Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3500C

How to Scan

• Select the HP director program from the desktop.
• Choose the
  • “Scan Picture” option for general image scanning
  • or “Scan Document” option to open the OCR (optical character recognition) program
    • the OCR program will allow you to get text from a hardcopy page into the computer to be utilized in Microsoft Word, or whatever your chosen editing program is (Really nice in that it will save you from having to retype a document).
• With the Scan Picture option selected, a separate window will pull up.
  • Note the following:
    • The scanner may take a while to initialize if it hasn’t been used recently.
    • Once it initializes, it will generate a preview of the object on the scanner bed in the new window.
    • If you change the object on the scanner bed, there is a button to generate a new preview,
    • or clicking Scan/Preview at the top of the screen will do.
• Now that you have a preview of your item, do the following
  • Use the black selection squares to select the portion of the image you want
  • or leave it untouched if you desire the entire image
• Now choose AdvancedResolution at the top of the screen as shown in the picture below
• This will bring up the menu as seen on the right of the screen shot, which will allow you to adjust the resolution (i.e.: size/quality of the picture).
  • In the screenshot, 200 is the chosen resolution. The higher the resolution, the more detail that will be included in the scan, but will create a bigger final file size.
  • There are two resolutions suggested:
    • 300 dpi for archival work
      • if you intend to scan this picture to preserve it, and possible only use a portion of it at a later time
      • also 300 dpi is good if you intend on doing any editing of the photo, or possibly only using a portion of it at a later date.
    • or 110 dpi for normal use
      • this will provide acceptable quality at a fairly tiny file size, and is suitable for use in PowerPoint presentations, web use, etc. 
  • Once you set the resolution to an acceptable number, you can begin the actual scan process
    • press the large <Scan> button
    • or from the top of the screen, select ScanAccept

Once it has finished scanning, your image is saved in the “My Pictures” folder located in the “My Documents” folder. HP Director creates a folder for the scanned pictures using the year and the month that the image was scanned in the format of year-month. For example, if the scanning was done in January of 2003, the folder created would be named 2003-01, with all the pictures scanned during the month contained within it. The pictures are named, creatively enough, scan001.jpg, scan002.jpg, etc.).

At this point, you may close down all programs and obtain your image(s) from that folder. However, HP Director then pulls up the HP Image Gallery and highlights your most recently scanned picture. If you intend to directly insert the picture into a PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, or utilize any of the programs installed on the computer you are currently working on, at the right hand side of the HP Image Gallery, there is a “Send to Program” button that will pull up a brief list of usable programs on the computer that you can export your image to. Unfortunately, if your desired program isn’t on that list, there is no way to tell the HP software where to look, you will simply have to find your image in the My Pictures folder and open it manually.

If you want to use PhotoShop to do some editing of your images, click here or contact Chris Bond.

Questions? Contact the Help Desk

Copyright©2003
last updated June 02, 2003