Scan
to print
means no computer skills are needed.
You
do not need to know how to use Adobe
Photoshop either. In fact you will probably get better prints
if your scan is good from the beginning. There is nothing worse
than using Photoshop as a repair program to fix up bad scans.
The
problem is that professional graphics people already all know Adobe
Photoshop. Thus I have seen cases where the scanner operator figured
there was no need whatsoever to learn the scanner software because,
after all, that is what Photoshop was there for.
Bad
decision; the best decision is to take the time to learn the scanner's
own software. Get the scan perfect from the beginning. The resulting
print will be far superior (trust me, this is based on years of
experience rescuing bad scans). Once I used a Fuji
C-550 Lanovia scanner, and printed the scans directly onto
a ColorSpan wide format printer (with no Photoshop), I could
see the proof. The pictures which had been rendered in Photoshop
were consistently inferior to the straight scans.
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Close-up
scanner to printer system
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An
even easier solution is to have no scanning software either, just
press a few buttons and, Zappo, there is your wide format print,
direct from the scanner. You never even have to look at the image
on a monitor.
This
may appear absurd at first glance (to a professional graphics person)
but what about the millions of people who need to scan and print
but who are in other professions. Not everyone has the time or opportunity
to master Photoshop. And certainly not everyone has $40,000 to buy
a Fuji C-550 Lanovia flatbed scanner.
Several
different companies made scan-to-print systems. Most use
turnkey arrangements, the scanner is from the same company that
makes the overall system. Problem here is that the scanner usually
turns out to be the weakest link. Vivid Image solves this
situation by working with cost-effective yet more capable scanners.
The list of supported scanners grows each month.
The
market for such a Vivid Image scan-to-print system is enormous.
Places like Kinkos could offer this setup for people to enlarge
family snapshots.
Museums,
art museums, natural history museums, botanical gardens, zoos, libraries,
photographers, all have thousands of prints. Vivid Image now offers
the opportunity to enlarge such old prints to make posters, banners,
signs, or teaching aids.
Reprographic
shops, whether in-house or outside, are another huge market for
a scan-to-print solution.
Sergio
Alves showed me the capabilities of the Vivid Image system
at their trade show booth. If you have a good original snapshot
naturally you get a really great enlargement on an Encad
wide format printer (the system works with other wide format printers
as well). But even if your original snapshot is only postcard sized
and only a typical weekend family picture, you can still get passable
enlargements with the Vivid Image system.
Vivid
Image Technologies can be reached via www.vividimage.com
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FLAAR Premium Report - Series on Scanners |
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FLAAR now has a great variety of reports, where you can find practical information,
help and tips about which you need.
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