Scanning with the Microtek 8700 Pro

NOTE: ITG no longer has this scanner in VMIL

Scanning with the Microtek scanmaker 8700 pro

Jo Wozniak

Former VMIL Consultant

The Microtek ScanMaker 8700 Pro flatbed scanner is a 2400x1200 dpi, 42-bit color scanner. It can scan images up to 8.5"x14" in size for paper (reflective) and 8.5"x11" for transmissive scans. Transmissive materials are scanned using a tray located on the front of the scanner. This scanner also has an automatic document feeder capable of scanning 25 pages at a time.

Contents
Scanning with the Microtek ScanWizard interface
Scanning Panel Option Buttons
Preview Panel Option Buttons
Scanning with the Automatic Document Feeder with the OmniPagePro interface

Scanning with the Microtek scanmaker interface

Start Microtek ScanWizard using the Start menu located on the bottom left hand side of the screen

After the software loads you should see the following interface:
- The larger window is the preview and scanning area and
- the smaller window is the image control area
  - Click on the Overview button in the Overview window to preview everything on the scanner bed area. With this preview you can reduce the final scanning area to the desired size. The flashing red dotted line is the immediate scanning area. If the image you are scanning is smaller than the entire flatbed area, this is the line you adjust to eliminate any unnecessary scanning area.
Click on the Prescan button (It is suggested that you prescan the image in order to find out the final area necessary for scanning.)
Adjust the dotted red line to fit your image or whatever area you want the final scan to encompass.
Adjust the scan settings, color, resolution and other options as necessary.
Click on the scan to button.
Upon finishing the scan, Microtek ScanWizard caches the image. in order to do any kind of image manipulation you will need to save the image and open up an image processing program such as Photoshop.

Scanning Panel Option Buttons

the Settings Window contains features and options that are accessible through pull down menus. before scanning you can define whether you are scanning reflective or transmissive material. To select which type of media, click on the Scan Material Icon : . You can also access this menu through the Preferences pull-down menu:
The scan material defines the material you are scanning.
- (Flatbed)Reflective should be picked for any regular scan including pictures or books.
- Positive Film should be selected for any kind of transparencies or slides.
- Negative Film should be chosen for negative scanning or any other media type that consists of inverse colors.
The Type let you select in which color mode your final scan will be.
- RGB colors are additive with the primary colors being red, blue and green.
- Grayscale mode uses up to 256 shades of gray to represent an image.
- Lineart is for strict black and white scanning.
- 48-bit and 16-bit should only be chosen if the application in which you plan on applying the image to or editing the image in supports that bit depth.
- For most applications, one would typically use RGB Colors or Gray Scale
The resolution options determine the amount of information the scanner will capture. The higher the resolution the less pixilated the image will look under magnification. (72 dpi is standard for web publishing)
- Resolution can be measured in dpi (dots per inch) or lpi (lines per inch).
- Printer as final output:
  - The phaser450 a 300dpi printer while the black and white laser accepts 1200dpi.
- If you want to enlarge the image after scanning, you should scan it at a higher dpi in order to retain a good resolution after enlargement.
The Scan Frame designates what default size your image is. If you are scanning any kind of transmissive material using the front panel of the scanner you will want to set this to the correct size:
The Scaling option lets you set the enlargement or reduction you want to perform on the original image. Default is set at 100%.
The Output designates final scan size. If you want the actual size of the scan to be different than the dotted line scan, change this to the size desired:
These options can also be performed through Photoshop once the image is scanned.
- Sharpen increases the contrast between the different pixels making up the boundary.
- Sharpen more increases the sharpening effect.
- Blur smooths out the effects of contrasting pixels on image boundaries.
- Blur More further smooths out the image boundaries. This tool is stronger than the regular Blur option.
The other options at the bottom of the Settings window can be used to fine tune your scan

Preview Panel Option Buttons

If you need more explanation than is provided here, once you have the two above windows open, go to the pull down menu Info->Help and choose the tool you need more help on.

	This is the Frame Tool button. It defines the final scan area and is usually the default button selected. To resize the dotted line this button needs to be selected. To change the size or shape of the defined area move the cursor over the preview area. Drag on either the boxes on the sides or corners of the area to resize the final scanning area. Holding down the Shift key moves the entire frame while maintaining the aspect ratio.
	This is the Hand tool. It allows you to scroll through the image on the preview screen if the full image is too big to be seen all at once.
	This is the *magnification tool. Select this tool and click on the image to zoom in on a particular area of the image. Holding down Option* while clicking on the image reduces the size of the image.

Image Enhancement Tools

	This is the *Dynamic Range* tool. This tool is used to set the density capture range of the scanner and displays the histogram. Use this tool to enhance the contrast of the image.
	This is the *Black and White Points* tool. It is another way to adjust the highlights or shadows. To bring out the highlights in a very dark image or bring out more shadows in a very light image use this tool.
	This is the Gradation tool. It allows you to adjust the midtones (mid-level grays or gamma) of the lightness channel of and image without changing the color itself. This tool adjusts the luminance (lightness value) without changing chroma or hue values
	This is the *Color Cast* tool. It works in LCH mode only. You would use this tool to eliminate any unwanted color cast in an image or to add a color cast without altering the lightness channel values.
	This is the Saturation Curve tool (LCH mode only). This tool allows you to increase or decrease color intensity (chroma/saturation) without altering hue and lightness values. If your image looks dull, this is the tool you want to play with to get more vibrant colors.
	This is the *Selective Color* tool (LCH mode only). Use this tool to perform color correction to a specific color range without altering the other colors in an image.

This is the Tone Curve tool. This tool is used to adjust the tonal distribution of each channel of an image. It allows adjustment to separate RGB or CMYK colors.

This is the Filter tool. This tool is used to apply special effects to images such as blur, sharpen, emboss, etc.

This is the Descreen tool. It can be used to minimize the appearance of interference patterns (usually caused by documents created by a halftone process).

Operating the automatic document feeder

If there are sheets stacked in the automatic document feeder the scanner will recognize the paper. To enable OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scanning, open up theOmniPagePro application:

The interface shows up: . Set the options to best suit your needs:, , . Place a document (or multiple pages) to scan in the Automatic Document Feeder text side down and top of page down. When you are ready hit the Start button: . The scanner will calibrate and then scan your document. When it is done the interface will show something like the following: and automatically pop up a text recognition window: When the proofing is complete the software will automatically prompt you to designate how and where you want the file saved: . Many options are given, including saving the file as a word document, a pdf, a pagemaker document, rtf, txt and xls among a few. You can choose to scan in additional documents (the Start button will change to Additional) when the first scan or batch is complete. Many applications will automatically open to display the scanned document (e.g. Word, Acrobat)

Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 N. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801

Date Issued: 26 June 2002