Colorado Photo Heritage LLC

Quality Film and Photo Scanning to preserve your family photo heritage.

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The world of digital imaging has a language of its own.  As is often the case in life, there are tradeoffs between the various dimensions of quality and cost.  Some of this information will help you understand what you can do with images scanned with the various options. 

Pixel - A pixel is a single colored dot within an image file or on a computer screen.  The word is kind of an abbreviation for "picture element".  The more pixels in an image file, the more detailed the image can be - up to the limit imposed by the sharpness of detail in the image being scanned, or by the optical resolution of the scanner.  The number of colors that a single pixel represents can vary from just 2 to millions - see Color Depth below. 

Image Resolution - This is measured in dots per inch (DPI) or pixels.  The dimensions of an image file are always measured in pixels - the  number of pixels across the horizontal dimension, and the number of pixels down the vertical dimension.  DPI - Dots (or pixels) per inch describes how we convert between a physical image - a slide or photograph, for example - and an image file.  As a rule of thumb, for a good quality print from a digital image the image should have at least 300 pixels per inch of printed photograph.  For example, an image that is 1200x1500 pixels in size will print to 4"x5" at 300dpi.  A 35mm slide (which measures about 1.3" x .9" inside the mount)  scanned at 4000 DPI so as to crop (trim) the slide mount border will result in an image size of approximately 5193 x 3489 pixels.  This means you could print good quality photographs as large as 17.3" x 11.6" using the entire image. Cropping a photograph will reduce the maximum size of a good quality print. Some cropping is normally necessary.  Cropping may to improve the composition of the photograph or remove the border the scanner inserts around the photograph to insure that the full image is scanned.  Sometimes cropping is necessary simply to fit the proportions of the photographic paper.  

Color Representation - Colors are represented in one of two ways in most image files: RGB (Red - Green - Blue) or CMYK (Cyan - Magenta - Yellow - Black).  RGB is the most commonly used format for family and web photos, and is the default format we use.  CMYK - the colors of ink used in printing - is frequently used for photos that will be printed using standard commercial 4-color printing equipment. 

Color Depth - Color Depth is a measure of the number of colors that can be represented in the image.  Our standard is 8-bit RGB color, also known as 24-bit color.  Each Red - Green - Blue component of a color can take on one of 256 values, for more than 16 million possible color combinations.  We also support 8-bit CMYK color, also known as 32-bit color, in TIFF and PNG file formats.

Color Working Space - The working space is a representation of the range of colors that can be present in the scanned image file.  Several working spaces are available to match how you will ultimately use the images.  Some of the working spaces our scanners support are:

1. sRGB - for vivid images on Windows-based computer monitors, but records a narrower range of colors (narrow gamut) in the image file.  This is our default. 

2. Adobe RGB (1988) - With a wider gamut than sRGB, a good choice for printing and desktop publishing, but slightly less vivid on the screen. You can convert images scanned into this color space from RGB to CMYK using a program like Adobe Photoshop. 

3. Wide Gamut RGB - Allows more colors to be represented in the scanned image file, but the image will be less vivid on the screen and printer.  A good choice for images that will be edited and color-adjusted using Adobe Photoshop 5 and subsequent versions.  

4. Apple RGB - Offers a range of colors matching standard Apple Macintosh RGB monitors, and is supported by Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and earlier, as well as later versions

5. Color Match RGB - Another Apple compatible working space with a wider gamut than Apple RGB and supported by Adobe Photoshop 5 and later.

Image File Type - We save your scanned image to one of three file types: JPEG (jpg file extension), PNG (png file extension) or TIFF (tif file extension). 

1. JPEG - This is a compressed image file format.  In the image compression process some image data is lost, with a lower quality image as a result.  However, JPEG files are significantly smaller, allowing you to store 4-6 times as many images in the same amount if disk space as compared to the TIFF format.  

   Five levels of compression are available: High Compression, Good Compression, Good Balance, High Quality and Excellent Quality.  Unless you request otherwise, we save at the High Quality compression level.  High Quality file sizes are shown below.  We also use the newer extended JPEG file format, EXIF rather than the older JFIF JPEG file format.  A few programs don't recognize the EXIF file format - you can save some of the photographs on the "More Samples" page if you think you might need to test an old program for EXIF compatibility. 

   Each time a JPEG file is edited and saved, it goes through the decompression/compression process again, losing some image quality each time.  If you plan to use a program like Photoshop to edit a JPEG file, saving and opening the file several times, we recommend that you first convert the image to TIFF format and edit the TIFF file.  

   JPEG file format is very often used for files that people post on web sites or share via e-mail, because the smaller file sizes transfer quickly over dial-up internet connections. 

2. PNG (Portable Network Graphic) - This is a compressed file format that retains all of the original image information.  Because no image information is discarded in the compression process, PNG file sizes are much larger than the JPEG version, 3-4 times larger.  At the same time, PNG image files are only 50-60% of the size of an uncompressed TIFF file, while retaining all of the image information.  Also, PNG image files can hold RGB color representation at 24 or 48 bit color depth, or CMYK color representations, at 32 bit color depth.  As a newer image file format, it is not as universally supported as is JPEG or TIFF, but enjoys wide support nonetheless.  PNG files are generally smaller than compressed TIFF files with no difference in image quality.

3. TIFF (Tagged Interchange File Format) - TIFF refers to a collection of image file formats some of which are compressed, and others are uncompressed.  Most scanners (ours included) create uncompressed TIFF format image files, with every pixel of the image fully represented in the file.  This file type is better than JPEG if you plan to do extensive editing, but the large file sizes are a consideration.  The table below lists approximate file sizes for our standard scanning resolutions. 

Click Here to see a comparison of a High Quality JPEG image to the same scan in PNG format, or to download a small TIFF image for comparison. 

Image Border - The actual area of your picture's image is always smaller than the area the scanner can scan.   We can scan the full frame so you'll have every bit of your picture available to you - but you'll probably want to crop the edge out when use the photo.  We can also crop the edge for you.  When we crop the edge, small amounts of the border may still be visible, and small amounts of your image may be cropped out.  When ordering, please choose between "Full Frame" and "Cropped Border". 

Click Here to see a comparison of a Full Frame scan with a Cropped Border scan, as well as another example of ROC™. 

The information in the following table will help you compare image formats.

Colorado Photo Heritage LLC

100 Snow Top Drive, PO Box 137, Drake, Colorado 80515-0137

Phone: 303-800-6433

http://www.coloradophotoheritage.com

e-mail:  info@coloradophotoheritage.com

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