Scanners For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Digital cameras have encroached upon the territory of scanners a little bit, but scanners remain eminently useful for digitizing the family photo album, archiving documents, and sending kids' artwork to distant family members. They're also absolutely essential for serious design work. Scanners for Dummies shows you how to get the most from your scanner by guiding you through everything from basic hookup and software installation to moderately advanced graphics-editing techniques. The author, Mark Chambers, patiently explains terminology and concepts that have to do with translating a physically recorded image (such as a photograph) into a digital file (such as a JPEG or GIF image).

Most readers will be able to get a lot from this book by simply reading chapters straight through, since the explanations of traditionally nebulous concepts such as resolution and color depth are accurate and easy to follow. Even the quality of the illustrations--often a shortcoming of trade computer books--is high, which is important in sections that show how to adjust contrast, sharpness, and resolution. Chambers deserves kudos for doing many of his tutorials in Jasc Paint Shop Pro, an excellent yet inexpensive editing package. Some readers might prefer coverage of one of the freebie editing suites; they should look for a software-specific book to supplement this one. --David Wall

Topics covered: Digitizing images via a scanner connected to a computer running Microsoft Windows. Hardware connectivity (via parallel, SCSI, USB, and FireWire) is covered before the author explains the scanning procedure and how to manipulate images in an editing program. Suggestions for craft projects and some troubleshooting tips round out the volume.