So my grandmother wote down several recipes for me, and I am loving that she wrote them down in her own handwriting, and that I now have them to preserve forever.
It gave me the idea to scrap a heritage cook book, using recipes from all the women in my family and give them out as Christmas gifts.

So I am trying to figure out how to scan them properly. Most of them are on grubby notebook spiral paper with bent edges--which I am loving! I wish to scrap them exactly as they are, but I can't get them to scan without washing out the spiral torn edges and the bent corners.

I tried 200 and 300 dpi, as well as scanning as a document and as a picture. I am using the output type as 24 millions (24 bit) of color. Is there a particular way to do this? How do you all scan thing such as this?

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ok, this may sound stupid, but I tried scanning it with the lid of the scanner open and it did so much better. It gave it a black background. In psp the background eraser was much more able to figure out what exactly the background was
I am sure this is not the proper way to do it--it doesn't look half bad, but I would still love to know how to do this properly! LOL

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The other option might be to put something black behind it, like felt or construction paper. Haven't tried it myself, but that's what I would try.

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LaWanna Desjardin,
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Snag my blinkie!

Thankyou! I was thinking that myself--would be better than leaving the lid open LOL

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Jenny, some point and shoot cameras have a document setting. Place them on something dark and photograph them then remove the dark background in your photo editor.

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Oh cool! I have to check this out and see if mine has that option! Thank you!

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When you scan stuff that is white like paper etc just slip in a piece of coloured card behind it. Make sure it covers the whole scanner bed. I use a red cardboard file folder i had floating around. I find red a better choice than black because then when I clean up the scan I dont accidently select back shadowed areas in the folds of the paper
You should be scanning at 300ppi too - Scanning at 300ppi will give you 1:1 image (eg a 5x4 photo will still be a 5x4 photo. If its something small scan at 600ppi to get a 1: 2 result (eg a 5x4 photo will become a 10 x 8 photo)

HTH

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I also lay a book on the top of mine, which helps to keep it flat, therefore less wash-out.