We talked about the different ways you can get pictures onto your PC. You can buy a digital camera for around $400-500, which will give you typically a 640x480 resolution image that you can save on a floppy disk, or post up on a web page (a 640x480 image is about 75 dpi). This is for those people that need a lot of pictures in a short time, and don't need a high-resolution image. The other method is to take existing photographs and scan them in on a flat-bed scanner (around $100-200), which will typically give you an image of 100-600 dpi (dots per inch). This is for those people that want their images to be of a higher resolution, or don't want to spend the additional money on a digital camera.

We took several photos from those attending and scanned them in using a flatbed color scanner, then cropped the edges off and oriented them any way we wanted and printed them out using a 1440 dpi color printer on high-gloss Kodak paper. The printed images looked as good as the original photos, and can be enlarged or compressed to any size. We used Paint Shop Pro and LView Pro to do the cropping, enhancing, and file format conversions. Both of these programs can be found on the Internet as shareware products.

Rocky Frisco pointed out an interesting way to use a scanner and an instant camera. When he needs to display an item to someone out of town, he will take a Polaroid picture of the item, then scan the picture using a flatbed scanner, then save the image up on his web page and give the web address to the individual that needs to see the item. This uses the old adage that says "A picture is worth a thousand words".

The January meeting will be a live jam session, featuring you! Bring out your favorite keyboard, drum box, sound module, amplifier or whatever and help us make some music. Or just come out and listen to what develops. In February we will have a demonstration on MIDIScan, a product that will allow you to scan your printed music and save it as a MIDI file. But be sure to note that we will be meeting on Thursday, January 22, rather than the third Tuesday, just for the January Meeting. Come join the fun at the Harmon Foundation, 2901 S. Harvard, on the Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM.

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