In an earlier post I covered how to scan in a signature.  In today’s post I am looking at the scanner operation generally.  These notes are based on an HP scanjet 2400, which provides a fairly typical experience of scanning.

Let’s say you want to scan in a signed form and email it to someone.  This is what you do:

Place the letter face down on the scanner.  Look for markings around the edge of the glass to see how to place the document.  It works in a similar way to a photocopier in that you find the corner you need to align.

Close the scanner lid and press the scan button on the scanner (on the front in this model).

The Scanner and Camera Wizard appears and you should click on Next in the first window.

In the next window you can select your preferences.  Choose the picture type (colour, grayscale etc), 

The custom settings allow you to change the brightness and contrast of the image.  You can also change the resolution. Here is a guide to how much resolution you should have:

72:  for emailing where the file is unlikely to be printed out.
150: for images that will probably be printed, on most low to medium quality printers.
300:  for images that need to be printed out at high quality.

I would opt for 150 usually as a standard setting.

You can click on preview to get an impression of what the scan will look like.  It may take some time to scan depending on how high your resolution is.

When you are ready, click on Next.

In the next window you can give the file a name, choose the file type, and set it’s location (you may need to keep a note of where you are saving it so you can find it later):

File types:

BMP
JPEG
TIFF
PNG

This is a link to a good, and extensive summary of image file types.

I would stick with JPEG if you have not been given instructions to use another one.  This gives the best possible image quality with a compressed file size. 

The next window is the progress window.

You are then given a completion window where you are asked what you want to do next, and I generally choose Nothing!

Click on Next and then Finish.  Your scan is done.  In the next post I will show you how to email a scan.

I do large mailouts and I would like to print them out with the signature in place, instead of asking the person sign each letter, or photocopy the signed letter.  How do I do this?

This is a great idea, and a brilliant time saver for both you and the person signing the letter.  It is really very simple if you have the right equipment.

Basically just get the person to do their usual signature on a blank piece of paper.  Use a scanner to scan it in.  If you don't have  one in your office see if the IT department has one.   Failing that, a local print/photocopy company might be able to do it for you - it might be worth buying a scanner in this case as they are pretty cheap. Here is a selection available from Amazon (I have used both these and found they were up to the job):

I have found I get a better quality result if I ask the person to sign very large in thick pen on A4 paper, scan it, and then reduce the size down to their normal signature size.  These gets rid of any imperfections in the image.  Whichever way you do it, you can then use an image editing  programme to crop the white space away from the edge and re-size if necessary.  Your scanner may well come with some software to help you do this, and Microsoft Photo Editor comes with Office.  You could also download a free application such as Google's Picassa image editing programme.

Once the image looks good and is the right size and shape you can save it as an image file (e.g. a jpeg, tiff or gif).  Back to your letter, assuming it is in Word, go to Insert-Picture, find the file and insert it into the letter.  You can of course add a signature to a template so that it opens already signed!!  Not all managers will be happy about that, so best to check.  They might still want to review the letter.  

I wouldn't be tempted to use the boss's signature to give yourself a pay rise.  Chances are you wouldn't last too long in the job.  A good PA secretary can be trusted with such valuable items as someone's signature (and where the chocolate Hobnobs are kept!).