What Resolution to Use for Scanning Artworks

Should you scan at 300 DPI, 600 or 4,800 DPI? Find out in this review.
Scanner used is the Canon LiDE 400:
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[@teohyc]

Check out more art videos at kzbin.info/aero/PLucoL_7WoAgDD3iul6Me6RIruU_UyhKDO

[@graphistogram]

I just bought the same scanner as yours and wanted to find a full test with the different qualities , so thank you so much, and by the way I discovered your channel and saw we have a lot of common interests so cheers from an artist to another :)

[@aegil-]

Thank you so much for your amazing blog, KZbin channel, and the plethora of advice you share with us! This is truly appreciated and I wish you all the best.

[@teohyc]

Thanks 😁

[@isabellecade277]

Thank you for this helpful video Teoh ! 👍🏻

[@Waynimations]

This is something I’ve always had trouble with

[@TheScreamingFrog916]

The Epson Perfection V370, is a good scanner for watercolor and other artwork, because it uses a CCD optical sensor to scan the paper. This is good because it has a deeper field of focus, that picks up the texture in paper better. Paper with a little warping stays in focus better too.

[@LaurenInesRuiz]

Yes, this was EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you so, so much for the work you put into this and for your clear, thorough explanations!

[@higherground711]

Afraid I overlooked this video. Glad I double checked. This will be very useful for preserving my sketches. 👍 😄 Thanks Teoh.

[@Alienbacilusua]

Thank you for such an in-depth review! ❤

[@geckonia]

I want a poster of that! Excellent presentation Teoh. 👍🏼

[@snoozleblob]

Wow, very informative and helpful. Thanks, Teoh!

[@teohyc]

Welcome :-)

[@AlexYorim]

I've been planning to save money for a scanner, so I'm looking to scan at a higher resolution than usual for future use. Thanks for the tip.

[@ivmess]

Very helpful information! Thank you!

[@markn9839]

I just discovered your channel and I love your work fam, keep up the good job

[@teohyc]

Thanks 😁

[@desleykakoulidisgallaway3382]

I like your work Teoh and I'm sorry people have stolen your work...it's the world we live in unfortunately. I've also had work stolen. Your video is great but over my head - I do get some of it but I'll need to educate myself a lot more to be able to apply this excellent information. Many thanks

[@z4k4z]

I don't know how quickly printer technology is advancing, but I think I'd even consider 1200 dpi scans, especially when archiving artwork and photos. It's not just the trouble to re-scan. There's also the question of deterioration or loss of the original :)

[@teohyc]

That's true. Some paper can turn yellow even if the paper is so called acid free.

[@vanxssa.0270]

Very helpfull! Thanks Theo!

[@teohyc]

Thanks :-)

[@fucheree]

Tysm, this was so helpful! :)

[@jessicalouise2197]

Very informative thank you

[@huisjeboompjeblogje7855]

Thank you very much, this is so helpful!! I am planning to scan my own artwork (A3 sized) and now I know better how to do this! And now I have to look for a A3 scanner, I have a MacBook Pro.. can you recommend a A3 scanner that I can use best?

[@randyebastian8186]

Teoh, thank you for this extremely informative video! You answered many of my questions. Considering what you have learned, what dpi would be a best all-around choice for making a vivid art print?

[@teohyc]

I'll go with 600 DPI nowadays.

[@vitaliikhomenko6638]

Toll!!

[@ruthwalton3457]

Thank you so much i am in the process of planning scanning some of my mum's work. I never thought of a book but this is such a good idea. A friend of mine shows her work on line occassionally but always puts her signature right through it and a copyright . Some idiot copied and printed it like that so she took them to court and won 😂 also she always states work is copyright and will prosecute which is ok if it in a country that recognises that 😢 So glad you did this video for us thank you 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Teoh, I have the Canon Lide 400 but it only gives me 1200 dpi max not 4800 :((

[@My_Two_Cents]

Question: The white cardboard cover on inside of top lid stays on?

[@oobroono4407]

can you try Huawei Matebook x 2019?It's so great for scan at 4,800 DPI I think:) and can touch too:)

[@Janeindia]

Thank you. You are a great teacher. Very clear. I'll have to watch again but have already the whole business of scanning has been demystified. I will definitely watch your other videos. Do you recommend a larger scanner? Many of my pieces are A3 A2 and A1.

[@teohyc]

Unfortunately, high quality A3 art scanners (from Epson) are very expensive. If you create art often, and scan often, those large scanners may still be worth the money. But otherwise, with really large pieces of work, maybe using a camera to photograph may be easier, and cheaper.

[@Janeindia]

thank you so much for replying so quickly. I thought you might say that. I'm not that great with a camera and lights, but will have to learn. @@teohyc

[@frb72artist]

This video is gold !!!!! Thanks for sharing your experience ! I have a question for you: if you would need to capture a big painting, something on canvas or a very big drawing ( 150 cm x 100 cm ) what kind of camera would you use ? My old Nikon is broken and I need a new one, but I cannot pay the price of digital reflex . And , probably, it wouldn't be necessary ! Greetings from Rome :)

[@teohyc]

Any compact camera will have better image quality than phone camera. BUT try phone camera first. More important than the camera is actually lighting. Make sure light is bright and even.

[@frb72artist]

@@teohyc Grazie mille :)

[@kennyhoste4741]

I bought a Canoscan LiDE 300 to be able to scan at very high quality. BUT the ScanGear app it is accompanied by doesn't allow this! It either restricts the data size, and I can't seem to adjust max data size, or it freaks out about high resolutions/pixels. If I can't choose my own data size, and end up not being able to use the advertised max dpi, I could've bought a cheaper scanner. Does anyone know how to scan up to 2400dpi on Windows? Either some technical fix to ScanGear's max data size, or alternative free software.

[@evergreensongs925]

Pleas make lide 400 canoscan 4800 dpi scan window pleas help me

[@mellowbenji]

hey . why does my DPI stops at 600?? i have the lide 400

[@garrettmineo]

Great video, do you think the colors are true to the originals? if not, how do you cor rect them?

[@teohyc]

First step to getting accurate colour is to calibrate your monitor with a colour calibrator. The scanner should give you a colour accurate scan unless it's faulty. If see that your scan is not true to the colour you see in real life, you have to edit it with software, e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity Photo.

[@teohyc]

If the scan is good, you don't really need much edits. It's mostly to rotate the scan, crop away the unwanted bits. If you don't want the paper texture, you adjust the Levels to remove that. Those are the three edits I do with my scans.

[@barrydavis3630]

the best way check the colours of your scan is to put a colour chart at the side or bottom of your picture, that way you have a referance to the correct colours when you compare it to the original @Yasmine S.

[@ODINCODES]

​@@teohyc Recently I bought Lide 400 for watercolor scans on mac, but all scans needs to have more reds and yellows in them. since macbook monitor shouldn't be uncalibrate, I am afraid the scanner package dropped during shipping and that happened. what do you think?

[@teohyc]

@@ODINCODES When unedited, the scan should not look unnatural. So if the colours appear very different compared to the original, it could be hardware issue.

[@dena780]

This is helpful, thank you! Towards the end of the video, you mentioned about scanning higher res, that way you can always re-size/re-format smaller if need be. So, if I don't want to scan 4 different size scans, like 150, 300, 600, 1200 dpi, (as it takes up a lot of room on my computer and time), I could just scan one, at say, 1200 dpi and then use that file to re-size according to what I need--whether using the image for website or print on demand, etc.? Thank you:)

[@teohyc]

Nowadays I scan at 600 DPI which I think has enough resolution to create high res desktop wallpaper, and also more than good enough for high res prints. 1200 DPI is gonna take up a lot of storage space. But of course which DPI to use really comes down to what you want to do with the art later on.

[@dena780]

@@teohyc thank you!

[@ihabahmed1132]

i have a canon lide 300 why is the max dpi i can get is 600 dpi ?

[@oobroono4407]

can you try new Huawei Matebook E 2019 with pen?please please please:)so great:)

[@stighenningjohansen]

I have a problem with this. I would like to scan at the highest OPTICAL resuloution the scanner can handle, then up/downscale to the intended output. My scanner says 2400dpi but is this true?

[@teohyc]

It is true if you look at the resolution of the file

[@TheRealKarmaquarius]

do you have a review for the lide 300?

[@teohyc]

I have a lide 400 review. Scan quality is similar

[@gloriadelarosa6422]

If I scan at 1200 pixels per inch or highest resolution for Printing will that give me the best quality and resolution print?

[@teohyc]

1200 DPI is good for most purposes

[@magdalenawerneryt]

This was extremely helpful, thank you so much! I noticed that you use Canon LIDE 400 in this video, but in another one I saw you comparing LIDE 220 to Epson V39. Which one is your preferred scanner?

[@teohyc]

I prefer Canon but both have same scan quality

[@eileengoldenberg270]

Isn’t the dpi resolution not pixels..

[@teohyc]

DPI is for scanning and print. PPI and pixels are for digital.

[@MatthewFrost]

when i scan in 4800 it just produces a blank image?

[@teohyc]

Not sure what happened. Maybe not enough RAM.

[@oobroono4407]

can you try Huawei m6 with pen .when it coming:)?

[@teohyc]

When it comes out in the future

[@oobroono4407]

maybe March or April I think.@@teohyc

[@franciscodennis2693]

Which resolution recommend to make prints A3+?

[@teohyc]

Scanning at 600dpi will be very safe

[@franciscodennis2693]

Teoh Yi Chie thank you, its Canon Canoscan 400 a good choice for oil paintings?

[@teohyc]

@@franciscodennis2693 For oil, I recommend using a camera instead. Oil may stick to the glass, and there are textures which will be blur when scanned. Anything not in contact with the glass will be blur.

[@timothy790110]

I can see that the scanner isnt picking up the subtleties in the sky

[@teohyc]

The scanner can capture the lighter areas. It's just that when I edit the scan, I'm too lazy to create another layer that has the highlights preserved

[@MrMediatoday]

I bought Canon LD 400 it’s worth flatbed scanner I ever had.... even I couldn’t make it work, I check online I find out many people have the same issue... I return it, Please next time read the other people review before you, recommend....Thx.

[@mrtheluckybucket]

Isnt a review supposed to be based on your *own* experience with the product?

[@pepperjk]

I would disagree, for sharing online low resolution should not be preferred. I really hate it when I see art online and when I look at it in "full size"/"fullscreen" mode it gets pixelated and barely recognizable. I understand your point of copyright infringement, but if you release the image under a license that does not give the viewer the right to redistribute and he does so anyway., then you might sue them. So why punish those who just want to look at it? Also how is a resolution of 1000 pixels in width considered high resolution? I mean if the height is 720+ pixels then one could argue it's "HD", but I thought especially from the perspective of an artists this is still way to small. In a time where 1440p and 4K displays get more common every day, everything under 300dpi is too small in my opinion. Depending on your use case I suggest either 300 or 600 on a web page, since those are file sizes which can be handled by a browser. For full size download distribution, if you choose to provide it, higher resolutions are always better. I'm not an artist though.

[@teohyc]

High and low resolution is relative to what you want to do with it. Rather than go through the hassle of suing people, it might be better to just not put out such high resolution files online. How much do you think it cost to hire a lawyer just to draft a warning letter? When we (artist and photographers) share images online, it's just to let people view the images, not for them to download and reproduce. Hence there's no need to share such high resolution files. 300px wide is too small. My website uses 500px wide column and that feels a bit small for me as well. Going forward, I think 640px - 800px wide is a good enough size. I share larger images at 990px. If there are people who share my images online without permission, I would just file a DMCA takedown with the webhost or with Google. It's more effective and cheaper than going through a lawyer. Every minute spent dealing with this sort of stuff is every minute we can't make art. Whenever I share files only, my mind will automatically convert 500px to 2.5inches print size, or 600px to 3 inch print size if the person is reproducing a 200 DPI print.

[@yellowcrescent]

@Yasmine S. Disabling right-click on a page is only an annoyance and only prevents very casual saving (and also prevents legitimate use). If the image can be accessed in your browser for viewing, then users already have access to it. For example, you can Shift+Right-Click in Chrome to bypass all Javascript hooks and still save the image, or use the Inspector to find the URL and download it directly. As Teoh mentioned, limiting the resolution to 200 dpi or less, and also explicitly stating the license can be more helpful. For example, if you find somebody has posted an image on their website without your permission and without attribution, you can first reach out and ask them to remove it (many people do this by accident). If that does not work, filing a DMCA complaint with the hosting provider usually does the trick (as somebody who used to be a sysadmin at a hosting company, we received these all the time and would notify customers of these, and suspend their accounts if they did not comply with approx 72 hours). Granted, this does not work in all countries/hosting providers, as DMCA is a USA thing. But providers in other countries will usually still forward the notice to the customer.

[@pepperjk]

​@@teohyc I meant 300 to 600 dpi. Sorry must have slipped my mind to add the unit. I get the cost and time effort argument. But as you said yourself DMCA take down and other report options online help you with that. Also I would not say that's an effective solution either in all cases. On the other hand you can get legal protection insurance for these cases. I'm not saying to give your art away. How you distribute your art is your decision. However I would argue that if you want to show your art online, make sure not to sell it short with low resolution uploads.