CompuServe Thread

I'm afraid I don't know much about the Apple Scanner, but I can tell how I use other ones to produce templates for Illustrator. Illustrator supports somewhere around a 8"x10" area for templates. You can use scans in either PICT or MPNT format as templates, both have thier place. The PICT format works best when your scan looks good on the screen in the scanner application window (WYSIWYG). It approximates the actual size of the image scanned the best. Use this format in conjuction with a camera or photocopier to size the original art before scanning. The MPNT format sometimes comes in two strains in regards to saving it from the scanner application. 1) is MacPaint Scaled, in which the scanned image is scaled to fit before saving. 2) is MacPaint Clipped, all of the 300dpi information is used starting from the upper-left corner of the windowed image. Any excess information beyond the 8"x10" area is clipped off. Essentially, each dot in the scan becomes a pixel on the screen effectively blowing up the template image to 200% actual size. If you original is only 1.5"x2" (approx) then you would end up with a 8"x10" template. When you are finished tracing reduce you art to 25% and your back at original size (approx). Note: any deviations induced during scan and trace are also reduced accordingly. This takes us to your original question, "What dpi?". For Illustrator biggest is best because scaling finished art is no problem, detail is. If you can't find a solution in the above paragraphs, THEN it is time to drop back the dpi and save as PICT when the image fits the 8"x10" template.