scanning and printing old pictures?

Question

I have tried to scan and print my parents old wedding pics (taken in 1976) i have retouched it to get rid of grain,scratches etc.but when i printed it it's got lots of lines through it and it's grainy again eventhough it looks find o nthe preview,i would be grateful for any ideas, (I have a HP scanjet 2400 series and a epson C46 printer if that helps) thanks

Answer 1

I will agree with OMG in saying that this is a matter to resolved by the geek half of your brain. When I scan prints, the lowest resolution I use is 600 dpi. You will NOT get that kind of resolution if you use the most basic settings for your scanner. Go to an advanced menu somewhere and see if you can change your settings. After I do all my touch-up and other editting, I resize and save at 300 dpi. I then print at the finest setting available on my printer to be sure that I am getting the 300 dpi that I used to save my picture.

Others also talk about the settings for your printer as well as the quality of the printer and ink refills that you are using. I apologize if any of this is an insult, but I have no idea what your level of experience is. I've seen many people buy a photo printer and then fail to realize that the printer will default to the most basic low resolution printing. You need to check the properties of your printer in the "print" dialog screen that appears just before you hit "OK" to make the actual print. I don't know what they call it in HP-language, but look for "Best Quality" or some number of 300 dpi or even better. Be sure that you have set the print driver to match the quality of paper you are using. If it is spitting out ink for plain paper onto glossy paper, it will just give you blobs. Small blobs, but blobs none-the-less. Use good paper! I've been shocked when I go to help a friend improve their picture quality to find out that they are using plain paper. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'd suggest that you buy some HP photo paper of whatever grade you wish to pay for. Companies DO formulate their inks to be the best match for their own papers and vice versa.

Summary:

1. Scan in adequately high resolution - 300 dpi or better.
2. Save in at least 300 dpi.
3. Print in at least 300 dpi. MAYBE you'd be okay at 200 dpi.
4. Use good photo paper that is made by the same company who made your printer.

Answer 2

You should be able to tell from the scan how the printed image will look. When scanning small images, scan them at a very high resolution (or if your scanner allows, scan them at 200% or 300%.) Ideally I would taken the through Photoshop and fix up the 'levels' and small imperfections. I've scanned all our old family photographs, some of them more than 100 years. The fine detail in these old images is astonishing. They knew how to photograph in those days. best of luck

Answer 3

It sounds like you don't have enough resolution to make the print size you want.
I don't want to sound like the resident geek, but considering the editing you just did, you should be comfortable performing a check. For great quality, you want to print at 300 dpi (dots per inch). For medium quality, you want about 200 dpi.
Let's strive for 300 dpi...
For an 8x10 inch print, this means that you should start out with (a minimum of):
horizontal: 300dpi x 8 inches = 2400 pixels.
vertical: 300dpi x 10 inches = 3000 pixels.
When the dpi drops to under 100, you get the image degradation that you were describing. So if that's the problem, you have 2 options: do the maths to ascertain the maximum print size for the current file, or scan the original again at a higher resolution and start over.

Answer 4

If it looks good on your screen I'd be it's the printer. The lines could possibly be the result of the printer since it prints basically line-by-line.


Try a calibration of your printer (should come with the tools or is a hardware button combo) and if that doesn't clear up the problem go to a Walmart or some place with a photo kiosk and see how their printers do it. If it looks fine from their printer it's definitely your printer and you'll either need to print ALL the other photos from the kiosk or buy a new printer that can handle the resolution.

Also, are you using photo paper?

Answer 5

I scan a lot of old 'photos with very inexpensive gear I use a Lexmark X1270 scanner/ printer cost £29.99 from Currey's, I use quality paper and the scanner has options for scanning and printing 'photos that are not of the best quality and the results are very good. I have had an Epsom R 300 quite expensive printer that was not as good as the Lexmark X1270 which was a lot cheaper, so it's not all down to how much the equipment cost.
The Lexmark scanner can scan out marks on 'photos quite easily. And it can also scan without horizontal lines showing.

Answer 6

Could be a combination of scanning at too low a resolution AND the file format you are saving the scans at, some programs like Paint Shop Pro have a Save as 'smallest possible file' setting, and this needs to be turned off to get the best quality when printing. With pictures so precious as your parents wedding ones, it might be an idea to get these scanned (and the scratches masked) professionally to CD. that way you could present your parents with the photos AND a copy of the CD for safekeeping. you could also use one of the images on a card you create yourself!

Answer 7

You're scanning / printing it at either too high or too low a resolution, that's why it's got lots of lines.

For best results, try to print it out in the same size as the original picture. You may have to scan and re-scan as well at different resolutions. Lots of times we make the mistake of thinking that if we scan in at the highest resolution we'll get the highest quality, but that's not true -- it's better to scan and print at settings closely matching the original picture if you can.

Good luck.

Answer 8

is it a negative scanner? 1200 dpi scan of the negative should be good.

If the original photo is bad then you are sol. A negative scanner is better than scanning the photo but I have had good results doing both. Maybe you are just looking at the preview pic and not finalizing it? Good Luck.

Answer 9

Have you tried cleaning your print heads? It uses a lot of ink, but dirty heads will often leave lines on a print, even with high quality paper and a high resolution scan.

Answer 10

Use VueScan software from Hamrick software - default settings are excellent but there's loads of adjustment options - currently scanning35mm and 120 film slides and negatives era 1960 to date - super results software easy to use and support from Ed Hamrick is first rate !!