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Flatbed Scanner

An overview of digitization equipment in the Freedman Center with step-by-step instructions.

Quick Guide for the Flatbed Scanner

This one-page guide will give you the bare bones of what you need to work the flatbed scanner. If you are doing multiple scans or need high-quality scans, we highly recommend you work through the full tutorial. 

If you get lost, refer back to the user manual on the Home page. Contact information for KSL staff is available on the left-hand navigation of each page. Service Center staff can also assist with basic troubleshooting.

Start the Scanner

Make sure the scanner is turned on. The switch is on the front side of the scanner on the left side.

an image of the flatbed scanner with a finger pointing to the power button

Position the Material on the Scanner Bed

The starting point of the scanner is the upper left hand corner. As the scanner sensor moves from left to right, placing your object vertically will scan faster than if you place it horizontally.

image of the flatbed scanner with a newspaper in the upper, left hand corner

Starting Software

  The Epson Scan desktop iconFrom the Start Menu or on the Desktop, launch “Epson Scan." The software may take a few moments to open the first time you use it.

Configuring Software

Review the full tutorial for more information. General recommendations:

  1. Switch from Office Mode to Professional Mode to access more settings
  2. Under Configuration, turn off Color Correction

Setting Up Your First Scan

Click the Preview button to see what is on the scanner bed. Make sure that Thumbnail is not checked! 

screenshot of Epson sofware showing preview

Select What You Want to Scan

Drag a rectangle around the area that you want to scan. It is better to scan too much than too little! You can always crop later.

  • You can resize the selection by clicking and dragging from the edges or corners.
  • You can move the selection by clicking and dragging from inside the selected area.
  • If you accidentally select multiple selections you can remove them by clicking the eraser tool.

Do not close the preview window when you have it set the way you want. Closing will erase your work. Just continue to the next step. 

preview window of Epson software with a crop line shown

Choose Your Scan Settings

Review the full tutorial for more information.

While the right settings are highly dependent on the material you are scanning and the intended purpose of your project, some baseline settings can be: 24-bit Color and 600 DPI Resolution. Click "Scan."

Choose Your File Save Settings

Review the full tutorial for more information.

The File Save dialogue box will pop up. Under Location select where you want to save your files. You can choose any file type, but we recommend TIFF as they are uncompressed and save quickly. Click "OK" and the scan will begin. 

Post-Processing and File Transfers

Files should be taken with you when you leave the computer, as the memory is wiped regularly. Use either an external hard drive or flash drive or cloud storage. If you are a CWRU affiliate, your OneDrive is already linked to the computer when you log in. 

Want to do more with your images? The Freedman Center Technology Lab has post-processing and editing software, including the Adobe Creative Suite. Some relevant tutorials are: