Scan
Guidlines
The
following formula is provided as a guide to clients
when scanning images to be submitted for production
by Britten. It's important to remember that
the quality of the finished product is dependant
on the quality of the supplied artwork.
Let's say that it is Great Aunt Edna's 90th birthday.
What better way to show you care than to give
her a life-size printout of herself! To ensure
that every wrinkle prints out clean and crisp,
we need the full-size image resolution to be 72
dpi (Dots Per Inch). That means that when we blow
up Aunt Edna's best mug shot from a 3"w x 5"h
photo to a 36"w x 60"h banner the scan has to
be done at 864 dpi (or simply round up to 900 dpi). The nifty little equation
we use for figuring this out requires some algebra
skills on your part but works wonders when trying
to determine the scan resolution of your image.
Here it is:
The guidelines below should be followed when
submitting artwork that is to be scanned by the
Britten art department. It's important to
remember that the quality of the finished product
is dependant on the quality of the supplied artwork.
Original art must be 8 1/2" x 11" or smaller.
A. Photographic Prints and Negatives: How
photographs and negatives scan depends on the
quality of the original. If the image is blurry
there is little that can be done to improve the
sharpness. If the photograph is too dark or too
light, or the color is not great, the scan can
be manipulated to some extent and some improvements
can be made. A negative will always contain more
detail in the shadow and highlight areas than
a photograph produced from it. Whenever possible,
please provide the negative along with a photographic
print that appears less than perfect.
B. Transparencies: 35mm slides, 2 1/4",
4" x 5" and 8" x 10" transparencies are acceptable
for color and grayscale scanning. While 35mm slides
may become "grainy" when enlarged, transparencies
2 1/4" size and up will reproduce extremely well
in most cases. If possible, specify to your photographer
to use 2 1/4" format or 35mm film intended for
extreme enlargement.
C. Full Color and Grayscale Scans: Continuous-tone
art is most commonly submitted in the form of
transparencies, photographs, or negatives taken
by a professional photographer. Supplying preprinted
artwork such as a magazine page or a printout
from a color printer is highly discouraged. "Rescreening"
this type of art will result in either a moire
pattern and/or a blurry image.
D. Scans for Recreating Artwork: Client
supplied artwork is often submitted as black and
white "slicks" or printed material such as stationary,
decals, promotional pieces, etc. This art is scanned
as a "template" with the intention of recreating
it in Adobe Illustrator. The finished art can
contain one or more colors and varying tones of
those colors. While a scanning charge does not
usually apply, an art charge to recreate the image
may. The complexity of the image as well as the
quality of the supplied original will have a direct
effect on art charges.
Any questions can be addressed to the Art Department
at 800-426-9496. We are more than happy to help
you get the image quality you need.
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