Photoshop Tutorial Request: How to paste together large drawings scanned in pieces

[Gamerprinter]

As always the job is only as good as the tool you're using. I have a $900 12 x 18 flatbed scanner capable of 9600 dpi non-interpolated - so yeah, I have a good scanner (I run a graphics shop, so I need good tools.)

GP

[psyekl]

As always the job is only as good as the tool you're using. I have a $900 12 x 18 flatbed scanner capable of 9600 dpi non-interpolated - so yeah, I have a good scanner (I run a graphics shop, so I need good tools.)

GP

Where did you find a scanner that good for only $900?! The largest scanner I could find goes up to 12.2 x 17.2 at 2400x4800 dpi but it cost CONSIDERABLY more than that!

Thanks for the tips so far! Keep 'em coming if you know of a good way to splice drawings.

[Gamerprinter]

Well I used to use Photoshop to do the splicing, but that takes too long, if the scans aren't perfectly straight. My software app of choice is Xara Xtreme Pro 4.0 - which is a vector app, but I use it for all my mapping. Actually its easier to rotate your scanned image in a vector app, then in Photoshop or similair. Once the file sits on your screen in Xara, I just select it, click it again and rotation arrows show up at the corners, allowing me to freely rotate any direction at any increment. I rotate until it perfectly lines with the adjacent scanned image.

I zoom in lots to see details up close. Also sometimes I make my next scanned image 50% transparent so I can line up the overlap area over the adjacent image allowing me to line it up perfectly with necessary rotations. Make sure to remove the transparency before combining the images.

Since I do all my compositing in Xara, I don't need to do anything else, but if I plan to use PS or GIMP, I select the multiple scans placed correctly together, select the whole thing, then I export as a TIFF or JPG, then import to my image editor - that's it.

GP