The IRIS Center has two flatbed scanners, Gertie and Oscar. Both are connected to a desktop computer — Gertie is connected to Jane, and Oscar is connected to Eugene. Login on the corresponding computer to use the scanner and turn on the scanner. The on button is located on the front left.

Once you have logged in, you will need a place to save your scans. Create a folder on the desktop or on an external hard drive or flash drive, depending on your project.

Next, place the flat item you are scanning on the flatbed’s glass. Be sure to leave some extra space between the item and the glass’s edge. The program you want to use on the desktop computer for scanning is EPSON Scan, which you can find in the application list. If the scanner hasn’t fully turned on yet, then the program will complain and not open. Just keep trying until it opens.

Once the program is open, this window will appear:

You will never need to change the first two settings.

For documents, you can try setting auto exposure type to “document,” but in many cases this will make the document brighter and reduce its patina to make it more white. Unless the “document” auto exposure is more accurate, stick with “photo” auto exposure.

For image type, always select “24-bit Color” unless you want a smaller size grayscale or monochrome bitmap (black and white) image.

Resolution decides the quality of the image. The higher the number, the higher the quality and detail of the scan, but the scan will also take longer. Decide the balance between speed and quality for your needs. If you want a reasonably high quality image, you do not want a resolution lower than 300.

The remaining settings control more precise adjustments to the scan, and you are better off doing them after doing a preview scan.

Click the preview button. Note that, for some reason, on Jane the software requires you to move the mouse after clicking preview before it will scan at all.

First, make sure the scanner captured the whole item and did not cut anything off. Move the item on the flatbed as needed.

In the preview window draw a rectangle around the edge of the item. This will cause the scanner to only scan the interior of the rectangle, so get it close to the edge of the item without removing any of it. Err on the side of leaving some of the white of the scanner bed. You can do more precise cropping in Photoshop if necessary.

The only basic adjustment you’ll likely make is the level of unsharp mask (off, low, medium, or high) and the preview image will adjust accordingly. Choose the level that results in the most accurate and clear image. In many cases, it will not make any noticeable difference, in this case just leave it off (unchecked).

The other adjustment buttons allow you to make advanced adjustments to the scanned image, which in most cases is not necessary. If you would like to make advanced adjustments to the image, ask the IRIS Technician for assistance.

You are now ready to scan. Click the Scan button, which will open a second menu for file naming and where to save the file. This window will appear:

For location, select Other and then click “Choose…” From here you can select the folder you created at the beginning.

For prefix, if you have a series of items you’re going to scan, write out a prefix to be shared by all of the items. Be sure that the numbers in the box start at 001. Every time you do a new scan, the numbers will increment. If you’re just scanning one item, you can write the name of the file you’d like, and you can rename the file after you scan to remove the number.

Finally, make sure you are saving the image as a TIFF, as this is the archival standard for image scanning. Finally, click the “Ok” button. The scanner will then take a couple of minutes to perform the scan, and once it is complete, the image will be saved in the folder. You can then scan more items as needed.