Product Description

Start With a Scan, Second Edition is the long-awaited, updated edition of the best-selling guide on how to transform raw, scanned images into attractive, finished illustrations. Filled with hundreds of brand-new illustrations and two new chapters, this book is a visual stimulus, filled with plenty of design ideas and images to get readers started. The book starts by covering the technical basics of scanning, and provides the information needed to get images out of the computer and onto the printed page. But the rest of the book shows how to scan almost anything (burlap, clip art, family photographs, found objects) to create a quality piece of artwork. Readers will learn how to create textures and backgrounds, transform photos into graphics, and work with type. In this edition, two new chapters discuss scanning images for the Web and using scanned images in arts and crafts projects. This is an excellent resource for scanner users who want to focus on illustrative techniques rather than technical issues.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #444977 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The art of mixed media has taken on new meaning in the digital production environment, and the second edition of Start with a Scan guides new artists through the maze of image acquisition, hardware and software toward the goal of final output. This is not just a book on scanning and creating art, it's about the art and science of scanning, editing and tailoring an image to your needs.

Beginning by explaining how scanners work, the different types of scanners out there, and why it is important to know how the scanned image will be used, the book quickly digs into the meat and potatoes of editing, altering, tracing and otherwise changing a scanned image to suit a project.

Arguably the most interesting chapters are "Creating Textures and Backgrounds from Print and Paper" and "Transforming Photos into Graphics". One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks a designer faces is that of finding and creating background elements and graphics. Start with a Scan explains in these two chapters, probably worth the cover price alone, how to use scanned photos or raw elements (cloth, paper and so on) to create the element you need.

Although the book deals with digital tools (e.g. scanners and computers), it could hardly be called a computer graphics book. The goal is teaching how to scan and alter images, and Scan never loses sight of that. The authors deserve a great deal of credit for creating what is an educational and inspirational book on a form of visual art, which happens to use computers as tools, rather than a computer book that happens to talk about digital graphics. This is how books of the genre should be written. --Mike Caputo

From the Author
This book is about creativity as well as computer graphics.
Start with a Scan is about the creative process, as well as about scanning and computer graphics. To see the illustrated table of contents and book excerpts (as well as fascinating info on other topics) visit co-author Janet Ashford's web site at www.jashford.com.

From the Back Cover

Start with a Scan, Second Edition shows designers, illustrators, and hobbyists how to transform raw scanned images into high-quality, finished illustrations. The book starts off by covering the basic techniques of scanning and then moves on to provide a wealth of valuable scanning tips used by the experts. The bulk of the book uses four-color illustrations and step-by-step instructions to show you how to take a scan of almost anything -- a lackluster photo, clip art, an ordinary household object -- and turn it into beautiful artwork using graphics manipulation programs such as Photoshop, FreeHand, and Illustrator. This new edition includes additional chapters on using scanned images for Web design and creating your own arts and crafts projects. The discussion throughout is geared for users of both Macintosh and Windows platforms. If you do a lot of scanning, this book can help you squeeze more out of your work and get more attractive results.

Customer Reviews

Raising Scanning to an Art Form
Enthralling. That's a pretty strong word to use about a technical manual, but this is no ordinary book about scanning. Everything in here is an utter delight. The history and theory of scanning are clearly explained. Yes, it may well start with a scan, but it ends with rekindling your enthusiasm for computing and graphics in a very big way. If you read it with your system booted up and immerse yourself in the chapters, you can see why these guys are so passionate about their work. Wonderful value for money. Apart from revealing hundreds of ways to turn lacklustre clipart and other sources into money-making graphics, it doubles as a handy guide to the features and versatility of Photoshop. This is a tour de force from two very generous authors. Arriving in the same package as Lynda Weinman's excellent "", I can't remember when I was last so happy just reading.

Scan For Fun, Profit, And To Expand You Creative Abilities!
A number of computer data input devices have come on the scene in recent years to allow computer users to import a variety of data into computer graphics applications. One such input device that has gained popularity for importing artwork for Website designing is the scanner. Janet Ashford and John Odam have teamed up to produce Start With A Scan to actively promote the use of scanners to create impressive artwork that can be used for a variety of purposes including Website design.

This book serves as an excellent guide for taking scanned images and converting them through the use of filtering and other image editing tools to create outstanding graphic images. Consider adding effective shadowing, extruding 2D scanned images into 3D images, combining images, adding coloring and patterns, cropping, and special edging effects, to name a few. There are almost an endless number of ways that images can be creatively edited. These talented authors will show readers how they too can start with a simple scanned image and apply graphic image editing to achieve cool special effect results!

Besides offering an impressive array of options open to graphics artists to convert scanned images into wonderful works of art, Ashford and Odam also demonstrate just how easy it is to scan a variety of objects such as paper, fabrics, food items, flowers, toys, household items, office supplies, tools, photos, patterns, symbols, and yes, even my favorite Ramen noodles! Custom-made backgrounds, textures, and clipart are yours for the scanning! Consider the number of items you can scan and how they can be put to creative and productive use!

The large 8 1/2" by 11" format of this book makes for easy reading and viewing. Exceptional illustrations used throughout the book offers a breathtaking view of how someone can scan simple objects and turn them into useful Web graphics. This book is an essential reference guide highly recommended for serious Web graphics use by those who also want to have fun and expand their creative abilities. "To scan or not to scan" is a question now left up to you to decide!

Raising scanning to an art form
Enthralling. That's a pretty strong word to use about a technical manual, but this is no ordinary book about scanning. Everything in here is an utter delight. The history and theory of scanning are clearly explained. Yes, it may well start with a scan, but it ends with rekindling your enthusiasm for computing and graphics in a very big way. If you read it with your system booted up and immerse yourself in the chapters, you can see why these guys are so passionate about their work. Wonderful value for money. Apart from revealing hundreds of ways to turn lacklustre clipart and other sources into money-making graphics, it doubles as a handy guide to the features and versatility of Photoshop. This is a tour de force from two very generous authors. Arriving in the same package as Lynda Weinman's excellent "", I can't remember when I was last so happy just reading. Thanks!