Scanners
From TechHelp
Digital scanners can be a useful classroom tool for many reasons. A scanner can take something that students hand create and allow them to turn it into a digital product.
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[edit] Basic Operation
Since there are so many different types of scanners this article only attempts to explain some basic features found on most scanners. The basic idea is similar to that of a copier. You take the picture, or photo, and scan it using the scanner. The scanner takes the image information and transfers it into a digital format.
Note: There are laws that govern the use of materials and how much can be copied. Please be aware of these laws when you are working with copyrighted material.
[edit] Scanning Images
All scanners have the ability to scan a colored document. The first step in the process is making sure that you scanner is set up and the correct software has been installed. A lot of scanners today have at least two buttons that allow easy operation of the scanner. These buttons are usually:
- Scan
- This will usually scan what ever the document is into an image format.
- Copy
- This will usually make a physical copy by sending your scanned information to the printer.
There may be additional buttons on your scanner, take a look at the scanner on the products website to find out what the buttons do.
The nice thing about scanners and a photo editor is that it can eliminate the use of cutting and pasting that requires scissors and glue.
There is software that comes with the scanner that changes the paper format into a digital format. The scanner has at least two buttons, a scan button and a copy button that will perform either of those tasks without opening any other program.
Most computers and scanners come with a basic photo editing program such as Microsoft Paint which will allow you to import the scanned image in to the photo editor. This is done much the same way as importing pictures from a camera.
You would select File>import>the name of the scanner. This usually opens another menu that allows you to change specific criteria for your photo. This is an example of what the screen may look like. The most important of these are the Source, Output Resolution, and Paper size.
Source tells the computer what is in the scanner. In this case it is set to Platen, which means that the original is paper. The other choice is a Photograph. The output resolution is the next thing you should look at. This determines the dots per inch that your scanner is working at. This is critical when you want to make pictures or print materials large enough to view. Generally 300 dpi is okay for normal paper sizes. If you plan on putting something on the Internet you would want to make the image size smaller, the average size on the Internet is between 72 and 150 dpi. One thing to remember when scanning is the more dots per inch you scan at the longer it will take. The last piece of information that is important is what your paper size will be. This can be important when you finish everything. Once again depending on your scanner things will be a bit different.
[edit] Using OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
A great feature that can be very useful tool called OCR can turn your paper documents into electronic documents that you can edit. Microsoft Word and other programs have a built in feature called OCR, which takes scanned text and looks to see what letters and words it recognizes. The tool isn’t completely perfect, but can be very useful when you want to change an important paper document into something that you can edit. To use the tool in Microsoft Word make sure your computer is connect to the scanner then go to File>Acquire Text which will start the process.
Note: Make sure that the document in your scanner is in the correct position so that the top and bottom of the page are oriented correctly.
After you select Acquire Text Microsoft Word will begin by scanning the document that is in your scanner. Once the document has been scanned Word will begin to process the page. This step is called Recognizing the Page. Once the page has been recognized a Proof Reader will appear to double check what the computer sees as characters.
This is similar to a spellchecker, if you know that the word is spelled correctly simply hit ignore if the word isn’t correct enter the correct word in the box labeled Change to:. Once you have finished this process for the page that you have scanned make sure your cursor is at the end of the document and start the process again if you have a document with more than one page. There are other programs that have OCR capabilities such as Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
[edit] Copying Documents
Most scanners have the ability to act as a copier also. This is usually set up within the specific software for the scanner itself.
