Hoping somebody can help me with a scanning issue

[Leafsman]

Hi everyone,

I'm putting this in the hockey card forum because this involves scanning a hockey card.

I got a BGS 9.5 Nathan Mackinnon FWA in the mail on Friday and I want to scan it and put it in my Flickr album. My financial situation does not allow me to have an iPhone, camera, or other such thing to take photos of the cards I have. I do have a Canon MG3000 series printer/scanner/copier though. My scanner will scan cards in regular toploaders just fine, but if I put thicker cases like one-touches, graded cards, or even thick cards in toploaders in to scan (like a limited logos card for example), it doesn't work so well.

With regular cards, it will scan just the card. With thicker cases, it tends to scan the whole surface of the scanning area (I think this is because the cover of the scanner is lifted a little higher if the card is thick) and I have to try to crop it to the size of the card. This is seemingly impossible though, because regular cards are scanned as jpeg files, which I can edit before saving the scan to a given place, while thicker cards end up as .pdf files and there doesn't seem to be any way to edit them. People call me a dinosaur because I have to rely on such things as a scanner for this, but that's my situation.

Canon's FAQ area only covered general topics and not my specific issue so I contacted Canon via online chat who put me in touch with "tech support" who called me but could not speak English very well. He tried to get me to go to a site that, while talking with him, I discovered was a scam site (I think it was called "helpme.net" or something). Cross that suggestion off your list.

Can any SCF members help at all? Or do you know someone who can?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Tony

[ac4760]

Don't know if this will help but I have an Epson XP-810 that I use to scan. Before I scan, I go to the preview option and there is an icon that says, "automatically locate the image". This places a dotted line around the image and allows me to move the dotted lines much like a cropping tool to only scan what I want. After I have isolated the image, then I hit scan.

[creasecollector]

If it scans/saves as a PDF, can't you Export that file as a JPG? Then you'll be able to edit it the way you like.

Edit: Because Screenshots. (You can click and enlarge these Images).

Original PDF file.
Example 1.png

Once you open the image, hit 'file' and 'Export' to start the file conversion process.
Example 2.png

From there, change the Image Format to "JPEG" and hit save.
Example 3.png

Not sure if you have a Mac or PC (above screenshots are from a Macbook), but you should be able to find a way that's similar to this. Or you could always use the internet to convert and save a file in a different format.

Then you can edit those bigger slabbed cards at your choosing. Unless you upgrade your scanner, there have always been quality issues when scanning those big cards, my scanner sucks for that as well. But hey, at least you can edit them and make them look okay-ish to get the job done.

Image wise, the Epson V550's seem like the best way to combat this, as they produce awesome scans even with those slabbed cards. There was a thread about it a while back (click HERE for the link to that thread).

Hope this helps!

[penguinsChief]

Unfortunately the scanner you have is a CIS (Contact Image Scanner), this is the "cheaper" version of scanning. Basically there is not much you can do with, I have tried all the settings in pro mode, and it just is not possible to get a better scan. Now, if you have a digital camera (or cell phone), you should be able to get a decent picture. The key is the lighting and the settings. You have to play with it, but even an old phone will take a good picture in the right light and distance. Good luck with trying different things, I know I love my V550 and will never go back.

Thanks
Thad

[Leafsman]

Unfortunately the scanner you have is a CIS (Contact Image Scanner), this is the "cheaper" version of scanning. Basically there is not much you can do with, I have tried all the settings in pro mode, and it just is not possible to get a better scan. Now, if you have a digital camera (or cell phone), you should be able to get a decent picture. The key is the lighting and the settings. You have to play with it, but even an old phone will take a good picture in the right light and distance. Good luck with trying different things, I know I love my V550 and will never go back.

Thanks
Thad

Hi Thad,

I was waiting for your contribution! Glad to have your thoughts.

I actually got this figured out successfully. Funny enough, my old laptop produced a better image than my new one did from the same printer! Weird!

Thad, I looked at your scans and they are truly high definition! The scans are a little TOO defined, in my opinion. I swear yours clearly picks up the smallest details, to the point where the card is almost transparent. That's awesome, but not necessary for me. As I pointed out in your thread, I can't afford the high definition stuff.

I am glad you love your printer!