Menu Bar

File / Edit / Image / Layer / Select / Filter / View / Window / Help

If your image is too dark or light you can adjust this by going to the 'Image' on the menu bar and scrolling down to 'Adjust'. There are a variety of things there that you can do. From increasing or decreasing the brightness of the image to fixing the color. Under 'Adjust' this is where you can make or break your image. With a little practice you soon will be a pro at perfecting your image. If your not sure leave this part alone and go on to the next step.

Back to your menu bar look for 'Filters' and scroll down to 'Sharpen' and over to 'Sharpen' again. Careful not to try and sharpen an image more than once cause you may see a the image become more grainy. Now your ready to save your image. In Photoshop 5.5 you are given the option to save for the web. If you choose this option your image will be compressed to a smaller file and you can save it after as a jpeg, gif or png - 8, png - 24. If you choose 'file' to 'save as' your image will remain uncompressed. You have many more save options but you may choose to save under jpeg,gif,png,tiff or esp. For the web choose jpeg, gif or png. For email choose jpeg or a tiff.

That is just about it as far as the basic go towards having your scanned image look presentable. Try other features that Photoshop has to offer. The better you understand how Photoshop works the better your images will come out after the scan. The great thing about Photoshop 5.5 and now version 6 is that you have many undoes instead of the only one in versions previous to this one. So experiment but most of all have "fun" and try different tools as well.

For further reading I recommend the following books to help you learn and understand Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop 5.0	Visual Quickstart Guide Photoshop 5.5

For now I wish you all happy scanning

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