Flatbed Scanning Tips

A simple lack of knowledge has been responsible for so many ugly, embarrassing scans out there, but the tips below should help anyone make better scans. It's easy to get rid of ugly patterns and images showing through from the other side of the page once you know how.

Ghost Busting

Have you ever scanned in something from a book, magazine, or newspaper and had the other side of the page show through? To fix that ugly problem, slide a piece of black construction paper behind the page and it will usually make the ghost image disappear like magic.

To be absolutely clear, you don't have to cut anything or use tape. Just slide a piece of black construction paper behind the page you want to scan. It's nondestructive, very easy to do, and it should give you a nice clean scan.

Pulverize Pesky Patterns

Another thing some people get are ugly patterns throughout their images. That's pretty easy to fix too. Just use the built-in Descreen filter that comes with your scanner software. If you don't have that filter, scanning the image at a high resolution such as 600 or 900 dpi, then resizing the image with your favorite image editor should get rid of the pattern.

I use a Descreen filter and scan at a high resolution, then resize to make sure my images are as perfect as possible.

Descreen to remove Moiré Interference