Scanners and Maps

Hi

I have taken the plunge and have a Garmin Geko 301 on the way (thanks Rami). Now in my part of the world, digital topo maps are far and few between, at least at a scale good for bushwalking, so I am interested in scanning paper maps and using them with Oziexplorer or similar for planning routes and downloading the waypoints/tracks to the GPS. I will also be looking at printing out the maps for other folks coming on the walk (I lead walks).

The printer I have is nothing fancy, a hp deskjet 5160 which is "rated" "up to 4800 x 1200-optimized dpi color and 1200-input dpi."

I am seeking advice on getting a scanner which will be used primary for scanning maps which will be printed on A4 sheets (slightly smaller than US letter size). While recommendations on models would interesting, I am particularly interested in advice on what spec I should be looking at.

I have posted this to a few groups, so apologies if you get it more than once. Hoping to maximise my tapping of the pool of knowledge out here and share the outcomes for others who may be interested.

Thanks
Andrew

bump

Ooooh the copyright folk will love you!!!!

Where are you Andrew? Can you get to a store or do you live in the back of beyond?

If you can get to a store the sales folk will fall over themselves to give you a demo (they're often on commission!) so take some maps to try it out.

If you live in the back of beyond/on a desert island/at the top of a mountain and have no option other than mail order and an impatient wait for the next ship/truck/plane/chopper then bite the bullet, buy the most expensive model you can afford and go for a brand name such as Hewlett Packard. The market is so cut throat you will generally get what you pay for.

Get a laminator too, and then you can waterproof your prints.

Aus
I have a HP 3570c and scan at the resolution it tells me to even after after I have set it to finest... it always contradicts me.
Save it as a Tiff file so it wont degrade over time.
Then I adjust contrast and brightness in Photoshop with a little sharpening if needed.
Then print onto Matt photo paper at finest resolution possible and then laminate it with anti graffiti film available from sign makers [not signwriters]
Works fine
good luck
MB

ps it also helps if you can take the top off the scanner to position the map and put something heavy and dark/ideally black on it to flatten it against the scanner glass, to remove folds

"something heavy and dark" - like a pound of sausages?

How about black puddin's?

Thanks for the advice MikeyB. I will take a look at the HP3570c specs. I assume you find the output okay?

As to copyright, not a problem under fair usage laws in Australia.

Andrew

printing is only as good as the eye can see. experiment will get the best result - printing at 1200 is a waste of ink. 300 gives good results. same for scanning - 600 will be rather more than good enough and will give leeway for enlarging areas - any greater is a waste of space and time.

a digital camera properly set up will do the job too.