Need Thoughts About This Scanner Image

Hello everyone!
I need thoughts about this image from a scanner. Is that a good quality image? Unfortunately, the scanner is changing the color shade.This is not the true brown shade this stamp is for true. Does that makes this scanner a "bad quality" one? Please tell me what you think about this image. Should I try to get a better scan to scan my stamps?

Thanks,

CS

Scan quality is OK, but you should scan on a black background, and crop to just around the edges of the stamp before posting. That way we can see everything that we can see.

As far as the color, it has been discussed on this forum ad nauseam that the color you see on your monitor may not be the color that I see on my monitor, so don't worry about it. Best to scan a reference copy at the same time and beside the stamp that you are discussing to show us the perceived difference in color.

Everyone here has a different opinion about how many dpi to scan. I say use 1200 dpi, but I've seen others with as low as 300 dpi.

Thanks for the advice, partime!

To obtain a black background - place the stamp, don't close the scanner's lid but leave it open. Do the scan. You'll see the stamp on a black background. Why? The ceiling is too distant to be scanned

http://goscf.com/t/51364

Yes, I believe Rog is correct -- you'll want to scan with the lid closed, or otherwise place some sort of background so you don't have the ceiling, etc. in view. Even if you can't see it on the scan, it could be affecting the scan quality.

I still need to do this myself, but the best route to go would be to buy a piece of black paperboard from an office supply/art store and affix that to the inside of your scanner lid.

The post by Rogdcam is a good start, and I would add that the scan should also fit the end purpose.
In other words "What do you intend to DO with the scan?"
If I am scanning covers for sale on Ebay, I do not need 1200 dpi images. Conversely, if I want to enlarge a stamp for a poster, 100dpi won't be satisfactory either.
And there are limiits to the file-size which can be posted here. When I post here, I intentionally make a scan which I can post without the need for further manipulation size-wise, and then consider making an additional scan at a higher resolution for other purposes.
And which file format to save it in, i.e. jpg, tiff, etc, which is often a matter of your intended end use.
SImilar with background color. This is a hobby where edges are important. A contrasting black, white, or gray background helps show the perforations, etc., or any corner wear on cards/covers. Black is not the universal answer. If I am scanning mouring stamps/covers, then black won't have any contrast.
Bottom line: think of the end-use and work backwards to select the appropriate resolution, file format, backgroud, etc.

A few additional notes:

Most philatelic scanning is done with a black background. Most scanners' software is calibrated, by default, to produce the most accurate results in the factory setup – typically, a white background, lid closed, with the manufacturer's scanner software. Adding a black background or scanning with the lid open without altering any settings in the scanner software will result in changes in the color output.

Also, most scanner software comes with some "features" enabled by default (color sharpening, brightening, etc.) that will alter the color output. You need to disable all those "features".

Finally, to get truly accurate color reproduction, you need to calibrate the scanner software. Not all scanner software comes with the ability to do this, and for those that do, it's not always an easy process. The calibration targets can also be expensive.

Thanks everyone! To answer John Becker's question, I want to scan stamps to post them on this forum, to, if I have to show my stamp to have help from experts, and, to have accurate images of my stamps if I have to take an accurate look at it. These are the principal reasons I want to scan my stamps.


I now use 1200 dpi, and, gvol21, thanks for the advice of the black paper, I already thought about it

I use the Epson trademark scan, it is not made to scan stamps, but it's pretty good to do what I principaly want.

When I post an image here which has a size limitation, I always use IrfanView if the file size is too high (which it usually is).
My suggestion is to scan any image with the highest dpi as your time allows. 1200dpi usually is high enough for almost everything to show.
Only when I need to zoom into something like a plate flaw, I use 2400dpi for the selected area only. Notice the chip inside any scanner has limits, so scanning 9600dpi or higher is pointless as the chip limit on better scanners is around 2800dpi, for cheap $30 scanners it might be considerable lower).

You can always "downsize" the original into a copy image without losing any information of the original.

Notice there are document scanners and Photo scanners. The former are usually built into "Do everything" machines (printer., scanner, fax in earlier days). Usually the scanner part is the weakest link here. I have seen unsatisfactory scanning results with several of those printers. Calibrating a scanner is not quick and easy. You need special targets for it, if you have a photographer/camera shop near you, they might be able to provide the material for it. You also need a good manual...

When I need accurate results, I loan the calibrated Epson photo scanner from my brother.

With IrfanView, you can simply use jpg compression. Particularly with single color stamps, I can often downsize files by 70-80% without any noticeable degradation of the image.
Alternatively, you can use the Resample feature to reduce image size without compression.
The math behind IrfanView seems solid and sophisticated in what it does to images.

Thanks for the information!

I scan every stamp I acquire at 2400 dpi, because that's the maximum my scanner supports. I'd use even higher resolution if I could. The storage space required on the computer is insignificant, and I know that I'll never have to re-scan a stamp if I want to zoom in on a detail.

I also use PNG (not JPG) as my image format, so that I can crop and rotate images without loss of detail.

You'll need quite a powerful computer to process large image files, but the extra cost of processing power is trivial compared to what we collectors already spend on albums and mounts and catalogues.

Nice! I personally use a scan that can scan at maximum 9600 dpi. I scan at 1200, and I crop the image after. Thanks for the advice!