Flatbed Scanner:

A flatbed scanner is an optical scanner which makes use of a flat

surface for scanning documents. The scanner is capable of capturing all
elements on the document and does not require movement of the
document. Flatbed scanners are effective scanners for delicate materials
such as vintage photographs, papers and other documents which are
fragile. A flatbed scanner is also known simply as a flatbed.
Unlike other types of scanners, a flatbed scanner only requires the user to lay the document
onto the glass and close the lid. Almost all flatbed scanners have an adjustable lid which can
be raised to allow thicker materials to be scanned. A transparent media adapter, found in
some flatbed scanners, can scan film and glass negatives. Some flatbed scanners can also
have additional features such as automatic document feeders and wireless or Bluetooth
connectivity.
Flatbed scanners are known for their high-quality scans. Due to their ability to scan thick
objects, flatbed scanners are more versatile than sheet-fed scanners. There is a significant
reduction in risk of documents being damaged during scanning, as there is no movement
required of the documents, unlike drum or handheld scanners. Again, compared to a sheet-fed
scanner which can accept only paper documents, flatbed scanners can accept magazines,
books and other thick objects. High speed and productivity are also possible through flatbed
scanners.
Drawbacks of flatbed scanners include being large and bulky. They consume more space than
other scanners, and they can also be expensive.

Drum Scanner:

A high-end optical scanning device used to convert an

image—such as a photograph—to digital form, so as to
allow later manipulation and output as part of a page, as a
color-separated image, or by itself.

In a drum scanner, the original image (usually a color transparency) is attached to a

transparent revolving drum—or cylinder—while a small point of light illuminates the image
from within the drum, where this light is split, passed through red, green and blue filters, and
picked up by a photomultiplier tube, which analyzes each row, pixel by pixel, storing the
particular color or grayscale information for each pixel in a digital file. When one revolution
is complete, the light source moves one pixel to the side, and images the next row, continuing
this process until the entire picture is imaged. In the photomultiplier tube, the amounts
of cyan, magenta, and yellow contained by the image are derived from the amounts of red,
green, and blue light hitting it. The device stores the cyan, the magenta, and the yellow values
for each pixel as one of 256 shades of gray. Alternatively, and more commonly, the device
records the RGB signals for later conversion to CMYK. (The device also analyzes how much
black makes up the image, based on the "heaviness" of the other three colors; if all three
colors are heavy, then there is a significant amount of black present. If only two of the three
colors are heavy, then it is likely that the colors are saturated, and there is thus little black
involved.)
After scanning, the grayscale levels corresponding to each constituent color are
"reassembled" either as one large digital file (if the image needs further manipulation) or as
individual color-separated films.

Other types of scanners—such as desktop flatbed scanners—utilize a charge-coupled

device rather than a photomultiplier tube. Although these devices are less expensive than
high-end drum scanners, they tend to produce lower-quality scans.

Most high-end drum scanners are both digital and analog scanners; the original scan gleans
analog data from the image, which is later converted to digital information to be read by the
computer. Strictly digital scanners obtain information in digital form at the outset.

Resolution:

Resolution relates to the fineness of detail that a scanner can achieve, and is usually measures
in dots per inch (dpi). The more dots per inch a scanner can resolve the more detail the
resulting image will have. The typical resolution of an inexpensive desktop scanner in the late
1990s was 300 x 300.

A typical flatbed scanner has a CCD element for each pixel, so for a desktop scanner
claiming a horizontal optical resolution of 600dpi (dots per inch) – alternatively referred to as
600ppi (pixels per inch) – and a maximum document width of 8.5in there’ll be an array of
5,100 CCD elements in what’s known as the scan head.

The determination of the appropriate resolution at which to scan an image is important both
in terms of achieving the desired quality and in terms of the efficiency of the scanning
process itself. Since modern advertising has conditioned us to think that more is always
better, it is not difficult to understand why many users have a tendency to scan at too high a
resolution. The key point is that scan resolution should always be determined by the
capability of the output device. If the chosen scan resolution does not properly match the
given output device, there will be adverse consequences. If it is lower than the output
resolution, the display or printing process will interpolate the extra pixels that are needed and
the final result will lose detail and sharpness. If, on the other hand, the chosen scan resolution
is higher than the output resolution, the display or printing process will discard the extra
pixels. The result will look fine, but the same quality result could have been achieved with
lower resolution and a smaller image file.

DPI = Dots per inch = units used to measure the resolution of a printer
LPI = Lines per inch = the offset printing 'lines' or dots per inch in a halftone or line screen.
PPI = Pixels per inch = the number of pixels per inch in screen/scanner file terms.

What DPI means:

DPI, or dots per inch, refers to the resolution value of a physical printer. Printers reproduce
an image by spitting out tiny dots, and the number of dots per inch affects the amount of
detail and overall quality of the print.
Printer dots mix CMYK inks DPI describes the amount of detail in an
image based on the concentration of printer
dots

DPI uses the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key/black) color model to control the
amount of red, green, and blue light that is reflected from white paper. This is also known as
the subtractive color model. Dots of each color are printed in patterns, enabling the human
eye to perceive a specific color made from this combination. DPI is a measurement of this
density. These dots are a fixed size and resolution is only affected by how many dots appear
per inch.

When do you use DPI?

When your design is going to be physically printed, the printer will use DPI. Each model and
style of printer produces its own unique DPI based on its settings. Inkjet printers produce a
resolution around 300 to 720 DPI, while laser printers produce images anywhere from 600 to
2,400 DPI.

Higher DPI can mean higher resolution, but dot sizes vary by printer

There is no standard dot size or shape, so higher DPI does not always equate to a higher
quality print. One manufacturer’s dots might look as good at 1200 DPI as another
manufacturer’s dots do at 700 DPI. Books and magazines often use 150 DPI for photographic
reproduction, and newspapers often use 85 DPI.

What PPI means:

PPI, or pixels per inch, refers both to the fixed number of pixels that a screen can display
and the density of pixels within a digital image. Pixel count on the other hand refers to the
number of pixels across the length and width of a digital image—that is, the image
dimensions in pixels. Pixels, or ―picture elements‖, are the smallest building blocks of a
digital image. Zoom in to any image on your and you will see it break up into colored
squares—these are pixels.
Each pixel is made up of RGB subpixels Pixel count describe an image’s dimensions based
on the number of pixels

PPI, or pixel density, describes the amount of detail in an image based on the concentration of pixels

Within pixels are sub-pixels, red, green and blue light elements that the human eye cannot see
because additive color processing blends them into a single hue which appears on the pixel
level. This is why PPI utilizes the RGB (red, green and blue) color model, also known as
the additive color model. This does not exist in print—only in the electronic display of
images, like television screens, computer monitors and digital photography.

When do you use PPI?

Use PPI whenever you are working with digital images. PPI is most useful in preparing files
for printing (though DPI will be used by the physical printer—see more in the DPI section
below). An image with a higher PPI tends to be higher quality because it has a greater pixel
density, but exporting at 300 PPI is generally considered industry standard quality.

Because increasing the PPI increases the size of your file, you will want to use a high PPI
only when necessary. For example, when printing involves many fine details on a glossy
surface, it’s best to consider using a higher resolution. Printing an image on canvas does not
require as high a resolution because details get lost in the texture of the material. PPI does not
really matter for distribution on the web because the pixel density of your monitor is fixed. A
72 PPI image and a 3,000 PPI image will appear the same on your screen. It is the pixel
dimensions (the amount of pixels from left to right, top to bottom) that will determine the size
and detail of your image.

How to set up or change PPI resolution:

The New Document window in Photoshop has you set your Pixels per Inch resolution in the beginning

Raster programs (software that work with pixel-based media) like Photoshop have you set up
the PPI resolution right at the beginning when you create a document. You will find
Resolution listed with other parameters in the New Document window.

If you need to increase the resolution on an image that has already been created, you can
resample it. Resampling is the process of changing the amount of pixels in an image, in
which the software will create or delete pixels to preserve image quality.

In Photoshop, you can do this by navigating to Image > Image Size. In the Image Size
window, you will have options for changing the width, height and PPI resolution of your
image. Select the ―Resample‖ checkbox and set it to ―Preserve Details‖ to choose how
Photoshop fills in the new pixels.
The Image Size window gives you options for adjusting your resolution in Photoshop

You can decrease the resolution if you set the PPI to a lower value. As the pixel count
decreases, the image size and dimensions decrease as well. You increase the resolution when
you set PPI to a higher value. This allows the image to be printed at a larger print size.

It is best to avoid changing the PPI on an existing image whenever possible. The resampling
process requires Photoshop to generate new pixels from scratch. While Photoshop is able to
read the surrounding pixels and make a somewhat accurate guess as to what color each new
pixel should be, computers are notoriously bad at ―seeing‖ images the way humans can.
Thus, computer generated pixels can create unintentional results on your image.

Lines per inch:

A line per inch (LPI) is a measurement of printing resolution. A line consists of halftones that
is built up by physical ink dots made by the printer device to create different tones.
Specifically LPI is a measure of how close together the lines in a halftone grid are. The
quality of printer device or screen determines how high the LPI will be. High LPI indicates
greater detail and sharpness.

Printed magazines and newspapers often use a halftone system. Typical newsprint paper is
not very dense, and has relatively high dot gain or color bleeding, so newsprint is usually
around 85 LPI. Higher-quality paper, such as that used in commercial magazines, has less dot
gain, and can range up to 300 LPI with quality glossy (coated) paper.
Photo Retouching:

While scanners provide an effective means of capturing colour images, that’s often just the
beginning. Once a photograph, for example, has been digitised, its appearance can be
dramatically altered by use of a bitmap editor or paint package.

In advertising and publishing, very few images are used raw – models’ features are cleaned
up, wrinkles ironed out, eyes sharpened and coloured, and untidy hair trimmed. There’s also a
trend towards producing attention-grabbing images by distorting and montaging elements of
photographs. Recent examples include United Airlines’ stretched mini, and Pepsi’s famous
colour-change ads featuring, among other things, blue strawberries and blue tomato ketchup.

Generally the photo-retoucher is trying to do one of two things – change some elements of a
picture in a natural way that cannot be detected (changing the colour of someone’s eyes, for
example) or produce something unreal and impossible-looking. Either way, the hand of the
retoucher must be invisible.

Most of this kind of work is produced using Adobe PhotoShop, but even the simplest paint
packages allow these kind of alterations. However, while a lot can be achieved with the
cheaper packages such as PaintShop Pro and PC Paintbrush, packages like PhotoShop, Xres
and Corel PhotoPaint make complicated effects much easier to achieve