direct scanning of bugs

[Doug Yanega]

John Shuey wrote:

>This raises some pretty interesting ideas.  For example, could I build plates
>out of individually scanned specimens?  Could these be printed in high enough
>quality for a professional publication?  Can I scan a pinned lep at 300 dpi,
>reduce it 50% and have a 600 dpi image?

It all depends on the quality of the scanned image. I wrote a field guide
and made 32 color plates composed of scanned slide images, and it worked
great. The image processing is the easy part, getting a good image to work
with is the limiting factor.

>So, could I develop
>a series of individual files of the 350 species known so far, add the
>additional species as we get them , and then assemble plates at some future
>cut-off date?  Andf then could this produce a publishable plate?

Don't see why not. Of course, if you don't have a scanner already, and do
have a camera, you're likely to be better off taking slides, if not for
cost, then to avoid problems with magnification. It's a LOT worse to take a
small digital image and have to expand it than to take a macro lens and get
a close-up photo (at the same resolution as all the other images in one's
set) *before* digitizing. The only real advantage I see to direct scanning
is time saved. In your case, it doesn't sound like a big hurry.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-448-1223, fax: 031-44-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
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