What is the best file format for scanning text into Photoshop?

[andyw]

Hi All,

I am scanning several pages of text (text only) then bringing the text into Photoshop, reducing the size of the scanned text in Photoshop in order to create a final layout and them print. I am aware that scanned text will not give me the best quality possible.

All the text is black in color and all the text background is white.

Can anyone tell me the best file format (JPG. GIF etc…) to scan these texts for best print quality result using Photoshop? Besides file format, any other suggestions on how to improve the scanned text will be very welcome!

Thanks,
Andy

[gwpriester]

TIFF at 300dpi. JPEG is not good for text, and GIF is a 256 color web bitmap format.

[Fred C]

Andy,

Try an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program. Bing or Google 'Free OCR". There are several online services. Basically it can read a 'picture' of text and convert it to editible characters for MS Word type pgms.

[andyw]

Hi Fred C and gwpriester,

Under normal circunstances I would try using OCR as you suggested (never used before but heard of it), but I am scanning some old documents and the original old "defects" on the document (background and text) are suppose to show up on the final print. I need to keep the final print as original as possible to the original document, the only difference just a bit more readable. Also I will need to reduce the size of the originbal documets to fit in my Photoshop layout.

I think I will try to scan as a TIFF at 300 dpi as gwpriester suggested and see how it goes.

Let me know if you have any other suggestion now that you have a bit more information about my project.

Thanks very much Fred C and gwpriester!
Andy

[RTW1]

A way I bring back the punch to text is to duplicate the text layer then with Levels bring the levels control points together to greatly increase contrast and restore white, then change that layer blend mode to multiply, now what you have is the text looking as strong as the file can stand.

[gwpriester]

For anybody who goes the OCR (optical character recognition) be aware that unless you are using a very excellent (and expensive) OCR product, you will have to do some scrupulous editing to make sure there are no typos or misspelled words.

[pollostar]

JPEG and GIF both are good.

[michael_jeff]

JPEG and GIF both are good.

I want to join - the same idea.

[pauland]

Andy, in case you're tempted - don't use jpeg for this project, it introduces artifacts and GIF isn't suited either.

TIFF is great and PNG.

If you are going to manipulate the images to try and improve clarity, etc, you may wish to scan at a higher resolution than 300DPI, then manipulate that then scale back down to 300DPI - really depends on whether you intend to manipulate the images or not.

[Albacore]

The only way to get crisp text is to use OCR & then spend a small amount of time in a text editor to check text and any other artifacts that have been produced. I don't normally disagree with Gary but in this case I do about the level of quality of the free OCR's or the one supplied with our printer.