What is the professional Standard/Par Resolution for Scanning Pictures

[s8n]

hi team...... does anyone know or know where i can get information on......what Resolution i would need for scanning pictures A4 size and below , in Standard/Par quality .....please not below Par or Standard.........

as an example in audio terms......not like MP3 , but like original Audio CD.....no data taken out to make the filesize smaller.....just the full proper quality

s8n

[confus-ed]

....what Resolution i would need for scanning pictures A4 size and below , in Standard/Par quality ..

Mmmm .. subjective measurement I'd suggest - if you can 'read' the level of detail you want, then its 'par quality' - this :- Recommendations for the Evaluation of Digital Images Produced from Photographic, Microphotographic, and Various Paper Formats, by James M. Reilly and Franziska S. Frey (pdf) shows all the reasons why its always a subjective measurement.

What are you up to ? Having to specify what models of scanner might be suitable for a particular task ?

.. dpi is usually the figure most folks associate with 'quality of scanning' - bigger for this is generally better in 'quality' terms.

[DonJ]

Usually, your scanning software has Defaults set up for color photos, B/W, etc. You might try playing around with those settings but start out with the default settings to see how that goes.

[geoscomp]

and to correlate with your comments about audio cd vs mp3, save the images in an uncompressed format such as uncompressed tiff instead of jpeg.

[slgrieb]

The appropriate resolution really depends on the intended use for the file. Doubling the resolution increases file size by a factor of 4, (scan times too), so you should keep that in mind. If you want to email a file for screen display, anything past 100 dpi is a waste. Even if the recipient wants to print the image, 3 MB is normally the largest attachment you can send. If you are printing the file and your printer maxes out at 600 dpi, why scan at 1200?

Your scanner software may offer some guidelines, but there really is no single "standard".

[s8n]

what would a 1200X2400 scanners quality be like ? crap ?.....my mum wants to buy a Multifunction Printer with decent scan capability.....i have seen one model that has scanning at 1200 x 2400 dpi optical

[slgrieb]

1200x2400 resolution is higher than you probably need for most purposes, but again, depends on your goal. Just keep in mind my previous post about file size and scan times. Also, if you print at this resolution, especially on photo paper, expect to run through lots of consumables.

[s8n]

what its mainly for is Scanning and Faxing only........stuff we are going to Scan mostly are 4 X 6 Photos and Music CD covers to go in Winamp........theres no intention to Print them just Scan and keep them in the PC

[confus-ed]

what would a 1200X2400 scanners quality be like ? crap ?.....my mum wants to buy a Multifunction Printer with decent scan capability.....

Not only is the dpi figure important, but also the quality of any optics involved, (look at this link Not all scanners are created equal. & you'll discover that the best indication you can get is to examine some 'results' from the process , if image quality is really important to you...

.. but in general, 1200x2400 ought to be 'plenty' for most folks purposes as already observed, but I'd comment that good quality images of almost all music related content is available 'anyways & already' (nicely pre-scanned by 'somebody') if you know where to look !
of course getting stuff that way is illegal, as all of this stuff is copyrighted ! .. even for home use !