IMSLP Forums

Greetings,
A few questions about scanning:
I have a scanner capable of 11x17 scanning. I'm scanning a piece which is about 9.25 x 12. Since the scanner has no setting and no customization option for that size, I' thought I'd scan at 11 x 17 and then use software to crop, subsequent to creating a PDF. I need some software that shows me the size in inches or mm, not pixels. Any thoughts? I have MS Photo Editor but it only shows pixels, unless I'm missing something, which is likely. Thanks for the help,
Neil

Firstly, do not use MS Paint/Photo if you can help it. There are many free alternatives out there for Windows. And why not crop visually? As long as you're getting all the material, that's what matters. Try ScanTailor to even things out across all scans and deskew, despeckle, etc.

Okay, thanks, I didn't know that perfect sizing wasn't needed. At what point in the scanning to PDF process does a print-out size get determined? Or is that what the ScanTailor does?
Neil

Actually, one of the strengths of Acrobat is its resizing ability. So printout-size is determined by the end-user.

Usually Adobe Acrobat is preset to print with a standard border, centered on the page.
You can also set print-out size with the print-menu controls if the page already includes good-size borders - something many users of imslp seem not to recognize...

Let me say first, thanks for all the help. The technology is beating me, however. What I want is to reproduce the same size as the original. I scanned, cropped in ScanTailor, and converted to PDF, using Arch A ( 9x 12) as the size. I just used the "print to PDF" option in the printing wizard that came up. When I go to test print in the Adobe Reader and select "choose paper source by PDF page size", it shows 10.12 x 14.33. Adobe doesn't seem to have Arch A as a size choice. I'm frustrated but I know you folks have the answer.
Neil

I assume the problem is, that Adobe Reader only displays the page size options of your printer.

Being on a mac, I cannot comment on specific options for you on a PC - on Adobe Reader 9.4.3. for Mac I have the options "none" and "fit to printable area" as well as booklet printing options. Choosing "none", I can control printing size with scaling percentage in the page setup options

My GCC-XL oversize printer has no 9x12 option. If I want to print on 9x12 paper (or rather booklet style "two-up" on 12x18) I choose a slightly larger paper setting (13x18) but feed 12x18 paper in to the sheet feeder. Since Adobe Reader centers the printable area on the page, this works out just correctly.

The big issue is that somewhere along the line the material was reduced, so I basically get an 8 x11 reduction in the middle of the 9x12 page. The raw scans should not have been reduced, is that correct?
Neil

Okay, did some experimenting. The way to keep the original size is to NOT put a border on in ScanTailor and to closely crop with "Select material". When I do do that, the music prints original size on whatever paper I put in the printer. My test print on 9 x 12 came out nearly perfect with good size borders as on the original. Adobe still thinks it's 8.5. x 11 but all the music fits on the page when printing that size, so I'll finish up my project and get it up here on IMSLP.