Paintshop Scanning Tutorial

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Paintshop Scanning Tutorial

Postby wansbrough » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:07 pm

Many thanks to Supreme Taco for very kindly allowing me to upload this excellent tutorial for scanning covers.

Taco's 5 steps to a great looking scan

For reference, I used Paint Shop Pro version 8 for this scan.
First things, BEFORE scanning, clean your scanner bed. It's dusty. I know you don't think there's any dust in your house, but trust me on this one - It's dusty. Get some windex and wipe the crap off. If my scanner sits unused overnight, I always wipe it off before using it.

Calibrate your scanner. You don't know how to do this? Me neither. I don't have the equipment. If somebody wants to send me the stuff, I'll do it. Until then, my scans will never look as good as they could.

Pull your retail cover out of the case and try to get the crease out, but don't overdue it. If you scan it correctly, you won't have a crease. Place the cover on the scanner as much in the middle as you can. It's tempting to put it on the edge, but I'm telling you NOT to do that. When things are near the edge, they tend to either get cut off, or slightly warped for some reason.
UCTacoScan0001.jpg
UCTacoScan0001.jpg (112.86 KiB) Viewed 528 times


Before you do anything else, there are two things that you need to look for in your raw scan.

1. Is the spine flat? Have a look at this close up of the spine

Place a piece of plexiglass directly on top of the cover. You don't have one? You can probably get a scrap piece for free at your local hardware store (Lowe's here). If you have to buy it, it might cost a couple of dollars, but they'll cut it to the exact size you need. If you refuse to do this, then you'll have to skip this step.

Next, I place a magazine on top of the plexiglass. I think it helps. If you don't have plexiglass, you should at least use a magazine. Use a good thick one and not one of the cheap ones that come as junkmail. Maxim works nicely.

Close the lid and place a thick and heavy phone book or a 128 disc cd case on top of the lid. Is it sounding redundant yet? probably, but your spine is guaranteed to be perfectly flat this way.
UCTacoScan0002.jpg
UCTacoScan0002.jpg (53.03 KiB) Viewed 529 times


There is absolutely zero visible curvature in that spine. Can you say the same? If you have a curvy spine (no pun intended), stop right there and rescan until you have it right. There's no reason to waste your time with the rest of the cover if your spine is bad. Delete and try again.

2. Is the fine print clear? Again, here's a close up of the fine print on my scan.

Now scan at 600 dpi. Don't be cheap with your scanning. Some people want to save time and scan at 300 dpi, or they try and crop as close to the edge before the scan. Notice on my raw scan below that I scanned as much as I could on the scanner - way more than just the cover. Sometimes the edge can get slightly warped if you try to scan as little as possible. This might just be my scanner, but I recommend you don't be lazy and do your scan the right way the first time.
UCTacoScan0003.jpg
UCTacoScan0003.jpg (29.71 KiB) Viewed 528 times


It's not perfectly clear, but it's definitely legible. You can't ask for much more from a scan.

Now with these two things, I'm 95% confident that I have a workable raw image. It's time to get to work.

Step 1 - Straighten the image

Select your straighten tool and notice that a bar appears across the midline of your image.
UCTacoScan0004.jpg
UCTacoScan0004.jpg (34.56 KiB) Viewed 527 times


Loudoom will probably get mad at me here, but instead of straightening each part of the cover, I try to get away with straightening the whole cover at once. If I find that one section is warped later on, I can always address that then. Find a nice long point on the cover that should be a straight line and move your straightening bar over to it. You can stretch it
or shrink it by grabbing one end and put it where you want. The spine is often a great place, but sometimes you have to look for other spots. The edge of the cover is NOT a good place, because as I told you before, it can often be warped.

You can see here where I zoomed in real close and lined it up on my spine. Once it's done, just double click somewhere on the image.
UCTacoScan0005.jpg
UCTacoScan0005.jpg (54.67 KiB) Viewed 527 times


Step 2 - Rotate and Color Correction

Your cover is straight, but it's still vertical, so rotate it 90 degrees to make it horizontal. Rotating is very easy, just go to Image >> Rotate >> Rotate counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Although you may need to rotate clockwise for yours.

Color correction is actually pretty easy in Paint Shop Pro, and I've always been very satisfied with the results. We need to make our blacks black, and our whites white. Scanners tend to "gray" things out just a touch. The easiest way to do this is find a place on your cover that should be pure black. Here is a close up of a place on mine. With my eye dropper tool, I can see that the RGB value is actually 19, 18, 19 instead of 0, 0, 0.
UCTacoScan0006.jpg
UCTacoScan0006.jpg (42.06 KiB) Viewed 529 times


Some people will try and correct just that one spot. Why would you do that? If one spot is off, the whole cover is probably off by the same amount, so correct the whole cover. Go to adjust >> Color Balance >> Manual Color Correction. Notice in my screen shot that my TARGET is set for an RGB value of 0, 0, 0.
UCTacoScan0007.jpg
UCTacoScan0007.jpg (49.66 KiB) Viewed 527 times


You can manually input your RGB value for the source by clicking on the box, or you can just move your mouse to the part of the cover that should be pure black and select it. My SOURCE should have a value of 19, 18, 19. Click ok and you have manually corrected the black over the entire cover. It takes a total of about 20 seconds, but for some reason so many people like to skip that step or do it in much more time consuming ways.

I do the exact same thing for white because it makes the cover a little more vibrant, but it keeps the blacks properly corrected. In this case, it's not a colorful cover, so it makes little difference, but I do it anyway. On this cover I found a spot on the spine that should be white, but it has an RGB value of 232, 232, 232. I use the same Manual Color Correction, but this time my target is 255, 255, 255.
UCTacoScan0008.jpg
UCTacoScan0008.jpg (51.79 KiB) Viewed 528 times


Now some important tips. It's better to undercorrect than to over correct. Don't go overboard trying to make your cover dark or bright because it's impossible to fix that. Err on the side of caution, and with more experience you'll know how to get it just right. People can always correct it a little more if they need to.

The UPC is NOT usually a good spot to get your pure white or pure black sample. This box is usually not the same shade as the rest of the cover. Don't ask me why, I'm just telling you what I've noticed.

Sometimes your cover doesn't have pure black and white somewhere on the cover. In this case, you have to use your own best judgement. My scanner is relatively consistent, so I use values similar to the above all the time. If a cover doesn't have pure black on it, I'll try out and RGB of 20, 20, 20 and see how that looks. I may have to use a little less or a little
more, but it only takes a few seconds to try.

Step 3 - Cleaning it up

This is the step that is usually messed up the worst. People either get lazy, or they just don't do it properly. It's not important when you do it, but it's important that you do it, and do it right. I'm usually cleaning up the cover from the beginning to the end.

No matter how much you cleaned your scanner bed, you will probably still have dust and other scratches that you need to take care of. The first and most important tip - Use the CLONE BRUSH. People are either afraid to use it, or they don't like it. Do NOT use your paint brush, and definately don't use the color replacer tool. But people do it all the time.

Select your clone brush, then find a spot that needs correcting. Right click on a good spot and then left click over the problem area. Take a look at this before and after shot of a spot that was corrected the right way. If you do it well, no one will ever know the spot was there.
UCTacoScan0009.jpg
UCTacoScan0009.jpg (77.81 KiB) Viewed 528 times


Now look at what someone else did when they did it the wrong way. On the left, they used a paint brush, and on the right, they used the color replacer tool.
UCTacoScan0010.jpg
UCTacoScan0010.jpg (55.09 KiB) Viewed 526 times


If I downloaded a cover with either or those, I would never download your covers again. If you can't see what's wrong with them, perhaps you shouldn't be submitting covers here. Sorry, just have to be honest.

The spine usually needs a little more attention. It often has cracks that have to be carefully corrected. Here's my before and after shot, and notice the little circle there. That's my clone brush. I keep it very small, so I don't mess up other stuff while I'm trying to correct.
UCTacoScan0011.jpg
UCTacoScan0011.jpg (98.45 KiB) Viewed 529 times


And don't forget those corners. Most Covers have rounded corners, but we need them squared off. Just add a bit with your clone brush. I'll crop it square later, and nobody will every know how ugly it was.
UCTacoScan0012.jpg
UCTacoScan0012.jpg (16.25 KiB) Viewed 528 times


Step 4 - Moire Reduction

Moire are those little circles that appear on the cover. Some are worse than others, and I'm lucky to have a cover here that looks pretty good. Scanning with "Descreen" turned on can help, but it hasn't helped me very much.

Most people know about the "guassian blur" approach, but with a 600 dpi scan and Paint Shop Pro, I use something else.

Zoom in to 100% on your small text. You want to make sure that this spot doesn't become unreadable after your correction.

Go to Adjust >> Add/Remove noise >> Median filter. I usually select a value of 3, but if the moire is really bad, I may go up to 5. Here I went with a 3.
UCTacoScan0013.jpg
UCTacoScan0013.jpg (51.17 KiB) Viewed 530 times


At this point, your scan should look something like this:
UCTacoScan0014.jpg
UCTacoScan0014.jpg (92.59 KiB) Viewed 520 times


Step 5 - Resizing your Image

This is the fun part, and it's not quite as easy as it sounds. First I creat a brand new image that is 3240 x 2175 pixels and make a guideline at 1535 pixels.
UCTacoScan0015.jpg
UCTacoScan0015.jpg (37.93 KiB) Viewed 519 times


usually I would make a second guideline at 1705 pixels, but for this cover, I only want one. My spine is a direct extension to the front, and I don't want to separate them. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Go back to the image of your cover, and make a copy. On the copy, crop out the front of the cover. try to get as close to the edge as possible without going over. Since the spine extends from the front on this cover, I cropped them both together.
UCTacoScan0016.jpg
UCTacoScan0016.jpg (72.79 KiB) Viewed 526 times


Now you need to resize the image copy appropriately. Most of the time, I resize to 1535 x 2175, but since the spine is included with this one, I'll resize to 1705 x 2175. Where it says, "Resample Using" I usually choose "Weighted Average" to decrease the size of something, and "Bicubic" to increase the size of something. As you can see, I chose "Weighted Average" here.
UCTacoScan0017.jpg
UCTacoScan0017.jpg (41.52 KiB) Viewed 529 times


Now copy the newly resized image and paste it into your new blank cover right against the guideline. It's a good idea to add that second guideline at 1705 pixels now so that you can be sure your spine is perfectly centered.
UCTacoScan0018.jpg
UCTacoScan0018.jpg (63.85 KiB) Viewed 526 times


Now you can do the same for the back of the cover. Crop it out, and resize. Here I resize to 1535 x 2175.
UCTacoScan0019.jpg
UCTacoScan0019.jpg (49.14 KiB) Viewed 525 times


Now paste that into the back of your proper cover and you should be done.

Make sure that you give the cover a once over and get rid of any more dust or debris that you may find. Your spine looks centered and your fine print is still very easily readable. If you follow all of these steps you should have a great looking scan everytime.
UCTacoScan0020.jpg
UCTacoScan0020.jpg (155.6 KiB) Viewed 530 times


A few extra tips:

1. Highlighting near the edges - I see this on a lot of scans. I'm not sure why, but the edges seem "lighter" than the rest of the cover. I think it's from the scanner letting light rise up under the cover near the edge. Make sure that your cover is flat with the plexiglass and the magazine on top and this should never be an issue.

2. Don't over correct - As I said before, it's better to play it safe and undercorrect. Do the best job you can, but if you're not sure, it's impossible for someone to fix it when you go to far.

3. Adjust your brightness and contrast on your monitor so that you can see various shades of black. People try to paint black on their covers all of the time because it looks great to them. But it doesn't look that great when you can see what you're actually doing. Use the clone brush and avoid the problem all together.

4. Take time on your scan - Too many people try to crank out a ton of scans. Quality over quantity should be your rule. If you have a reputation for good scans, people will look forward to your work. If you have a bad reputation, they will avoid you like the plague.

5. Don't be embarrassed to post a scan in the WIP section. If you're not sure, it's better to get advice. No one like to get that dreaded, "I'm sorry but your cover just doesn't cut it" pm. So get it right the first time. Besides, if people know you care enough to put it in the WIP, then they know you care enough to do the job right. That may earn you some cool points when it comes to choosing which cover to download.
Life is like a toilet-paper roll, It starts spinning a lot faster towards the end of the roll..
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