Domhnall Dods tries Floppyshops new photoscanning service

[Editors Note - Domhnall supplied two excellent quality Jpeg pictures for inclusion in this article. Unfortunately we did not have the space to publish them. I have therefore grabbed a small part from each and pesent them to you in GIF format.

These days there are many shops that will write your photographs to CD ROM so that you can use them on your computer. But what if you do not have a CD ROM or the latest flatbed scanner? Worry not, Floppyshop have launched PhotoScan with people just like you in mind. Even if you do have a CD ROM they can write your photographs to CD and claim to be ablke to do so much faster than the average photgraphic lab.

There are two levels of service available dpenedent largely on your storage medium. If you have either the Syquest EZ 135 or ZIP 100 drives then you can opt for the Professional service, otherwise you have to go for the standard level. Standard is designed primarily for ST owners where memory will be a limiting factor in the type of scan which can be used. Since STs normally have a maximum of 4 megabytes of memory some of the higher resolutions of scan will be unusable.

Standard Service
Eevry image is scanned in 256 and true colour formats and can be supplied in a variety of file formats. 256 colour can be GIF, TIFF, PNG or IFF while true colour images are always supplied as 24 bit JPEGs saved at the highest quality setting. Images are sacnned at 150 dpi for Double Density drive users and 200 dpi for High Density disks. The amount of memory needed to view an image depends on the type of image. Floppyshop supply excellent leaflets which explain very clearly what restrictions are imposed by available memory.

Professioanl Service
This service provides higher resolution scans as required for professioanl or semi professional use. Again an excellent explanation of memory requirements is given in the Floppyshop leaflet. Floppyshop will scan at any resolution up to 1200dpi and images can be any size up to 20 cm x 28 cm (8inches x 11 inches). The accompanying leaflet makes it clear however that although scans at such sizes are possible, your computer may not have enough memory to load them. An image of 20 cm x 25 cm (8 inches x 10 inches) at 600 dpi needs a whopping 82.40 megabytes before you can view it. Clearly even on the most powerful Atari machines available this means some form of vitual memory such as Outside will be required. At the professional level one 24 bit true colour image of each picture is saved. This can be as a TIFF, BMP, PCX, PNG or IFF file. Because of the huge file sizes involved floppy disks are out of the question. If you want a professional service you must supply a formatted Syquest EZ135 or Zip 100 cartridge. It doesn't matter whether it is Atari, Mac or PC formatted but it has to be formatted. If you prefer you can have the images saved to CD at a cost of £10. You can return the CD later for more pictures to be added at an additional cost of £2.00.

One point which Floppyshop are at mains to point out is that they do not re-touch your images. Poor originals will lead to poor scans. They can however, scan from photographs, transparencies or negatives although negatives can give fairly erratic colour results.

There is a minimum cost of £7.00 plus p&p per order. Standard scans cost £2.50 each and professional scans £4.00 each. Postage and packing is £1.25 in the UK, £2.25 in Europe and £3.00 for the rest of the world. The time taken to turn around an order is quoted as being between seven and ten days.

As you can see from the samples, the quality is excellent. ALthough Floppyshop say the results from negatives can be pretty hit or miss, I have to say that I am very impressed indeed. The results achived from the mixed selection I snet for scanning are truly impressive. I sent off a printed brochure, a set of wedding photgraphs and accomapnying negatives. If it weren't for the fact that the filenames indicated which ones were which I would not have been able to tell them apart. If you don't have access to a colour scanner and you need scanned images for DTP or Web publishing then give this service a try. Unlike other such services around you can be sure you are dealing with people who are thoroughly familiar with the machine you are using and will therefore be better placed to advise you on what will best suit your needs and equipment.