Color It! Tutorial

The following is a step-by-step tutorial for scanning an image in the Color It! program. Color It! is an imaging editing program for scanning photographs, pictures, drawings, and documents. For more information on image editing, consult Understanding Scanners.

1. Double-click on the hard disk icon to open it.
2. Locate the Color It! folder and double-click it.
3. When the folder opens, double-click on the Color It! 3.0 icon.
4. If this is your first time using the program:

1. Enter your name and organization when prompted to do so.
2. Click "Register."

5. If you are running Virtual Memory, you may see a dialog box discussing image sizes. Click "OK" to continue.
6. The program will now open with an "Untitled" window and a set of "Default Tools."
7. Click the File menu and select Scan/Import. Choose the Mustek scanner.
8. The Scanner Controls and Preview Window will now appear. If you have scanned something in Color It! previously, that image may be in the Preview Window. If this is your first time scanning, the Preview Window will have a large "X" across it.
9. Place what your image in the scanner face down on the glass and close the lid. For this tutorial, use a color image.
10. Click the Prescan button. The scanner will begin moving.
11. When the scanner has finished its Prescan you will have a miniature version of your image in the Preview Window. This is not your final scan! The Preview Window is used for cropping an image and seeing how that affects your scanning parameters.
12. The Scanner Controls, located on the left of the Preview Window, allow you to set your various scanning parameters. They are discussed in greater detail below, but for the purpose of this tutorial, set your Scan Mode to color by clicking on the box and selecting "color." Set your resolution to 100 dpi by clicking the right arrow to move the scroll bar.
13. It is time to crop your image. The Preview Window represents the entire area of the scanner's bed. Your image may only take up part of that area. To keep from scanning the blank space around your image, use the dotted line frame inside the Preview Window known as the crop box.
14. There are three ways to adjust the crop box:

1. Click in the center of the crop box and hold down the mouse button. The arrow will become a closed fist and you will be able to drag the entire box around the Preview Window.
2. Click near the corner of your image and hold down the mouse button. Drag the mouse diagonally across your image to draw the crop box around it.
3. Click on each edge of the crop box. Your mouse will turn from an arrow to a double-ended arrow. Hold down the mouse button and drag the side of the box in and out, up and down.

15. Once you have set the crop box, click the Scan button. The controls and Preview Window will disappear and be replaced by a "Scanning Percent Complete" box.
16. When the scanner is finished, an "Untitled 2" window will appear with your scanned image inside. Congratulations, you've just done a successful scan! You may now print your image, save it or perform other image editing functions available to you in the Color It! program. Consult the Color It! manual for more information on the various program tools.
17. You will repeat the steps covered in this tutorial every time you scan something in Color It! The only things that may vary are the scanning parameters that you set on the Scanner Controls. Below are some guidelines for the various scanning controls:

1. Scan Mode - This is for choosing between the four different modes your scanner can use: Color, Grayscale, Halftone and Line art.

• Color is for color images.
• Gray is for black and white photographs or color images to be reproduced on a black and white printer.
• Halftone is for producing images in a gray dither. This is rarely used.

• Line art is for scanning black and white text or line drawings such as cartoons.

2. Resolution - This is for setting the dots per inch or "DPI" that you will scan your image at. This setting can vary depending on your tastes, but there are some things to keep in mind:

• Most monitors do not display better than 100 dpi. When scanning things for screen shots or for use on the Internet, your dpi should not be extremely high and should be keep between 100-150 dpi.
• The higher the dpi setting, the more memory space the image will require to be created in your computer. If the image file becomes larger than your maximum free memory, you will not be able to scan the image.
• When scanning to make a printed copy, your dpi setting does not have to match your printer's maximum dpi. For most DeskJet or inkjet printers, you can scan at one-third the printer's maximum resolution. You can match the dpi of a laser printer, if you have the memory available to do so.

3. Unit - This sets the unit of measurement you want your image size information to be displayed in. This can be set to inches, pixels, centimeters or millimeters.
4. Size Information - The area you selected with the crop box determines the width and height of your scanned image. The size refers to the file and memory size the image will require. Size is listed in kilobytes or KB with everything over the thousands place representing megabytes. (i.e. A scan with a size of 1076 KB is 1.076 MB or megabytes.) You must make sure your file size is less than your available memory. Adjusting your dpi and crop box will alter the file size.