Best Format For Images

[michael john williams]

I know that there has been discussuions on this before and I have read them, but what is the best format for importing images into VW? I get a kind of specky background to jpeg images. I do not have the full adobe acrobat and so saving in PDF is not an option. Also my scanner and my image / photo software [Corel] does not give me the png option. So JPEG is the best option and seems to work well for photos but scanned images of hand drawn sketches come with this grey specky background, is there a way of getting rid of it and improving the image?

[propstuff]

the speckles are the "colour" of the paper.

Set the scanner to black and white only ( sometimes called "Lineart" ) and/or import at 1bit resolution. this will give you only black lines and reject the greyscale information.

[michael john williams]

Thanks, I will give it a go.

What do you do if some of the sketches have colour on them?

[propstuff]

If you want to bring in colour or greyscale information then ignore what I just said.

You sholud still be able to adjust the sensitivity of the scan (it might be called "threshold" or some such) so that it only picks up your drawing marks, but the controls for scanners are all different and you'll have to search for it in your particular scanner software interface.

good luck,

[alanmac]

Nicholas is right in that with most scanners the software is different from one manufacturer to another, even one model to another.

You'll probably import it via the scanner into Corel and use its tools to colour correct the background anyway.

If you use thin graphic quality paper to sketch on I'd back that up with another plain sheet of white when scanning.

As an alternative you could consider getting hold of a Wacom type tablet and a sketching program, many are free or even bundled with the Wacom, and sketch on the computer.

Not as intuitive as the "real thing" I know but it would get over having to scan stuff in.

You may find you'll put it to use in other ways such as retouching photographs etc. instead of using the mouse.

Alan

[ 10-03-2005, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

[islandmon]

I recommend saving your scanned images in TIFF format. This is the universal print format and provides excellent translation with minimal loss of data. Also, for pure grayscale TIFF is exceptional. Avoid jpeg when possible becuase you only get one good save before the artifacts cuased by 'lossy' compression start to corrupt the data. For both BW & Color PNG is lossless but creates significantly larger files. If BW save first with TIFF, then you can re-save copies as jpeg. If color then first save as PNG, then generate copies as jpeg.

[michael john williams]

Some great advice, thanks.

But I still have not resolved it yet.

I already do back the tracing sheet up with white paper but the tracing sheet still creates a grey background which I have not been able to moit in the scanner settings - trying to get HP to solve it but have not been able to yet.

I suppose it is not a VW problem.

[Jim Smith]

I've had spotty success with the TRACE BITMAP command (under the TOOL menu). Your image is now a bitmap & it can be edited. TRACE BITMAP has its own problems.

[alanmac]

You say you are backing up the tracing sheet. Are you using a tracing paper? If so this is making your task much harder.

If you need to work with reference under your sketching area you could try a thin white paper I used when drawing visuals by hand.

Either a Letraset Marker Pad or a Layout Pad will be white and give some transparency, even more if you have access to some light source under the image, such as a lightbox or even a window as I have done at a pinch.

I used Coreldraw/ Photopaint years ago and can't remember much about it.

In Photoshop you can correct the image contrast easily. A series of eyedroppers are used to determine the lightest and darkest points in your image.

Get the lightest one on the background to calibrate that to the lightest and it goes instantly white. Hopefully there is the equivalent feature in your Corel package.

Have a browse through the manual under colour correction, contrast etc.

Alan

[michael john williams]

This has been a great help and I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Not use tracing paper in future but thin white paper on my glass table with a lamp below.

2. Rescan my existing images on tracing paper but in B&W.

3. Live with the existing coloured images on tracing paper but rescan ar a greater resolution and try and adapt the background in Corel