(BDM) Scanning Settings and Standards 1
This support guide is intended for use by the BDM Functional Specialists in the various business offices using. The guide provides general details on common scanning settings for WebXtender and institutional scanning standards. 2
Table of Contents 1. Scanning Settings 1.1 Scanner Settings in WebXtender 4 1.2 Scanner Settings Outside of WebXtender 5 1.3 Scanner Drivers 5 1.4 Common Scanner Settings 5 2. Scanning Standards 2.1 Institutional Default Standard 7 2.2 Impacts of the Scanning Standard 7 3
1. Scanning Settings 1.1 Scanner Settings in WebXtender When a user is scanning documents in WebXtender the properties of the attached scanner are made available to WebXtender through the scanner s drivers. The user can open the scanner properties to make setting changes for the scan they are about to carry out. Note: Clicking the highlighted button in the scan toolbar will open the scanner properties The scan toolbar is available/enabled to users with the privilege to scan The scanner settings displayed are based on the scanner, not WebXtender. There can be slight differences in setting names, options and the settings window from scanner to scanner 4
1.2 Scanner Settings Outside of WebXtender A scanner that has been attached to a PC that is being used for WebXtender purposes can also be configured and set up through its own administrative tools. Scanners come with software that will be installed at the time of attaching the scanner to the PC. This software typically contains the scanner drives, admin tools and a scanning program. Each scanner is different therefore it is not possible to address them all in this document. However, changes made to settings directly on the scanner may carry forward to WebXtender when the scan is done using WebXtender. Users need to be mindful of this if they are using the scanner in a standalone manner to do scanning outside of WebXtender. 1.3 Scanner Drivers Scanner drivers are programs that allow a scanner to communicate with and function with a computer. Today s scanners will typically come with both TWAIN and ISIS drivers. EMC recommends that scanners being used with WebXtender for scanning make use of the ISIS drivers. Therefore, when purchasing any scanner, be sure to purchase one that is ISIS driver compliant. When installing the scanner be sure to install the ISIS drivers for that scanner. 1.4 Common Scanner Settings The following are some of the more common settings that can be used to improve clarity and scanning efficiency. The setting name may vary slightly from scanner to scanner and the values available for that setting may differ. Image Type this is the setting that indicates whether the scan will be in black & white, color or some variation thereof. Resolution this setting allows you to select the DPI or dots per inch that the scan will use when generating the image. The higher the DPI the higher clarity and detail in the scanned image. Image Rotation/Orientation this setting when turned on will ensure that pages in the scan will be rotated to be properly oriented in an upright position. If you have one page upside down this setting will rotate it when scanning. 5
Cropping this setting crops the image size automatically to the chosen paper size Deskew this setting will make sure that documents already in the upright position are straightened and aligned. Sometimes a document will go through the scanner slightly unaligned or skewed. With this setting the scanner will align the image when scanning the document. Blank Page Removal this setting instructs the scanner to ignore all blank pages in a batch of documents. Noise Removal this setting will set the scanner to remove and clean up extra dots, or noise, that impact the clarity of the document. Border Removal this setting will instruct the scanner to remove any borders that may get created around the edge of the scanner image when that image is slightly smaller than the chosen paper size. 6
2. Scanning Standards 2.1 Institutional Default Standard The institutional standard for scanning documents into BDM at Carleton University is: Image Type Black & White Resolution 300 DPI This standard has been tested to confirm the following: 300 DPI provides adequate image clarity in the vast majority of document cases Black & White generates small file sizes, thus reducing unnecessary and costly space usage Note: Small adjustments (i.e. increases) in DPI can be used to ensure greater clarity and detail when scanning to B/W Thorough testing should be carried out with this standard to determine its effectiveness before considering any other standard for scanning (i.e. color) 2.2 Impacts of the Scanning Standard It is very important that all users of BDM understand the full impacts that a scanning standard can have on performance, efficiency and costs. In the vast majority of cases using any image type other than B/W will cause increases in the scanned document size. In many of those cases the increases can be significant. A document scanned at B/W that produces a 100Kb result can produce a 1Mb result when scanner at color Increases in DPI result in increases in scanned document size. These increases, unless very large, do not match the increases we see when changing from B/W to some color based image type Scanned documents using a standard other than our default standard can result in large files on the storage network. Large files take longer to load in WebXtender for viewing. Using a standard that generates high volumes of large scanned document files will result in a DM system that is slower to use and takes longer to render documents The cost for storage space increases when file sizes increase. A file that is 6x larger than it needs to be because it was scanned in color now costs 6x more to store it. 7
Not only is their cost associated with the storage of scanned files on the SAN but there is cost associated with backing up that file. All files on the SAN get backed up and that back up requires space. If a 4Mb file on the SAN is backed up then it requires 4MB of space in the back up area as well. In addition, there are multiple backups. So a color scanned document that is 4Mb actually will consume upwards of 12Mb of space. 8