Because I am a Braille transcriber by profession, I use the scanner and the Optacon together very often. I thought I would share with you some ways in which you can use your Optacon to help make scanning or photocopying easier. If you don't use a scanner, you might want to share some of these tips with friends. I have arranged them so that each one shows the problem, the reason, and the solution which we Optacon users can do without sighted help usually. I'll limit this message to three common situations. Let me know if you want any more posts like this. PROBLEM: THE SCANNER ISN'T PICKING UP ANY PAGE NUMBERS: REASON: In some print documents, page numbers appear in the opposite color from the rest of the text. They are also often surrounded by a square or circle. The scanner will often not pick these up. The location of page numbers has also changed. In many documents, the page number is not in a corner. It is often in the middle of the top or bottom line and sometimes it is located in the middle of the page in the left or right margin. SOLUTION: It's best to determine in advance if the page numbers are going to be a problem. Open the book or document to somewhere in the middle and search for a page number. If you can't find one after using the Optacon on several pages, try again using diffferent adjustments on the Optacon including the invert switch, the zoom lens, and the threshold knob. For users without an Optacon, it's best to ask someone sighted not only where the page numbers are located but what color they are. PROBLEM: Every page in this book has a stupid border around it. REASON: The book or document has been deliberately scan-proofed by the publisher. Slabs of color in strategic places are not just a decoration. They serve the purpose of obstructing a scan or photocopy by causing these devices to miss top and bottom lines of print, headings and other truly necessary elements. This is to prevent companies and schools from making multiple copies of material instead of purchasing it. SOLUTION: If you must scan a document with a thick border on every page, be sure to carefully check that the top and bottom lines of each page got included in the scan. If you are enterprising and find that the thing is not scanning well, take some strips of white paper and lay them on the scanner glass to correspond approximately with the border. Then lay the page to be scanned on top of these. It may take a little experimenting but soon you will be scanning your pages with all the print, and no gibberish from the decorative borders. PROBLEM: THIS BOOK IS FULL OF PICTURES. REASON: Visual appeal. SOLUTION: The Optacon user definitely has the advantage here. Pages with pictures can make a scan infinitely slower and often full of unnecessary gibberish and errors. For these reasons, using your Optacon to examine eah page is well worth the time. If every page containing a picture places it in the same location, e.g. the top half of the page, most scanning programs will catch on to this after scanning several pages. You might, at the end of the scan, go back and re-scan the first couple of pages to get a better result. To speed up the scan, or if the pictures are on a different place on each page, you can use a piece of plain white paper cut to the needed size. Place this paper on the scanner glass. Then place the page to be scanned on top. Check your scan to be sure that you got the first couple of lines. If it's easier, you can use tape and position the paper over the picture write in the book. THESE PROBLEMS AND A WHOLE LOT MORE, MAKE ME GLAD THAT I HAVE AN OPTACON TO HELP ME SCAN. Catherine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Catherine Thomas braille@xxxxxxxxx / ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject.