Scanning resolution

Do you have any preferences to scanning resolution?
So far, I’ve been scanning the pieces from Today’s Secretary at 600 dpi, mostly because that’s the maximum my scanner gives me and I figured that would be clearest, even when printed out.
But that makes each page take fairly long to scan (and makes the files bigger). So I’m wondering whether I can cut down on resolution without appreciable loss of quality.
Have a look at the attached documents and tell me what you think. (I picked the glossary because it has fairly small text. Larger text is obviously readable even if the resolution is a bit lower.) 75 dpi is clearly too low, and 600 dpi is clearly sufficient, but where is the cutoff? 300 dpi is probably just fine, too, and 200 dpi is a bit borderline, in my opinion, so 300 dpi might be the sweet spot. But if 200 dpi works as well, then would make things a bit quicker and smaller.
Let me know what you think, please.

Attachment: glossary-075dpi.pdf
Attachment: glossary-200dpi.pdf
Attachment: glossary-300dpi.pdf
Attachment: glossary-600dpi.pdf

(by Philip for group greggshorthand)


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4 comments Add yours
  1. I have been creating color scanned PDF files of Gregg Novels to be read on Kindle Fire. 300 dpi works fine, but is a little slow. 600 dpi jams the device. My Kindle Fire cannot handle anything larger than 300 dpi without choking.

  2. At the 481% magnification that first appeared on my monitor, the 600 dpi made a difference over the 300, but when I reduced the magnification, the difference quickly disappeared. The 200 dpi was passable at 200% magnification or smaller, but still a bit ragged.

    The difference between the 300 dpi and 200 dpi images is probably worth the larger file size. I'd save the 600 dpi for really detailed images, like photos, or things you'll be showing greatly enlarged, like presentation materials.

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