** 1 page Scanning service review / 719 words **

PhotoScan

Sandy Thomson takes a professional look at the Floppyshop digitising service...

Have you ever looked at the masterpiece of text you have just created and said to yourself "All this needs is a photograph. If only I had a scanner"? well, help is now at hand.

I have been a professional photographer for 30 years and, in that time, have accumulated a vast quantity of photographs and negatives. One of my main reasons for getting into computing in general, and Atari computing in particular, was to enable me to transfer these images into digital format.

Steve Delaney of Floppyshop now provides a service which will suit most Atari users who either cannot justify the outlay for a decent colour scanner, or who only need the occasional photo scanned.

PhotoScan is a service which accept a photographic print or drawing, or any other kind of art-work and scans it. The resulting file is then saved in the format most suitable for the system in use, and on the best possible medium. These scans can be supplied on either double density or high density disks, depending on system requirements, or on a SyQuest or Zip cartridge if the professional service is preferred. If permanence is important there's an option to have images saved to CD-ROM for a few pounds extra. Photographic negatives can also be scanned, although Steve admits the quality of the results are variable.

Because Steve is familiar with all things Atari, he can supply the format best suited to the set-up in use, be it GIF, JPG, TIFF, PNG or IFF. Indeed, if the comprehensive order form supplied by Floppyshop is completed correctly, this will let Steve know what format will be most advantageous to the customer.

PhotoScan provides two levels of service "Standard" and "Professional". For Atari users using a standard ST with up to 4Mb's of memory, the Standard service is the best option.

** Boxout **
Image	Res	Size Res Size Res Size Res Size
5"x3.5"	150dpi	1.13Mb 200dpi 2.03Mb 300dpi 4.51Mb 600dpi 18.0Mb
6"x4"	150dpi	1.55Mb 200dpi 2.75Mb 300dpi 6.18Mb 600dpi 24.7Mb
7"x5"	150dpi	2.25Mb 200dpi 4.00Mb 300dpi 9.01Mb 600dpi 36.0Mb
8"x10"	150dpi5.15Mb 200dpi 9.16Mb 300dpi 20.6Mb 600dpi 82.4Mb ** End Boxout **

As illustrated, scans at 200dpi require a HD floppy disk. The Professional Service is more suited to Falcon or TT owners with at least 14Mb memory as a 6"x4" print scanned at 300dpi uses 6.18Mb, and at 600dpi will need a massive 24.72Mb. Anyone got a TT for sale?

The test material we sent Steve consisted of ten colour prints 6"x4" and 8"x6", of mixed quality, and with both matt and glossy surfaces. They included both professional quality photographs, and holiday snaps. The results were consistently excellent.

Prices for the service start at œ2.50 per scan for the Standard service, and œ4.00 for the Professional service. If a CD-ROM is required, that will cost œ10.00 extra, with a charge of œ2 each time more scans are added to the CD.

For larger quantities discounts are available with a 25p reduction per scan from 10 upwards, and a 50p reduction per scan for 20 or more scans.

If you need a particular size or quality of image Steve will be happy to give any advice necessary.

Conclusions

For anyone who requires a few photos scanned for a specific project this service is ideal. For any sort of bulk use the cost would soon add up and you might as well buy your own scanner!

** Product boxout **
PhotoScan

Contact
Floppyshop, PO Box 273, ABERDEEN, AB15 8GJ, Scotland
Telephone: +44 (0)1224 586208
Email: sdelaney@zetnet.co.uk

Cost
Standard Service œ2.50 per scan, Professional Service œ4.00 per scan, CD-ROM œ10.00, CD-ROM additional sessions œ2.00 (œ7 minimum charge)

System
All Ataris

Pros
Good Quality, clear order form, Atari-friendly service, 7-10 day turnaround

Cons
Expensive for large quantities

83%
** end boxout **

** Images **

** PIC3.JPG **
** Caption **
A poor quality original print was used for this scan. The resulting scanned image was slightly better than the original - even the matt surfaced print reproduced well
** end **

** PIC1.JPG **
** PIC9.JPG **
** Caption **
Larger prints scanned using the Professional service resulted in files so big that, although they can be viewed on a 14Mb Falcon using Positive Image running a clean system only, there isn't enough memory left to print them!
** end **