8 Attachment(s)
Digital camera + Xara = Document scanner
When away from my scanner at home, I figured that a compact camera plus Xara makes up a good tool to create document scans to PDF. While quality is lower than with a typical flatbed scanner, it is higher than with those smartphone scan apps. Furthermore, for better or worse, Xara gives more control.
- Photograph your documents.
- Create a new document with the physical dimensions of the scan.
Attachment 104090 - Enable Snap to Objects, and add guides, to make the page border always visible.
Attachment 104091 - Import bitmap in original resolution.
Attachment 104092 - Orient and position the bitmap.
Attachment 104093 - If necessary, adjust perspective distortion with the Mould tool. Afterwards, Convert to Editable Shapes and ungroup.
- Switch to the photo tool. Crop the bitmap.
Attachment 104097 - Adjust brightness levels.
Attachment 104094 - Hide guides, then use the Eraser tool to remove unwanted dark spots.
Attachment 104095 - Export to PDF. Given the quality and resolution of typical compact cameras, the High quality setting at 300dpi should be more than enough.
Attachment 104096
Suggestions for shooting:
- Set image quality to the highest level, but not to raw - unless you want to do additional steps.
- Zoom in, to avoid visible lens distortion and to avoid uneven brightness when using a flash.
- Adjust exposure so that white pages get rendered white.
- If scanning b/w documents, switch the camera to b/w mode. Depending on how the camera processes raw data to JPEG, this may result in higher sharpness than when doing the conversion from a color JPEG later.
Re: Digital camera + Xara = Document scanner
Re: Digital camera + Xara = Document scanner
Quote:
Originally Posted by
feklee
6. If necessary, adjust perspective distortion with the Mould tool. Afterwards, Convert to Editable Shapes and ungroup.
Correction:
6. If necessary, adjust perspective distortion with the Mould tool. Afterwards, Create Bitmap Copy.
Background: Converting molded bitmaps to editable shapes is not supported by Designer Pro X10.
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Digital camera + Xara = Document scanner
I just learned that Xara displays the resolution of the bitmap in the page in the status bar:
Attachment 104607
This information can be used to estimate the right resolution when creating bitmap copies or when exporting. With mold applied, the resolution is not displayed. To get to the unmolded image, right click and select Open mould.
What I forgot to mention earlier: To create a bitmap copy in place, shift click on Create.
