Scanners

Hi everyone!

Questions about scanners - any would be greatly
appreciated. I am cross-posting to both Artmetal and Orchid -
sorry for the duplication to those on both lists.

I sell my jewelry through the wholesale trade shows and need to
make a catalog to send out to buyers. In the past I have just
used xeroxed line drawings or actual xeroxes of the jewelry but
would like to utilize my computer to make a snazzier catalog. The
first two pages of the catalog will be color xeroxes (from color
photos) so that will give a clear representation of my work. Most
of the people who will use this catalog are already familiar with
my work and so the rest of the catalog can be black and white and
should just be a fairly accurate representation. Just about
everything I make can be placed face down on a scanner - very few
pieces are so dimensional that they would not work on a scanner.
I do not want to go through the hassle of photographing the work
first - I want to be able to lay the pieces face down on the
scanner and go!

So, my questions are these…has anyone tried this, and do you
have any tips? What type of scanner would you recommend? (I have
a Mac, if this makes any difference - and A.Photoshop etc.) What
features on the scanner are important and which aren’t?

Thanks for your help,

Kim

KIM: these days virtually any low end scanner would be fine for
what you have in mind. I have a Mac too and I have Umax’s lowest
end scanner (actually their first scanner I bought years ago) and
its built like a rock. When I first put up my website all my
jewelry was done by scanning flat down on the scanner. The only
thing is that I kept getting people asking what these things
REALLY look like so I had to bite the bullet and resort to doing
35mm more professional shots. But for your purpose it would
probably be fine for black and white xerox stuff. Only thing
thats a little difficult is that laying the piece down with the
lid open is that your work will be scanned against black and if
you have large reflective surfaces they will be lighted a little
strangely. You can put a piece of white paper behind the work
(over it actually) and support it evenly on four sides and
you’'ll get the piece with a white background with a little bit
odd shadows. If you want I will scan one of my pieces and email
them to you to see what this looks like. But my advice is find
the cheapest one and stick with Microtek, or Umax or another name
thats been around awhile in case you have any problems with the
hardware…Dave

Art Jewelry for Conscious People
http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html