Site Forum

I have been looking at the Crop Help queue a little more often recently and noticed some issues.

1st - please scan big. The bigger, the better. Easier to crop. And don't allow your scanner to auto crop or set the image size to be 2.5" x 3.5" - if you don't have the card perfect, it will be "incomplete". It's better to not crop off enough than to crop off too much. (Just as in cutting wood, you can always take a little more off, you can never add an inch of wood back on!) 250x350 pixels is a minimum - not the size it should be. I have seen images just over this size that were blurry. Thoise should be rejected by the members who have the access to accept or reject.

2nd - please remove the cards from sleeves, top loaders, and/or pages. It clouds the image and reduces the quality of the image drastically. I've been seeing more of these recently especially among the newer members.

3rd - please make sure your scan is straight and not crooked. One of our esteemed members (Billy Kingsley) has recommended using PhotoScape (freeware) for fixing your images. I downloaded it (after being wary of installing freeware on my machine) and it's been amazing. Cards sometimes spin on the scanner, and this software can adjust (to a certain extent).

Here are the Image Guidelines: http://www.tradingcarddb.com/ImageGuidelines.cfm

And the FAQ page: http://www.tradingcarddb.com/FAQ.cfm?ITEM=ScanningCards

And even though, it's on the FAQ page, here is Billy's tutorial on using PhotoScape and making the cards look like they do in your hand: http://cardboardhistory.blogspot.com/p/how-to-make-your-scans-look-like-cards.html

Please, follow these tips, and you'll find your scans being posted much quicker (and not being sent back). Thank you!

To your 2nd point; sleeves, toploaders, pages, and improper scanner settings also effect the colors.  Whites become gray.  I've imposed a true color card (left) on the submitted scan in the image below.  You'd think there was a "Gray" parallel if this scan was accepted.

Also, note this image was "Reviewed" but the "Crop" option is still available.  This means the submitter "Reviewed" their own image.

Thanks guys; always appreciate the scanning tips.  When I am scanning cards, I like to have as little editing as possible after the scan.

For me, I have found a few settings on my scanner so that I do not have to crop or edit the photos at all other than rotating cards to get the proper orientation.

As best as I can remember, I change the default settings for scanning photos to:  resolution - 300dpi; dimensions - 2.45” x 3.45”.  Using those settings, I can position the card at the top corner of the scanner, it stays straight, does not require any cropping, has a file size of less than 1MB, and it looks good.

2.45 x 3.45  is smaller than the actual (typical) card. 

A - SEE 1st post

B - Use PHOTOSCAPE !!! It’s a free program and works great. Billy’s scanning guide is a MUST read!

Take a moment and do it right so that others won’t have to do double work and fix it.

People need to stop trying to rack up cheap points doing cheap work...

Not what this site is about.Take some pride in your work.

That’s true, by 1/20 of an inch.  It may be my scanner, but when I set the dimensions to 2.5 x 3.5, I ALWAYS had to crop the image.  I figured I would end up cropping less of the image by setting the dimensions slightly smaller versus cropping manually.

You may be over-cropping and submitting incomplete scans. Please be cautious of using any of the "auto" features (sizing, cropping, etc.) on your scanner or scanning software. This was brought up in another recent thread, but these usually lead to the questionable scans on here.

I do the same exact thing. If you don't, the typical 2.5 x 3.5 won't crop properly.

I generally use a Custom Scan area of 4x4 inches and crop it down after the scan. That accomodates scanning any card horizontal or vertical in the way it should face without needing to rotate it. Sometimes I find that I need to change this though. If I have a die-cut card, I need to expand the area to get the card away from the edges of the scanner while using my card that makes sure the die-cut card stays straight. I also noticed last night while scanning Topps Chrome cards, that there is a scratch in the glass of my scanner. It's not obvious in scans of most cards, but it really is when Chrome/Prizm comes into play. So I changed my setting to 4x6 inches and moved the cards past the scratch before scanning them.

Cropping isn't the only thing you should worry about when scanning cards!