in Progress." Be patient; some images, especially color scans, can take some time.
When the scan is complete, a small dialog box [shown at right] will appear. Click the Done button if you have no further pages to scan. Click the Next button if you wish to scan the second page of a multi-page document.

NOTE: If you select the Next button, each additional page will be appended to the same Adobe Acrobat file. If you wish to scan more than one page into separate documents, use the Done button and then begin the process again from the beginning.
If you click the Next button, the software will conduct another pre-scan automatically and you will be presented with the same control and pre-scane screen. Therefore, make sure that you have placed the next page to be scanned into the scanner BEFORE you click the Next button.

If you click the Done button, the scanning process is complete, and your scanned document should now appear. You can modify it further in Acrobat, or save it as a PDF for later use.

 

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