Scanning a Sketch
1. Launch Photoshop.
2. Go to File > Import, then select your scanner. It should be listed there. Mine is the CanoScan LiDE 80, so I click that. Your scanner’s scanning program should pop up.
3. I click on “Preview” so that I can see how much of the page I want to scan. Then I adjust the bounding box (That funny looking dotted box) around my sketch so that I am not scanning lots of blank paper.
4. Scan your image at least at 300 DPI if you want it to look good when you print it out later. I scanned this one at 300 DPI in Grayscale. I sometimes scan in color if I want to see my blue pencil, too, but here there is no blue since I have traced my sketch onto a clean piece of paper. Grayscale makes this look cleaner.
5. At this point you can go to Image > Adjust > Levels and play with the sliders to get it looking the best if you would like to NOT do lineart in Photoshop or Illustrator. I rarely do this, I just go to Image > Adjust > Auto Levels to get it defined enough to work with and then I start digitally inking my sketch on a layer above this one.
When you are working, save it as the file type that your paint program uses. For instance Photoshop saves as a PSD so that it will save the layers. I think Painter’s native file format is a RIFF file. When I print my work I just flatten my image and print from the PSD.
When you are finished and would like to post it online it is best to remember that Jpegs are for photographs, Gifs are for cartoon art. When you save to these types of files and shrink your image for viewing online, you will lose some data. I’m sorry to say that your art will never ever look as good online as it does printed out from your high-resolution file - it is just a limit of the technology. Be sure to keep a high resolution PSD and not save over it!