"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

General Computers

Increase Scanner Results with Black

Have you ever had problems with scanning thin paper or irregular-sized pictures? Thin paper is hard to scan as the light from the scanner can go through the paper, creating a useless scan. Irregular-sized pictures are hard to scan as it is nearly impossible to get the dimension settings correctly configured with most scanner software. You usually end up scanning part of the glass, resulting in off-white colors that can take time to remove. One suggested trick is to place a piece of black construction paper, or a black folder, behind the scanned image. This way, due to the light absorption, thin paper usually scans better. For irregular sized images, instead of getting the glass color around the image, you just get the solid color black, which is much easier to remove.

Return to the General Computers page.

Print this tip


Get the Newsletter

Thanks For Sharing!



Newest Tips:

Microsoft Word 2010
Make Sure Others Can See Your Fonts Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
Animations or Video Displaying Poorly? Google Chrome
[MODIFIED] Report a Malfunctioning Web Page, Crash, or Other Issue Google Gmail
Show Unread Message Count as an Icon

Follow Us!

About MalekTips and the Author

The MalekTips website was created in 1998 by Andrew Malek of Envision Programming. The page's goal is to freely disperse computer-related tips, hints, and informative articles. Tips are organized to be easy to find, and are presented clearly, in easy-to-understand language. MalekTips also provides information and links to public-domain, open source, freeware, shareware, and commercial software available for download. < more >