Why does your scan look so bad?



You’re using your flatbed scanner to digitize some family photos, but the scanned images look grainy and don’t appear very sharp. What’s the most likely cause of this issue?

A) The color depth is set too low

B) The color depth is set too high

C) The DPI is set too low

D) The DPI is set too high

E) The scanner finds your family photos to be very dull and uninteresting


The answer: C) The DPI is set too low

The “dots per inch” setting determines the resolution of the final scan. Setting the DPI too low can result in grainy or blocky images.

Want to know more? Watch “Optimizing Printer and Scanner Performance.”

Once a printer or scanner is installed, there’s no guarantee that the devices will work efficiently. Every printer or scanner must be optimized to provide the highest quality performance. In this video, we’ll show you how to optimize printers through tray switching, print spool settings, device calibration, and more. We’ll also show you how optimizing resolution, file formats, and default settings can impact the quality of scanned documents.