Monday, June 23, 2008
If you are new to all things digital, here are some tips to help you through the exciting journey of going digital with your manga!
- Tips on Scanning
- Common questions about Digital Scanning and Printing
- Checklist of things to do before scanning
- Tips on Digital File Formats
- JPG Tips!
Tips on scanning
Here are some tips that you can follow to ensure that you get a good quality scan of your manga.
Scanner Type: Flatbed scanners are highly recommended as it allows you to scan images on a single sheet of paper or from a sketchbook.
Scanner Size: There are many different sizes of scanners and these may cost you around a thousand dollars. For the competition or home use, a basic, affordable scanner is good enough and should measure at around 8.5 x 11 inches.
Scanner Capabilities: As a guide, your scanner should be capable of scanning in both color, black and white with a minimum of 300dpi. Read article on dpi. The color depth should be at least 24 bits. However, don’t worry too much about this as most flatbed scanners available in computer retail stores meet the minimum requirements.
Common questions about digital scanning and printing
What is DPI? Is it essential for me to understand it?
DPI is a very common term which you will come across a lot while when you work in the digital environment. Here’s a basic guide to what it is all about and how you can get the best out of it.
DPI stands for DOT PER INCH. DPI determines the level of detail, clarity and crispness of the digital image that is scanned. When working on digital, you are going to come across the term DPI a lot.
DPI is not to be confused with PPI, (Pixels Per Inch) and SPI (Samples per Inch)
In order to print out a clear, crisp and high quality image, (and you will probably want to if you want to win) you will need to set your image resolution to HIGH at 300 dpi before you begin scanning.
DPI and Pixels: What’s the Difference?
DPI is often confused with Pixels. Let’s get over with it once and for all!
If you are going to go digital, 72 dpi is the magic setting. For your information, computer monitors DO NOT display images at 72 dpi. The monitor displays in terms of PIXELS. Therefore, the higher the setting on the monitor that you set for the resolution, the more pixels will appear on the screen and the clearer your image will be. Remember, DPI is NOT to be confused with PIXELS!
Pixels also determine the size of the image. The more pixels in an image, the LARGER the image is. However, the amount of pixels is actually determined by the DPI setting you choose initially when you scan in your image.
What does DPI have to do with Printing and Scanning?
Why all the jazz with DPI? That’s because, DPI is essential when it comes to PRINTING and SCANNING purposes. For SCANNING, it informs the scanner on how many pixels to acquire per inch of an image that is being scanned. However, once translated to computer, these pixels are no longer controlled by the DPI settings. So, be cautious here!
For PRINTING, the DPI number informs the printer how many Dots Per Inch data to represent on an inch of printed paper space.
Ok, I THINK I get it. So, what DPI am I suppose to use??!
Here’s a guideline on what DPI to use
If you are planning to SCAN your manga and edit it DIGITALLY, we recommend you to scan your work at 300 dpi AT LEAST. This will give you a decent size to work on. Don’t worry about the file size as you can later resize it according to your preference. A good size to work on when editing your images digitally is at 2,550 width x 3,300 height. You can also obtain this dimension by scanning at 8.5 x 11 inches scanned at 300 DPI. This is also the ideal size for photographic-quality print.
Remember, you can always decrease the size of the image later. Don’t worry if it will affect the quality of the image. Reducing the image will also reduce the number of pixels by blending them together. The blending of pixels DOES NOT affect the overall image quality.
BUT, before we get excited, here’s a word of warning,
NEVER increase the size of an image AFTER it’s scanned!
When you increase the size, it creates FAKE pixels or fills. These are called “interpolated” pixels. Their main purpose is to fill the larger image area like tooth fillings. This will reduce the quality and clarity of your image so beware!
Checklist of things to do BEFORE you start scanning
Now that you have a basic understanding about flatbed scanners, don’t get too excited yet. Here are some things to bear in mind before you begin scanning your manga artwork.
- Draw on smooth, white paper that has no rough, “toothed” textures on the surface. Textured paper can result in graphic “noise” which will appear on your scanned image. These noises can be difficult to remove digitally and can take up a lot of time. The brighter and more opaque the paper, the better your scanned image will turn out.
- Before scanning, make sure that your drawing is finished completely. Once the image is scanned, it’s going to be difficult to make changes to it. However, you can also draw digitally directly into computer as well.
- Make sure that all your drawing outlines are darkened to ensure that the scanned image is clear and as crisp as possible.
- Get rid of unwanted stains, blemishes and smudges before you begin scanning. You can achieve this by using an eraser to erase any stray pencil lines or fingerprint smudges.
- Clean your scanner window and make sure that its free from dusts, smudges, fingerprints etc.
Tips On Digital File Formats
You need to be familiar with the various digital file formats in order to work and save digitally. There’s a few formats to select from and each comes with its own pros and cons. Selecting the right one is important to ensure that it is compatible with different software applications and that it is ideally suited for printing, editing or uploading it online. The 2 criteria to consider in selecting the right file format is on the level of detail retained in the image
Which File Format?
Here’s the list of file formats:
.PSD – Adobe Photoshop’s proprietary file format
.AI – Adobe Illustrator’s proprietary file format
.RIF – Painter’s proprietary file format
.TIF
.JPG
.BMP
.GIF
.Psd Adobe Photoshop’s proprietary file format
Robust, widely accepted image format by most applications. Retains all working information (layers, etc). Small in size (15mb – 50mb, depending on detail)
.Ai Adobe Illustrator’s proprietary file format.
Retains all working information. Widely accepted format by printing and publishing houses. May not be compatible with all applications.
.RIF Painter’s proprietary image format.
Stores all information without lost of quality. Can be saved into .PSD for Photoshop editing. Only compatible with Painter.
.TIF
Preserve alpha channel information and can be saved in all color modes. Compressed, flattened, in full quality and also widely accepted by printing and publishing houses. Cannot preserve information or data about layers. Depth of colors determine the file size.
.JPG
Most widely accepted format for web publishing. Small and can be saved in RGB color mode. Best choice for most color images. Utilize lossy image compression. Helps reduce file size but also reduces the quality of the image. The higher the compression, the more higher the drop in quality. Image may get corrupted.
.GIF
Suitable for images with a monochrome, limited color palette or transparent images. Uses lossless compression methods and retains all image data without deteriorating the quality. Limited to 256 colors. Not recommended for images with a wide color palette. Best to go for JPG if that is the case.
Which File Format is best for printing?
We recommend to print out your manga using the .TIF format OR .PDF format as it retains its full quality of your image.
However, even though the .PDF format is able to retain the quality of your image, be mindful that the COLOUR of your image might differ a little from the original, but this is fine. It’s supposed to happen that way, so don’t worry!
Which File Format is best for saving?
During submission, remember we require 2 different file formats of your manga.
.TIF
If you have edited or scanned your manga into Adobe Photoshop, please include the .PSD version of it as well. At the end of the day, you should have 2 different file formats as softcopies (.TIF and .PDF) or 3 different file formats (.TIF, .PDF and .PSD) if you did your scanning and editing in Adobe Photoshop.
JPG Tips!
We personally do not recommend JPG as it has the lowest quality of the lot. However, if you have no other choice, here are some tips to ensure that your image quality stays optimum. When you save a file into .JPG, you have options to set a quality scale range from 0-12.
Here’s a rough guideline on the kind of quality you will get with these settings;
12 : Highest-quality but largest file size
0 : Course image, smallest size.If you are new to all things digital, here are some tips to help you through the exciting journey of going digital with your manga!
7 : Good balance, quality and size.
And here’s another tip: Never save a JPG image more than once or it will deteriorate in quality!
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