Hi everyone.

I have a quick question regarding scanning. I am debating whether to invest in a new lense for my proffesional camera to photo my drawings or to invest in a scanner. At what DPI do you all scan at?

Thank you for your input.

Darlene

I use a 10 years old Flachbrettscanner with 300dpi,
incidentally= Not every user has as a fast I-Net-access, I adjust the pictures at [url = "http://www.resize2mail.com/"] ImageResizer [/ url] before I do upload them

I scan at 600 dpi why ? thats what the scanner says its going to do

If I'm scanning to upload, I channge the resolution to 75 dpi, which gives a reasonably sized picture.

I don't really notice the difference in quality between 300 and 200 dpi, so I go with the smaller. But I did read somewhere that 72 is best for uploading.

If it's between camera or scanner, I'd choose scanner. Smaller file size with a scanner.

Scanning at home restricts you to usually about 9 x 12 inches for a drawing, so in some instances photographing your work is necessary. That could be due to the size of the piece or, if its a painting, whether its wet or not.

Scanning at higher resolutions (300 +) is usually reserved for images that will be printed or used in print form. So if you plan to create cards or larger photo prints, you need a high resolution to avoid pixellation when you increase the size of the image.

For images that will be posted on the web, such as here, 72 dpi (dots per inch) is fine as the image will be small, easily seen but if someone downloads it and tries to create prints with it, they will have very poor quality prints.

So the answer to your question is that you likely need both a scanner and a digital camera. If you're investing the money in a new lens for a camera, they are quite expensive, so by all means get one, but invest an extra $50 in a scanner too. You can adjust the size of any image, whether photograph or scan using the image editor that likely comes with your scanner.

If the drawing is too big to fit your scanner, you can always scan it in portions then after you have the portions uploaded, you can use your computer to glue the portions together. That's what I do because I usually like to draw on large paper for detail.

My scanner scans it in at what ever dpi never really noticed. I change it to 72 (keeps down the size of the file). I have a Nikon d300 and take pictures of some of the larger pics. My I use an 18-200mm lens or a 28 -55 mm lens I would check but having computer problems and lost my Photoshop.