Setting Scanning Parameters

Recognition quality depends greatly on the quality of the scanned image. The image quality may be improved by altering the main scanning parameters: resolution, scan mode, and brightness.

The main scanning parameters are:

• Resolution - use 300 dpi resolution for regular texts (font size 10pts or greater) and 400-600 dpi resolution for texts set in smaller font sizes (9pts or less).
• Scan mode - gray. 
  Scanning in grayscale mode is best for recognition purposes. If you scan your images in grayscale, brightness is adjusted automatically.
• Scan mode - black and white.
  Scanning in black and white enables the system to scan at a higher speed, but at the same time some character information is lost. This may have an adverse effect on recognition quality in the case of documents of medium-to-low print quality.
• Scan mode - color.
  If you scan color documents that contain pictures, colored text, or colored backgrounds, you may wish to retain the original colors in your electronic document. Use the color scan mode in this case. Otherwise use gray scan mode.
• Brightness - - a medium brightness value of around 50% should suffice for most cases.
  Some documents scanned in black and white mode may require additional brightness tuning.

Note: Scanning at 400-600 dpi resolution (instead of the default 300 dpi) or scanning in grayscale or color (instead of black & white) mode is more time consuming. In the case of certain scanner models, 600 dpi resolution scanning can take up to four times longer than 300 dpi resolution scanning.

To set scanning parameters:

• If you wish to scan your images using the FineReader TWAIN interface, select the Scanner settings item in the Tools menu. The Scanner settings dialog will then open. Select the scanning options of your choice in the dialog.
• If you wish to scan your images using the TWAIN-Source interface, your scanner's TWAIN dialog will open automatically when you click the 1-Scan button. Set the scanning parameters in the dialogue. Scanning options may have different names depending on the scanner model used. For example, for brightness the word "threshold", a "sun" symbol or a black-and-white circle may be used. The options available will be described in full in your scanner documentation.