SCANNING
FAQ:
Normal Turnaround and Rush Services
24 hours turnaround is
our standard for reasonable quantities but some orders will take longer. Reasonable quantity depends on the
original format, the scan specs and the quantity. We'll always do our best to
provide the fastest turn
possible that's consistent with quality work.
Scans
saved CDR or DVD -- or FTP delivery
for a nominal charge.
Scans are normally saved to CDR. We will save to DVD for very large jobs, at our discretion.
For ASAP delivery, we
can upload reasonable amounts of scan data to our FTP site for faster retrieval
for a nominal charge of $20 per order. Please call our digital department for
information.
Custom
ICC profiles for accurate color management
We create custom ICC profiles for our scanners using
calibrated targets and X-Rite Spectrophotometric instruments to assure the most accurate scanning possible.
What is scanner
optical resolution?
All scanners offer certain fixed resolutions, called
optical resolutions, that are dictated by the layout of their scanning
sensors. Each optical resolution will produce a specific file size from a
film format because the area being scanned (film format), the
optical resolution and the file size are mathematically linked. For file
sizes that are in between those provided by the optical resolutions, the
scanner will operate at the closest optical resolution then use it's
software to interpolate (enlarge or reduce) the file to reach the desired size. What is
the difference in 8-bit and a 16-bit color?
RGB color scans have
three channels: red, green & blue. An 8-bit channel uses 256 colors, creating
16.7 million possible colors for each pixel (3 channels=256x256x256=16,700,000). A 16-bit
channel uses 65,536 colors for each color for a total of 281 trillion possible colors.
The human eye can only discern 10
million colors so 8-bit color is more than enough to cover what we can see and
8-bit files are the industry standard. 16 bit color is overkill, to say the
least.
That being said,
our Cruse scanner does scan in 16 bit color. The scan is then converted to 8 bit files but retains
additional quality because it originated as 16 bit.
Should I
ever use a 16-bit scan?
After making thousands of
beautiful photographic prints we feel that 16-bit
color files add nothing to the printing accuracy but they do double the
file size and add to digital overhead. Some people with other
kinds of scanners may feel differently, especially with less capable scanners
that do not perform as well as ours.
Some digital
cameras use 16-bit capture to maximize accuracy with their CMOS or CCD
sensors. The final files, though, will not benefit and should be saved as 8-bit
color.
You may find situations where
a 16-bit color file is helpful so we do offer 16-bit scans at an additional charge. Please call for
more information and we will be happy to discuss your needs.
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