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Use a scanner as a photocopier.

Kai Chandler shows you how.

Essential ingredients

Have you ever needed to run off the odd photocopy but don’t have a copier within easy reach?

The good news is that if you have a scanner, graphics package and a PC then you already have the essential ingredients.  OK, it may not be the fastest copy ever but if it gets you out of a hole then it’s worth trying.

Here’s what you need:

• One scanner – just about any scanner will do.

• One graphics package – we’ll use Paint Shop Pro v. 7 in this example

• One printer – this has to be able to print graphics – any modern printer should be fine.

• One PC.

So how’s it done?

First, scan your document

Not surprisingly, the first step is to scan your document to create an image on the PC. There are almost as many scanning packages as there are models of scanner but most will have an option for ‘Black and White photo’ or similar. This is the one to go for, unless you want a colour photocopy in which case ‘Colour photo’ should do the trick.

When scanning, go for a reasonably high resolution to ensure reasonable quality. Too high, however, and your PC will be chuntering along all day to process the image files. I find a resolution of 200 dpi to be quite adequate, resulting in an image file of 3.8 MB but you can experiment to find what works well on your system.  Take a note of where you save the image file.

Then load into a graphics package

You’ll probably need to load the image into a graphics package to print it although some scanners may come complete with software that will let you print directly, I’m assuming that you need a separate package. One of the most popular shareware graphics tools is JASC Software’s Paint Shop Pro. Any version will be able to do the job, but the latest version is v.7. You can download an evaluation copy of Paint Shop Pro from www.jasc.com or find it on most magazine cover cd-roms.

Sharpen the image?

You could print the page directly but it may be worth taking a moment to sharpen the image for the best output. Here’s how to do it:

Select Effects | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask to sharpen the image (or press ALT-T, S, U)

There are three parameters you can change here:

• Radius  - the number of pixels around an edge that are affected. Set to 20

• Strength - controls the intensity of the contrast. Set to 300

• Clipping - determines the contrast two pixels must have before they are sharpened. Set to 10.

Feel free to experiment with these values. You can always undo the change if you don’t like it.

Note that if the sharpen menu can not be selected because it is greyed out, you’ll need to increase the colour depth. To do this, select Colours, Increase Colour Depth, 16 Million Colours - 24 bit (or press ALT-C, I, 6.) Sharpen only works on greyscale or 24 bit colour images.

And send to the printer.

It’s time to print your image.

Select File | Page setup (or ALT-F, U, F)

Select Fit to Page to ensure that it’s ticked (otherwise your image will be printed very small)

Select Paper size to A4, Orientation to Portrait and Print Output to Colour or Greyscale as appropriate.

Select OK when done

Select File | Print Preview to preview the print (optional)

Select File | Print to send to the printer.

A Freeware alternative

If this all seems a bit long winded then you’ll be pleased to know there’s a freeware application called ‘Photocopier’ from Nico Cuppen Software that’ll do the same job much more elegantly. Download from Top Software

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