I thought scanning a faded flyer for a lost cat would take five minutes. It took me three hours.

Saw this really old, sun-bleached poster for a missing tabby on a board outside the library. The ink was almost gone, and I wanted to save a digital copy before it got taken down. Figured I'd just snap a pic with my phone and be done. But the glare was terrible, and the text was totally washed out. I ended up going home, getting my flatbed scanner, and going back. Even then, I had to mess with the contrast and levels in Gimp for over an hour to get the phone number and the cat's description to show up clearly. Has anyone else had a simple bulletin board photo turn into a whole tech project?

3 comments

3 Comments

spencerw722mo agoTop Commenter

My printer's scanner software once took 45 minutes just to update its drivers.

grantcooper2mo ago

Ever try just unplugging it for a minute, @spencerw72? That usually fixes my scanner's slow updates.

barnes.jamie21d ago

Did you try using a polarizing filter next time? I had almost the same thing happen with an old missing dog flyer, and @grantcooper told me it cuts the glare completely. Just hold it over your phone cam or flatbed and it saves hours of editing.