LibGuides: Finding Images: Scanning Recommendations

Scanners at Duke

All Duke Libraries maintain high-quality or quick scanners which are free to anyone to use.

Highest quality - Epson 15000 flatbed scanners - These are the largest public scanners at Duke. They can accommodate material up to 16 inches x 20 inches.
- Tip: Scan through the University’s Adobe Photoshop for highest quality.
- Available in Perkins, Lilly, and the Music Library.

Smaller flatbeds - Epson 4900 - smaller format than above, 8.5” x 14” surface scanning.
- Tip: Scan through the University’s Adobe Photoshop for highest quality.
- Available in Perkins, Lilly, and the Music Library.

Quick book scanning - KIC overhead scanner and Scannx 7033 table scanner - These allow fast, dual-page scanning up to 600dpi.
- Available in Perkins, Lilly, and the Music Library.

Sheet-feed scanning - the Scannx table scanners can scan documents of up to 20 pages, multi-sided.
- Available in Perkins and Bostock.

Scanning images for publication or presentation is different than scanning for personal use. We recommend the scanning primer of Princeton University Press’ Guidelines for Preparting and Submitting Illustrations.

This document includes:

Scan a raw, high-quality image and adjust it in a separate process, always retaining your raw image as a TIF (non-compressed file)
Set your scanning level high enough: 300 dpi is standard for presentation or publishing scanning. Some publishers ask for 600 dpi.
Rasterized vs Vector - basically images with computer pixelation vs a smooth grain. Vector images are created using mathematic equations of points, lines, and shapes, resulting in art that is clean, camera ready, and scalable without quality loss. Personal cameras are not rasterized and therefore give a cleaner image than scans.
Depending upon your use, modify or clean your image with a professional tool such as Adobe Photoshop.