ISO an excellent scanner - scanning artwork for publication
October 3, 2019 12:42 PM Subscribe
I am scanning artwork (black and white line drawings and watercolor illustrations) for professional publication. What scanner should I buy? Under $400? more details inside.
I am making illustrations are for a mass market cook/reference book. I've done illustrations before, but never in color and never for a real publication.
Some of the artwork will have black and white line art, some black linework with watercolor, some scanned and then color-corrected or manipulated in illustrator/photoshop (by me). All of it is 9X12 or much smaller.
Do you scan professional artwork for printing? What scanner do I get for this? If I really need to spend $500, can you tell me what features a particular $500 model has that I definitely need? Can I get away with a $200 or $100 scanner? Specific models are much appreciated!
I am making illustrations are for a mass market cook/reference book. I've done illustrations before, but never in color and never for a real publication.
Some of the artwork will have black and white line art, some black linework with watercolor, some scanned and then color-corrected or manipulated in illustrator/photoshop (by me). All of it is 9X12 or much smaller.
Do you scan professional artwork for printing? What scanner do I get for this? If I really need to spend $500, can you tell me what features a particular $500 model has that I definitely need? Can I get away with a $200 or $100 scanner? Specific models are much appreciated!
Best answer: If the artwork itself is 9 x 12, that's going to be an issue, as most scanners are for 8.5 x 11 or 8.5 x 14. I have an Epson 4870 at work that works great. It's been discontinued, but amazon says that this is current version.
posted by jonathanhughes at 12:56 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by jonathanhughes at 12:56 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I've worked with a lot of scanners and macs. My favorite for artwork was the Canon Canoscan 9000f mk ii, which seems to be discontinued, but used to go for around $450 new. My second favorite, still quite good, and well within your price range is the Epson Perfection V600, which goes for around $230. With both of these, the maximum scannable area will be just under 9x12, more like 8.5 x 11.5. No matter what scanner you get, I would recommend also buying VueScan software which can be integrated with Photoshop and solves the issue of dodgy mac driver support from the actual manufacturers.
posted by 2ghouls at 1:04 PM on October 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by 2ghouls at 1:04 PM on October 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Best answer: The 9 × 12" scanner market is well into the professional range and are typically over $1000. You can get huge scanners as part of all-in-one workcentres for under $500, but they might not have the dynamic range you need.
Seconding VueScan: the support and features are amazing, and it's developed by a tiny family company who have done this one thing for a couple of decades. If you want to be a little more careful about scanner calibration, a scanner calibration target is an inexpensive way to make sure that your colour capture is spot-on. The supplier I linked to makes targets for high-end pre-press equipment suppliers, but sells small quantities to individual users at pretty much cost.
posted by scruss at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Seconding VueScan: the support and features are amazing, and it's developed by a tiny family company who have done this one thing for a couple of decades. If you want to be a little more careful about scanner calibration, a scanner calibration target is an inexpensive way to make sure that your colour capture is spot-on. The supplier I linked to makes targets for high-end pre-press equipment suppliers, but sells small quantities to individual users at pretty much cost.
posted by scruss at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Epson Perfection is good. I’ve used it on watercolor, which can be a difficult medium to scan. (B/w line drawings, less so.) The most important thing with scanners is to get the right kind of sensor, which the Epson Perfection does have.
Is it possible to work slightly smaller? It’ll make your life easier. No reason you have to work exactly to print size. However, Photoshop has good tools for stitching images together if you have to do multiple scans to get the whole artwork.
Any chance the publisher will do the scans for you (which is their job, in my opinion)? Or, if you’re in the same city, could you scan the work at their offices?
posted by the_blizz at 2:56 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Is it possible to work slightly smaller? It’ll make your life easier. No reason you have to work exactly to print size. However, Photoshop has good tools for stitching images together if you have to do multiple scans to get the whole artwork.
Any chance the publisher will do the scans for you (which is their job, in my opinion)? Or, if you’re in the same city, could you scan the work at their offices?
posted by the_blizz at 2:56 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by zingiberene at 12:44 PM on October 3, 2019