As you make layouts, you might want to share them with friends, family, or others on the Internet. If you have a digital camera, you can take photographs of them and send the pictures as attachments. The trouble with this is that getting good photographs of layouts is particularly difficult because of glare, and angle, and the loss of detail. A better solution is to scan your layouts and send the digital images.
If your layout is small enough to fit entirely on the bed of your scanner, you can scan it all in one go. You should consult your scanner's user manual to find directions on doing so correctly. Generally speaking, you will want to save your scan as a .JPG file, rather than as one of the other file type options such as .BMP or .GIF. .JPG offers the best compromise between file size and image clarity.
Aside from file size, something you should consider is resizing your scan to better fit your viewers' computer screens. You want the image file large enough to show detail, but small enough to a) fit on most monitors easily and b) keep the file size down. You might have to experiment with your scanner's software to see which size satisfies this compromise, but I generally scale 12"x12" layouts down to 550 pixels on either side.
Finally, your scanner's software should allow you to change the number of "dots per inch" or dpi. This controls the density of the image - the greater the number of dots per inch, the "truer" your scans will show. On the other hand, the higher the dpi, the bigger the file size will be. Most monitors will show only 72 dpi, so if your goal is to share images digitally, you can set your scanner to 75 dpi and your scans will be just fine.
Get familiar with your scanner, if you aren't already. Read the relevant parts of your manual to help you resize images and change their density. If you have some smaller layouts that fit on your scanner's bed, practice scanning them, and experimenting with different settings.
There is no supplemental reading for this section.
Please respect the ScrapMentor copyright in using this courseware. You are welcome to print a single edition of courseware for your own personal use, but you are not permitted to copy, distribute, or reproduce - in whole or in part - any of the courseware for others, without the express written permission of the owners of Scrap-Poodle. You may not charge for ScrapMentor courseware, nor present it as your own.
** This content was previously published at www.Scrap-Poodle.com . It is presented here for the convenience of former members of that site, and scrapbookers and stampers at large. Please do not reproduce this information in any format (except for printing a copy for personal use) without permission of Dana Jones, original publisher of this information. **