CompuServe Messages

John, We haven't experienced any problem scanning 1-bit stuff with Microtek's DA (or with VersaScan, their dedicated program that we've used for years previous to the new DA) at all. It's _very_important_ to keep the glass on your scanner clean, and dirty glass is about the only problem we've ever had with crud in the white spaces (although there is occasionally a wee bit of flack – it's easily ignored by Streamline, or "erased" before the file is saved). When preparing photos for Lino (or CG) output, we follow a pretty simple procedure. First, we invoke Digital Darkroom, and scan out of that. When the picture is scanned, we then adjust brightness and contrast to provide optimal appearance. We then "flash" the photo, duplicating with DD what printers do in the darkroom. This drops off the top and bottom 10% of the blacks and whites, providing a less harsh appearance and eliminating "holes." To do that, choose "Modify Main Map (CMD M)" and change the values from 1 to 256 with values from 25 to 225. This will soften or "flash" the picture. Choose "Map to Image" to make the change permanent, and then save crop and save the image with the appropriate name. Between this and XPress's new built-in dot-gain correction for Lino's, we're getting great halftones! –Thom