Selecting Epson Scan Settings

Full Auto Mode lets you scan quickly and easily, without selecting any settings or previewing your image. This is the default mode in Epson Scan.

Full Auto Mode is best when you need to scan documents or photos at 100% size and you do not need to preview the images before scanning. You can restore faded colors or remove dust marks by clicking the Customize button.

See Using Full Auto Mode for instructions on scanning in this mode.

Home Mode lets you customize some scanning settings and check their effects with a preview image.

Home Mode is best when you want to preview images of photos, film, or slides before scanning them. You can size the image as you scan, adjust the scan area, and adjust many image settings, including color restoration, dust removal, Digital ICE Technology (for color film and slides only), and backlight correction.

See Changing the Scan Mode for instructions on switching to Home Mode.

Professional Mode gives you total control of your scanning settings and lets you check their effects with a preview image.

Professional Mode is best when you want to preview your image and make extensive, detailed corrections to it before scanning. You can sharpen, color correct, and enhance your image with a full array of tools, including color restoration, dust removal, Digital ICE Technology (for color film and slides only), and backlight correction.

See Changing the Scan Mode for instructions on switching to Professional Mode.

Selecting File Save Settings

When you see the File Save Settings window, you need to select the location, name, and format of the scanned image file you want to save.

Do one of the following to open the File Save Settings window.

Full Auto Mode
In the standby window, click the Customize button, then click the File Save Settings button. (If you started Epson Scan from a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements, this button doesn’t appear.)

Home or Professional Mode
Click the File Save Settings button to the right of the Scan button. (If you started Epson Scan from a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements, this button doesn’t appear.)

In the File Save Settings window, specify the file folder in which you want to save your scanned image. Click the Documents or Pictures radio button, or the My Documents or My Pictures radio button.

If you want to select another folder, click Other, then click Browse (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS X) and select the folder. If you want to save your image on the desktop, simply click Other.

Specify a file name prefix with an alphanumeric character string. A 3-digit number is automatically added to the file name, but you can change the Start Number if you like. If you are scanning multiple images at once, each image will receive a different 3-digit number.

With Windows, the following characters cannot be used in the prefix.
\, /, :, ., *, ?, ", , │ With Mac OS X, you cannot use a colon (:) in the prefix.

Select a file format as described in the following table. Depending on the format, the Options button may be available for making detailed settings.

Format (File Extension) Explanation BITMAP (*.BMP) (Windows only)

A standard image file format for Windows. Most Windows programs, including word processing programs, can read images in this format.

A compressed file format in which the compression level can be selected. The JPEG format lets you highly compress image data. However, the higher the compression, the lower the image quality. Any lost image quality data cannot be restored, and the quality deteriorates each time the data is saved. The TIFF format is recommended when modification and retouching are required.

Multi-TIFF (*.TIF)

A TIFF format where multiple pages are saved to the same file. You can also edit the scanned images before saving them. See Epson Scan Help for details. To open Multi-TIFF files, you need a program that supports it.

A document format that can be read on both Windows and Macintosh systems (platform independent). To use PDF documents in Windows, you need Adobe Reader or Acrobat. Multi-page documents can be saved as one PDF file. When you save color or grayscale images in PDF, you can select a compression level. You can also edit the scanned images before they are saved. See Scanning Directly to a PDF File for details.

PICT (*.PCT) (Macintosh only)

A standard image file format for Macintosh. Most Macintosh programs, including word processing programs, can read images in this format.

PRINT Image Matching II JPEG (*.JPG) or TIFF (*.TIF)

A file format that includes PRINT Image Matching II data for enhanced quality and a wider color range. Print Image Matching II compatible printers can then print this data for brilliant, true-to-life results. (PRINT Image Matching data does not affect the way the image displays on the screen.) Available in JPEG or TIFF format.

A file format created for exchanging data between many programs, such as graphic and DTP software. When scanning black & white images, you can specify the compression type.

The checkboxes at the bottom of the window give you these options.

Overwrite any files with the same name
Select this option if you want to reuse the selected file name and location and overwrite previous files with the same names.

Show this dialog box before next scan
Select this option if you want the File Save Settings window to appear automatically before you scan (Home or Professional Mode only). If you deselect it, you must click the File Save Settings button to open the window in Home or Professional Mode.

Open image folder after scanning
Select this option if you want Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder to automatically open the folder where your scanned image is saved when Epson Scan finishes scanning.

Click OK.

In Full Auto Mode, click OK again, then click Scan. In Home or Professional Mode, click Preview, then click Scan.

The scanned image is automatically saved in the file and location you chose.

Using Full Auto Mode

When you start Epson Scan for the first time, it runs in Full Auto Mode and displays the Epson Scan standby window.

If you want to select a custom resolution, restore faded colors, or remove dust marks, click the Customize button. You see the Customize window.

If you started scanning from a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements, the File Save Settings button is not available in the Customize window.

Select your settings and click OK. (For details on selecting settings, click the Help button.) Click the Scan button. Epson Scan starts scanning in Full Auto Mode.

Epson Scan previews your image, detects whether it is a document or photo, and selects the scan settings automatically. After a moment, you see a small preview of your image in the Epson Scan window.

If you need to change any settings, click the Pause button. You will return to the Epson Scan standby window.

If you need to cancel scanning, click the Cancel button when it appears.

Depending on how you started Epson Scan, the program saves the file to the location you specified or opens the scanned image in your scanning program. See Finishing the Scan for details.

If you have a problem scanning your photo or document in Full Auto Mode, try scanning it in Home or Professional Mode instead.

If you want to change the scan mode, see Changing the Scan Mode. If your image is not rotated correctly, see Images Are Rotated Incorrectly.

Changing the Scan Mode

To change the scan mode, click the arrow in the Mode box in the upper right corner of the Epson Scan window. Then select the mode you want to use from the list that appears.

The mode you select remains in effect when you start Epson Scan the next time. For instructions on scanning using these modes, see: Full Auto Mode: Using Full Auto Mode. Home or Professional Mode: Selecting Basic Settings.

Selecting Basic Settings

When you start Epson Scan in Home or Professional Mode, you see the main Epson Scan window. Home Mode Professional Mode Before you scan your document or photo, you need to select these basic settings. Original settings. These tell Epson Scan the type of document or photo you are scanning. Destination settings. These tell Epson Scan how you plan to use your scanned image. Follow these steps to select the basic settings for a document or photo in Epson Scan. Do one of the following to select your document type.

Home mode:
Click the arrow to open the Document Type list and select the type of original you are scanning. Then click the Color, Grayscale, or Black&White button to match the colors in the original.

Professional mode:
Click the arrow to open the Document Type list and select Reflective (for scanning a photo or document). Then click the arrow in the Auto Exposure Type list and select Document or Photo.

Do one of the following to select your destination setting(s). Home mode:
In the Destination box, click the button for the way you plan to use the scanned image. Screen/Web for images you will view only on a computer screen or post on the web.

Printer for images you will be printing or converting to editable text with an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program.

Other if you want to select a specific resolution for other purposes.

Professional mode:
Click the arrow to open the Image Type list and select the image type you are scanning.

Image Type setting Type of image you are scanning 48-bit Color

Color photo that you may want to modify in a 48-bit image-editing program
If you use this setting, your image file size will be significantly larger than if you use the 24-bit Color or Color Smoothing settings.

24-bit Color Color photo Color Smoothing Color graphics, such as a chart or graph 16-bit Grayscale

Black-and-white photo with many shades of gray
If you use this setting, your image file size will be larger than if you use the 8-bit Grayscale setting.

8-bit Grayscale Black-and-white photo with just a few shades of gray Black & White Document with black text and/or line art

In Home Mode, Epson Scan selects a default resolution setting based on the Destination setting you select. See Selecting the Scan Resolution to continue scanning.

Selecting the Scan Resolution

In Home Mode, you can change the resolution only if you select Other as the Destination setting. In Professional Mode, you can select the resolution you want at any time.

Before you select the scan resolution, you should consider whether you will enlarge your images before or after you scan them. Follow these guidelines.

You will not be enlarging the images.
If you will scan the images at 100% size or smaller and will not enlarge them later, you can accept the Resolution setting selected by Epson Scan based on your Destination setting (Home Mode only).

You will enlarge the images as you scan them (increase the Target Size setting).
If you will enlarge the images in Epson Scan so you can use them at a larger size, you can accept the Resolution setting selected by Epson Scan based on your Destination setting (Home Mode only).

You will scan the images at their original size, but then enlarge them later in an image-editing program.
If you plan to enlarge your images later in an image-editing program, you need to increase the Resolution setting to retain a high image quality after enlargement. Increase the resolution by the same amount you will increase the image size. For example, if the resolution is 300 dpi (dots per inch), but you will increase the image size to 200% in an image-editing program, change the Resolution setting to 600 dpi in Epson Scan.

Click the arrow next to the Resolution list and select the number of dots per inch at which you want to scan. See the table below for some guidelines.