Scanning images using the Ricoh photocopier

The Ricoh photocopier next to reception has the ability to scan in black and white images. To do this, it has to be connected to a pc, the one we use is called precept, it's the one at the front of the reception area. Microsoft Windows provides a few applications that can be used to acquire images from a scanner but the one we are going to use is a third party program called Paint Shop Pro (version 8). The reason for this is because is allows the end user to easily manipulate the scanned image and save them in a large number of formats if required.

The first job to do is to start Paint Shop Pro, this can be done from either the Desktop icon or the Start Menu

Once started, you need to acquire an image. You can either place the original document on the glass top of the photocopier or in the Automatic Document Feed tray on the top of the copier. The ADF allows you to scan several pages in one go, each page is a separate image. We're going to scan a single page placed on the glass. From the File menu, choose Import -> TWAIN -> Acquire.

If you see the following message box...

... it means the copier is in the 'power save' mode and needs turning on.

Assuming the power is on, after a few seconds you will see a new window that you will use to scan the original document

This window lets you choose what mode to scan in, for most work you'll stick with 'standard'. It also allows you to specify where the original document is positioned, glass, AFD etc and what size it is. If you want to look at more settings, i.e. the DPI it will scan the document in at, click the Detail button to expand the window.

Once you are happy with the settings, press the Preview button. A progress window will appear while the scanner takes a preview scan of the image. Note, this isn't the final scanned image, this will allow you to select what you want to scan and rotate it if necessary.

Once the scanning has finished, you'll be shown a preview of your document. You will see a box of 'running ants' around what the program thinks you want to scan. You can change this selection by simply drawing a box around the part you want to scan by pressing and holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse. You can also rotate the image by clicking on the top left hand button in the preview window. Once you are happy with the selected area, press the Close button.

You will now be back the main scanning window. You can now press the Scan button to scan the final image. Another progress window will appear to indicate the status of the scanning.

Once scanning has finished, the image will appear on the screen in a new window.

You can now save it where you want to, call it what you wish and save in whatever format you require. The recommended format is in JPEG. To save it, from the File menu choose Save As.

Choose the file name, extension and location and press Save.

You have now finished scanning in your document. It can now be imported into Word for example of saved in the correct location for displaying on the web.