Scanning
Image-Editing Software
File Naming and Organization
Resolution
Dimensions
Bit Depth
Content
While a discussion of image-editing software is far beyond the panorama of this user's guide, it will suffice to say that you should be prepared to invest some time and effort to get the best results from digital images. Although you certainly don't have to be an expert in halftones, histograms, and high-pass filters, some of the "touch-up" tools offered by image-editing software are well worth the time required to learn them.
As you collect picture files, you'll need to make some decisions about the resolution, size, and bit depth of your images. As always, trial and error is the best teacher, but here is an introduction to the topics you'll encounter.
Scanning or digitizing is the process of converting a hard copy of an image, such as a photograph, into a digital image. Scanners can be flat-bed, hand-held, video, or camera-like devices and may include a software driver or "plug in" module that provides a direct interface between the scanner and image-editing software; or, the manufacturer may provide a standalone software app to process/edit scanned image files.
You do not scan images directly into Reunion. Rather, you scan images using scanning software or image-editing software, save them in a file format supported by Reunion, and then add (or link) them to a person, family, or source record in Reunion. After images are linked in Reunion, you can display and include the images in charts, reports, slideshows, etc.
Scanners are often bundled with image-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Image-editing software, such as Photos, Capture One, PhotoShop or Photoshop Elements, is used to edit digital images. Basic editing features include resizing, resampling, straightening, scaling, lightening, darkening, enhancing, or cropping. The image-editing software lets you save images in one of the file formats supported by Reunion.
If you have already saved picture files with your image-editing software, you can go to the Finder and move the picture files into your Pictures folder for use with Reunion. It's a good idea to plan and organize — use a file naming system and file/folder organization system where files can be stored and located later.
Many excellent ideas have been shared by users on ReunionTalk.
If you're using Apple's Photos app, the pictures are already stored in your Pictures folder, buried deep inside the Photos Library. However, as discussed elsewhere, once you're finished editing an image using the Photos app, it's preferable to drag-and-drop the image from Photos into Reunion. Then Reunion will store its own copy of the edited image file.
The image resolution is a key factor in the overall size (in bytes) and memory requirements of a picture file. The image resolution is the density of information — the number of dots-per-inch.
One of the most common mistakes we encounter is the scanning of old images at needlessly high resolutions. Just because your scanner will scan up to "1200 dpi" doesn't mean it makes any sense to do so. The law of diminishing returns kicks in quickly. For example, moving from 300 to 1200 dpi often brings very little visible difference; but the costs in storage, memory, and performance are very real.
Another example: If you plan to print black-and-white pictures using a 600 dpi laser printer, then a 72 dpi scan is just as good as a 300 dpi scan, but will require a fraction of the disk space. Even if you plan to print on a high-res imagesetter, you'll still be wasting disk space by scanning at higher resolutions than about 144 dpi. Some image-editing software allows changing the resolution after scanning. This is called resampling.
If a picture is teeny tiny, then cranking up the scan resolution makes sense. Otherwise, be careful of the tradeoff.
Pictures scanned at high resolutions may appear very large when pasted or placed into a chart (especially JPEG files). This is because the image will be displayed at a resolution of 72 dpi; thus, a 300 dpi image appears on-screen roughly four times its size (300/72=4.167). When this happens, you should resize the image in the chart, making its physical dimensions smaller and, in effect, increasing its resolution.
The dimensions of a picture partially determine the file size. We recommend using your image-editing software to crop the original picture files when it makes sense; for example, eliminating unneeded portions such as white space or immaterial background, especially at higher resolutions.
Bit depth is the number of bits (the basic elements of computer memory) assigned to each dot to define its color. An image is comprised of many dots. Increasing the number of bits used to display each dot increases the number of colors (or grays) available to depict each dot and thus the realism of an image improves. With many file formats, increased bit depth equals larger memory requirements and processing time. However, JPEG and PNG are file formats that offer 24-bit (millions of colors) realism combined with very effective compression to make much smaller files.
The content of a picture file need not be limited to portraits of people. You can include any image in a picture file. For example: scans of obituaries, any sort of memorabilia like kindergarten homework assignments, a passport, a family business sign or logo, wills, deeds, family photographs, pictures of people at various ages, comparisons of children's portraits, etc. Any artwork you can create or edit in digital imaging software can be linked to a person, family, or source record. This includes text, lines, paintings, objects, etc. The key is saving any such artwork in a file format compatible with Reunion.