Epson EXPRESSION 800 SilverFast Lite User Guide

LaserSoft® SilverFast

User’s Guide

™

Lite

Copyright Notice

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION. The information contained herein is designed only for use with this EPSON scanner. EPSON is not responsible for any use of this information as applied to other scanners.

Neither SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION nor its affiliates shall be liable to the purchaser of this product or third parties for damages, losses, costs or expenses incurred by purchaser or third parties as a result of: accident, misuse, or abuse of this product or unauthorized modifications, repairs, or alterations to this product, or (excluding the U.S.) failure to strictly comply with SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION’s operating and maintenance instructions.

SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION shall not be liable for any damages or problems arising from the use of any options or any consumable products other than those designated as Original EPSON Products or EPSON Approved Products by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION.

A Note Concerning Responsible Use of Copyrighted Materials

Digital cameras and scanners, like photocopiers and conventional cameras, can be misused by improper copying of copyrighted material. While some countries’ laws permit limited copying of copyrighted material in certain circumstances, those circumstances may not be as broad as some people assume. EPSON encourages each user to be responsible and respectful of copyright laws when using digital cameras and scanners.

Page 2

Trademarks

EPSON and EPSON Stylus are registered trademarks of SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION. EPSON Expression is a registered trademark, EPSON FaxAdvice is a trademark, and EPSON SoundAdvice

is a service mark of Epson America, Inc. LaserSoft is a registered trademark and SilverFast is a trademark of LaserSoft GmbH, Germany. General Notice: Other product names used herein are for identification purposes only and may be

trademarks of their respective companies.

12/98

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Introduction

How to Use This Guide 9

Cautions, Notes, and Tips 10 Using Ele c tr onic Links 10

Accessing SilverFast Lite Basic Scanning

Basic Scanning Steps 15 Changing the Basic Settings 17

Selectin g a Scan Mode 17 Choosing the Original Document Type 18 Selectin g t he Scan Type 19 Choosing the Scan Resolution 20

Framing 23

Creating Fr am es 24 Resizing and Moving Frames 25 Creating M ult iple Frames 25 Moving Between Frames 26

Zooming 27

Transferring Zoomed Corrections 28

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Sizing the Image 28

Factors A ffecting Reso urce Require m ents 29 Changing the Size of th e Sc anned Ima ge 30

Advanced Scannin g

Changing Image Orientation 35 Batch Scanning 36

Scanning Multiple Im ages 37 Scanning Transparencies 38 Scanning Polaroid P hot ographs 40

Adjusting Image Quality

Using Auto Adjust 44

Activating and Resetting Auto Adjust Settings 44

Removing or Preserv ing a Color Cast 44 Using the D ensitomete r 45

Setting the Densitom et er Measurin g Point 46 Manually Adjusting Highlights and Shadows 47

Displaying the Bright es t and Darkest Im age Points 48 Adjusting Tone Curves 49

Using the T one Curve 50

Adjustin g T one Curves of In div idual Colors 51

Using the T one Curve Sli ders 52

Saving and Loading Tone Curve S et ti ngs 53

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Adjustin g C olor Balance 55

Selecting Tone Ranges 56

Modifying Color Values 56 Applying Scanning F ilt ers 57

Troubl eshooting

Problems U s ing SilverFast Lit e 58 Problems with Image Quality 62 Where to Get Help 66

Keyboard Shortcuts

Window s 9 5, 98, and NT Shortc ut s 67 Macintosh Shortcuts 69

Glossary Index

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Introduction

If you’re scanning documents with OCR (optical character recognit ion) applicat ions, you should us e EPSON TWAIN Pro instead of SilverFast Lite for the best results. See the electronic

TWAIN Pro User’s Guide

EPSON

for instructions.

LaserSoft® SilverFast™ Lite is a TW AI N interface program between your application software and your EPSON you scan im ages into your software. It is th e ideal interfa c e fo r s c anning photographs on any ty pe of medium: photo paper, pos it iv e and negativ e transpar encies, 35 mm slides and film, even Polaroid® media.

SilverFa s t Li te does more than transfer im ages from the sc anner—it als o lets you:

◗ Preview the im age before scanning ◗ Adjust the orientation of th e im age (such as f lip it horizontally or

vertically or rotate it)

◗ Automa tically adjust im age exposu re ◗ Make corrections to the image (such as adjusting brightness, contrast,

and tone quality)

◗ Scan mul tip le frames, mult iple images , an d even different types of

originals (c olor, graysc ale, and black and white) at one time

◗ Quickly scan Polaroid photographs (f or Spectra

automatically size the image and adjust the exposure

◗ Scan clea r newsprint or m agazine ima ges with a Desc reening filter to

eliminate line screens

Expression® 800 scanner that lets

or 600 size film) to

Introduction Page 7

Select the basic settings:

Scan Mode Original Scan Type

Preview your image

Adjust the frame border

to crop the image

Here is a bri ef ov erv iew of scann ing steps usin g SilverFast L ite :

Use Auto Adjust

to optimize image quality

Size or scale

the image

Set the

Resolution

Scan the image

into your application

For Batch scanning, sele c t Batch Mode or Batch Mode Tiff as the Scan Mode setting

For Polaroid photographs, selec t Spectra Polaroid or 600 Pola r o id as the Original setting for aut omatic framing and expos ure

For image co rrections, use the Tone Cu rv es , Color Balance,

Highlight/Shadow C ontrol, and rot at ion tools.

Introduction Page 8

How to Use This Guide

The information you ne ed to use your SilverFast Li te so f tware can be found in th e fo llowing sect ions of this guid e:

This Guide explains how to use the LaserSoft SilverFa s t Lite inclu ded on your EPSON Expression Scanning Tools CD-ROM. If you purchas ed the Artist or Professional model of the Expression 800, you also receive d a C D -ROM with LaserSoft SilverF as t 4. 0, th e more complete version of th e applicat ion. For instructions on using SilverF as t 4. 0, se e the manual on the LaserSoft SilverFa s t

4.0 CD-ROM.

Accessin g SilverFast Lit e

window and instructions on how to access it.

Basic Scanning

scan an image.

Advance d Scanning

SilverFast Lite—such as sizing and batch scanning options—and tells you how to sca n t ransparenci es , Polaroid photos, and photos for enlargement.

Adjusting Image Quality

image quality, such as Auto Adjust and Color Balance.

Troubleshooting

SilverFa s t Li te .

Keyboard Shortcuts

Lite. The Glossary The Index

provides inf ormation ab out the basic st eps needed to

provides solutions to problems you may encounter using

defines terms you may not be familiar w it h.

gives you a quick way to jump to indexed information.

gives you an overview of t he m ain driver

presents all the advan ce d s c anning featu res of

desc ribes t he setting s you can use to ad just y our

lists keyboard shortcuts you can use with SilverFast

Introduction Page 9

Cautions, Notes, and Tip s

You’ll find t his information t hroughout y our guide:

Cautions must be observed to avoid damage to your equipment.

Notes cont ain importa nt inf ormation ab out y our scanner so ftw are.

Tips contain addit ional hints for better scan ning.

Using Elec troni c Links

Blue unde rlined text indic ates that the t ex t is a link (c ross-reference) to other parts of this guide. Click on the text with the mouse pointer to view the refere nc ed information.

Introduction Page 10

Accessing SilverFast Lite

Make sure you turn on your scanner before starting your application; otherwise the software may not work pro perly.

The steps in this section cover scanning with common TWAIN-compliant applications; other applicat ions use different scanning steps. S ee y our applicat ion’s docum ent ation for additional details on scannin g.

Follow the s t eps in this sect ion to start SilverF ast Lite from y our application software. The steps may vary, depending on your app lic at ion.

1 Make sure y ou’ve set up and turned on t he scanner. Th en place the

docume nt yo u w ant to scan on th e document ta ble. See

and Using Your Scanner

2 Start your application so f tware by select ing the program ic on in its

program f older.

3 Select the scanner source. Choose Import, Acquire, or Select

Source from the File menu, and then s elect either Select TWAIN_32 Source (Windows

4 You see the Select Source dialog box. Select Expression 800 (32 Bit)

(Window s ) or E xpression800 (Macintos h) and click Select or OK.

for instructions.

) or TWAIN Select (Macintosh®).

Click to select SilverFast Lite

Setting Up

Click to select the scanner source

Accessing SilverFast Li te Page 11

5 To start SilverFast Lite, select Import or Acquire from the File menu;

then sele ct TWAIN_32 (Windows) or TWAIN Acquire (Macin to s h).

Click to open SilverFast Lite

You see th e SilverFast Li te w indow:

Windows

basic scanning options

image sizing options

scan resolution slider

Prescan button

Scan button

Quit button

Reset button

rotation tools

image quality tools

pixel zoom/ image orientation display

prescan image area

Accessing SilverFast Li te Page 12

Macintosh

basic scanning options

image sizing options

scan resolution slider

Prescan button

rotation tools

image quality tools

pixel zoom and image orientation display

Scan button

Quit button

Reset but to n

prescan image area

The features in the SilverFast Lite window are basically the same for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Any differences are noted in the text.

Keystrok e c ommands fo r each platform are listed in Keyboard Shortcuts

Accessing SilverFast Li te Page 13

Basic Scanning

When you access SilverFast Lite from your TWAIN-co mpliant applica tion, you can pr ev iew and mani pulate image se ttings prior to sc anning, as described in these sections:

◗ Basic Scanning Steps ◗ Changing the Basic Settings ◗ Framing ◗ Zooming ◗ Sizing the Image

The transparency unit comes with the Professional model of the Express ion 800. It’s availab le as an option for the Executiv e and Artist models.

Basic Scanning Page 14

If you’re scanning using the optiona l t ransparenc y u nit , se e Scanning

Transpa rencies for basic scanning instructions.

If you’re scanning Pola roid photographs, see S c anning Pola roid

Photographs for in s tr uc t ions on using P olaroid mode f or quick scans.

Cropping an image makes the scanned file size smaller; the file is then faster to proces s and takes up less st orag e spac e on your hard drive.

Basic Scanning Steps

1 Access the SilverFast Lite window as described in Accessing

SilverFa s t Li te .

2 Preview the im age by clickin g t he Prescan button. Because the

prescan im age reflects what the scann ed image will lo ok lik e, it changes as you change certain settings.

3 Select the appropriate basic settings for the original you are scanning

as described in Changing the Basic Settings

4 Select the portion of the im age to be scanned.

To scan the entire original, click and drag the frame border (dotted line) to the edge of the prescanned image. To scan only a part of an image, click and drag the frame border to def ine the part of the im age you want to scan. SilverFast Lite scans only the area within the frame.

For details on framing your image, including using multiple frames, see

Framing

frame border

5 Select the output size for your scanned image as described in Sizing

the Image.

Basic Scanning Page 15

6 If you’re scanning a color photograph or a grayscale image, use the

Sharpen filter to adjust the sharpness as necessary. If you’re scanning

a screene d im age, such as th os e printed in a new s paper, use th e Descreening filter. See Applying Sca nning Filters

for details.

7 To automatically optimize image settings, click the Auto Adjust

butt on. See Using Auto Adjust

for details.

8 If you want to further optimize your image’s colors, highlights,

midtones, shadows, and other characteristics, use the image quality adjustment tools described in these s ec t ions:

◗ Manually Adjusting Highlights and Shadows ◗ Adjusting Tone Curves ◗ Adjustin g C olor Balance

9 Click the Scan RGB button to scan the im age. You see a win dow

showing th e progress of yo ur scan. (To cancel scanning at any time , click Cancel.)

10 Click Quit to exit Silv erF ast Lite. The sc anned image appears in yo ur

application window.

Basic Scanning Page 16

Changing the Basic Settings

Prescan ning lets you preview the im age to see how it wi ll look when scanned. If any adjustme nts are neede d, change one or more of the basi c settings described in these sections to obtain the results you want:

For a description of the Filter setting, see Applying Scanning Filters.

◗ Selectin g a Scan Mode ◗ Choosing the Original Document Type ◗ Selectin g t he Scan Type ◗ Choosing the Scan Resolution

Selecting a Scan Mode

The Scan M ode indicates if y ou’re scannin g one image or f ram e or multiple images or frames. Select o ne of the follow ing:

Normal Scans a single image or f rame into your

applicat ion. This is the def ault mode.

Batch Mode Scans sev eral individual images or fra m es

sequent ially and impo rts t hem into your applicat ion.

Batch Mode Tiff Scans sev eral individual images or fra m es

sequentially and saves them directly to a TIFF file on your hard disk instea d of im porting them into your applic ation.

For more in f orm ation on the bat c h m odes, see B at c h Scanning

Basic Scanning Page 17

You can’t u s e SilverFast Lit e with the option al auto document feeder; use EPSON TWAIN Pro instea d. See the electroni c

EPSON TWAIN Pr o U s er’s Guide

for instructions.

Choosing the Original Document Type

Select the t y pe of image medium you’re scanning as th e Original setting. Choose one of the following:

Reflective A reflective original (such as a printed photograph)

needs to b e c aptured by ligh t ref lec t ing off the original a nd back into the scanner. Selec t th is option for originals you’r e s c anning on the docume nt ta ble using the do c um ent cover.

Pos. Transparency When you’re scanning positive transparent

originals (such as 35 mm slides) using the optional transpar ency unit, selec t th is option so light c an shine thro ugh the original instead of ref lecting off it. See Scanning T ransparenc ies

Neg. Transparency When you’re scanning negative transparent

originals (s uch as negativ e film strips) us ing the optional t ransparenc y u nit , se lec t th is option so light can shine through t he original inst ead of reflecting off it. SilverF as t Lit e also turns the negative im age into a posi tive image. Se e

Scanning Transparencies

35 mm Same as Neg. Transparency, described ab ov e.

for instructions.

for instruc t ions.

Basic Scanning Page 18

Spectra Polaroid or 600 Polaroid

When you’re scanning Polaroid photographs, you must adjus t the ex posure settin gs dif f erently than for conventionally developed photographs. These Polaroid m odes automat ic ally adjust ex pos ure and size the image area. For Polaroids taken with a Spectra camera, select Spectra Polaroid. For pictures taken with a Pol aroid 600 camera , sele ct 600 Polaroid. Se e Scanning Polaroid

Photographs for details.

Selecting the Scan Type

Select color characteristics (scan type) of the orig inal you’ll be scanning. Choose one of the following:

36 bit Color Scans using a 36-bit co lor s pace and saves a

24-bit col or im age (the def ault option)

12 bit Grayscale Scans using a 12-bit grayscale space and saves

an 8-bit black and white image with shades of gray

Not all Si lv erF ast Lite settings are available for all scan types. For examp le, t he Filter setting is not available when 1 bit Line Art (OCR) is selected.

Basic Scanning Page 19

1 bit Line Art (OCR) Saves the sc anned object as a 1-bit black and

white line art image

For information on how to scan different types of originals simultaneously, see Batch Scanning

Choosing the Scan Resolution

Resolution refers to how m any dots per inc h (dpi) or dots per centimete r (dpcm) you want your scanned image to contain. These sections tell you how to selec t th e best resolut ion for your image:

◗ Factors to C onsider in Selecting Res olution ◗ Changing the Resolut ion

Factors to Consider in Se lec ting Resolution

The best res olution for a sc anned image depends on the type of image you’re scanning and your final outpu t d ev ic e. T he higher a resolution you select, the larger the res ult ing image file . Fo r ex ample, an 8.5 × 11-inch original sc anned at 300 dpi can produc e a 24MB file. T he same origin al scanned at 72 dpi creates only a 1.3MB fil e. If y our scanned im age is intended only for on-sc reen viewing , yo u c an scan at 72 dpi t o reduce your file size.

Large files ta k e longer to proc es s and print, so co ns ider the prac tical limitations of your computer system and hard disk drive when selecting a resolution. To keep your file size manageable, select the lowest possible resolutio n t hat gives acceptable qualit y .

As a rule of thumb for any im age except line art, use a scanning resolutio n t hat is approxim ately one third of your output resolution. F or example , u s e a s c anning resolution up to 100 dpi wi th a 300 dpi laser printer, an d up to 200 dpi w ith a 600 dpi laser printer.

Basic Scanning Page 20

For ink jet printers, such as an EPSON St y lus s eries printer se t to 1440 dpi printin g m ode, use a sca nning resolut ion of approx im at ely 300 dpi (select a pproximately 240 dpi for 720 dpi pri nt ing mode).

For a list of re c om m ended resolutions for sp ec if ic im age types, see

Setting Up and Using Your Scanner

Changing the Resolution

To chang e t he resolution to a sp ec if ic s et t ing, move the re s olution slider to the left to decrease resolution or right to increas e res olution. Yo u c an also ente r a res olution in the fie ld and switch bet w een dpi (dots per inch) and dpcm (dots per centi m et er) measure m ent units.

click to switch between dpi and dpcm

If you select an appropriate resolution for your image, and then enlarge it by scaling it or selecting a larger output size, SilverFast Lite automatically increase s th e res olution proportionally so yo u don’t need to adjust the resolutio n t o retain your image quality . For example, if yo u’re scannin g a 2 × 2-inch photograph at 300 dpi and then enlarge the output s iz e t o 4 × 4-inch (a 200% enla rgement), Silv erFast Lite aut om atically scans the image at 6 00 dpi, even though the reso lut ion slider is sti ll se t to 300 dpi.

If you adjus t th e res olution to a hi gh s etting, keep th e f ollowing in min d:

◗ You’re sc anning at a reso lut ion that gives great results for photos, and ◗ You’re creating a very large file size us ing your curre nt s et ti ngs

Basic Scanning Page 21

In some instances, you may you’ll be enlarging a sm all s c anned origin al in your applic at ion program and want to retain a high image quality. In that case, you may want to select a resolution between 1200 and 2400 dpi so you can enlarge it later with good results.

want

to create a large file—such as when

In other instances, you may be your image. For example, if you’re enlarging an image’s size in SilverFast Lite so the s c anned file loads int o your applic at ion already enlarged, you may not need to select a s h igh a resolutio n fo r a s uc c essful scan. Your settings are c reating a file that may be slo w to p roc ess and burd ensome to your system resources.

If you move t he resolution s lider to a very high resolution fo r it s siz e, you see a mess age warning y ou that the soft w are will be “inte rpolating” the resolution you selected. This means that the software must add pixels to your imag e t o ac hieve the resolution you ch os e, but may not increase your image quality. If you see this warning message, you may want to lower the re s olution settin g.

unaware

that your settings are too high for

Basic Scanning Page 22

If you’re s c anning a Polaro id photograph, you can automatically frame the image to the correct size and set custom exposure settings us ing Spectra Polaroid or 600 Pola roid as the origina l se t tin g; s ee Scanning Polaroid Photographs for details .

Framing

You can adjust the frame border on your image to crop out anything on the scanner’s document ta ble that you don’t wa nt to in cl ude in your scan. You can ev en create mult iple frames on a single imag e, or f rame several different im ages, and then scan them all at once.

Follow the s t eps in these se c tio ns t o f ram e your imag es :

◗ Creating Fr am es ◗ Resizing and Moving Frames ◗ Creating M ult iple Frames ◗ Moving Between Frames

Basic Scanning Page 23

+ 53 hidden pages

Epson EXPRESSION 800 SilverFast Lite User Guide

Copyright Notice

A Note Concerning Responsible Use of Copyrighted Materials

Trademarks

Contents

Introduction

How to Use This Guide

Cautions, Notes, and Tip s

Using Elec troni c Links

Basic Scanning

Basic Scanning Steps

Changing the Basic Settings

Selecting a Scan Mode

Choosing the Original Document Type

Selecting the Scan Type

Choosing the Scan Resolution

Framing