just a few comments to add:

the old newspapers were 72dpi. Magazines around 300 dpi for the  
better ones.

How you scan them will depend on how you want to use the scans.

75dpi is ok for small things, home use  and web sites, but if you're  
going to reprint or project you may well want more.
If you're thinking you may eventually use in a book, color scans,  
even of black and white newspaper, are frequently much nicer.
Again, it just depends on how you're going to use, because the better  
scans are also much bigger.

Descreen can help soften the old dot pattern. if you're getting a  
moire pattern (weird wavy lines caused in a photo scan by the two dot  
patterns crossing) try turning your original a little in the scan bed  
and rescanning. Sometimes that helps.

Jessica



On Nov 5, 2007, at 1:53 PM, Randy Cabell wrote:

> Interesting.  My wife is going through old newspaper clippings  
> about her parents, ca. 1940-1980.  She is scanning everything at  
> 300 dpi, gray scale. Most of the clippings have photographs, which  
> are the old "half tone" composed of dots which have fixed loctions  
> but vary in density to simulate gray scale.  I think they re at  
> about 72 dpi.  She has gotten pretty good about processing those  
> photos through the "Smooth" in the EFFECTS Filter, at the lowest  
> setting, which does a surprisingly good job of producing a good photo.
>
> I did a couple of color photos from a 2001 newspaper clipping this  
> morning, and did more or less the same thing except using color.   
> In both cases, the resulting documents will go to PDF.
>
> Randy Cabell
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Walter Waddell"  
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 9:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Scanning docuements 11051326Z07
>
>
>> When working with newsprint, I use the lowest DPI (dots per inch)  
>> available on my
>> scanner -- 75 DPI. I have an option that allows me to switch to  
>> "descreen". This
>> combination provides a decent scan.
>>
>> See: http://www.scantips.com/
>>
>> Regards, Ray
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harris Kern"  
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 8:52 AM
>> Subject: Scanning docuements
>>
>>
>> Is there any particular method, process, or resolution that is  
>> recommended for scanning
>> old paper documents?
>>
>> Harris Kern
>>
>>
>> -- 
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