Including Images

Images add a lot to a book, especially a memoir or history book. As well, many self-publishers include reproductions of documents in their books. These need to be in digital format in order for them to be integrated into the book design. If you have a scanner you can scan the photos and documents yourself, or you can get your book designer to scan them for you.

The following factors should be considered before scanning images or documents:

1) Required resolution

The resolution at which images or documents are scanned is crucial to obtaining good printed versions of them. Resolution refers to how much tonal and/or colour information is included in the file when a scan is made. This information is stored as pixels, and the more pixels there are in an inch, the more information there will be in that inch. However, the amount of information that is needed depends on the amount of information that the offset or digital printer is able to reproduce on paper. Scanning more information than is needed results in large files that are slow and unwieldy to deal with during the layout process.

A good rule of thumb for images or documents that will be used at their original size or smaller is to scan them at 300 dpi (also known as ppi, or pixels per inch) resolution, although for digital printing you can get away with 240 dpi. Note that if you are planning to enlarge the image, you will need to scan more information (see below).

2) Required image or document size

Another thing to consider before scanning an image or a document is the size at which it will be used in the book.

If a photo will need to be enlarged when used in the book, it should be enlarged when it is scanned. This ensures that enough information will be collected by the scan and to ensure that when it is spread out across a larger surface, the resolution will be at least 240 or 300 dpi.

If an image or document will be used at a smaller size than the original, it can be scanned at 240 dpi or 300 dpi, as explained above.

3) Previously printed documents or photos

Documents or photos that have previously been printed in a book, magazine or newspaper will need to be descreened before they will reproduce well in a book. Descreening is an option in many scanning software programs.

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