Really dissapointed in my new scanner (but,should i be?)

[Thunderrobot]

I just got a new scanner, and I'm really disappointed in it so far... but, I'm not sure if it's because i got a low-quality scanner or if I just expect too much of a scanner.

Basically it just takes really ugly scans of my drawings, and seems to fade or erase the lines of my blue col-erase pencil (not the non-photo blue). The scanner also takes terrible scans of cd covers. It's like it sees them in too much detail to the point where I can see the dots of color that make up the cover. Now, again I'm not sure if all scanners do this or not.

Here are the scans, the first two are of drawings about an inch and a half big. You'll notice that the scan of the egg is really light and hard too see. The third scan is a detail of "The Flaming Lips" "Soft Bulletin" CD(see all the dots of color?). I also added a pic i found of how the cover should look for reference.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_oF4NbpbzzjE/SYqK7pY_XYI/AAAAAAAAAtA/6bFDmqffknQ/s512/bear.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_oF4NbpbzzjE/SYqK77ANN0I/AAAAAAAAAtI/aIGcXEYghWo/egg.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_oF4NbpbzzjE/SYqK77ANN0I/AAAAAAAAAtI/aIGcXEYghWo/egg.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_oF4NbpbzzjE/SYqK8l3CxmI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/2JUWyCCc4Wg/flaming%20lips.jpg

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/ff/4b/fbacb2c008a045d73dc94010.L.jpg

So do these scans look normal too you? Or is it time to start looking for a new scanner.

BTW- the scanner is a HP Photosmart C5580 printer/scanner combo.

[DeadlyFreeze]

Your cd cover is normal, in regards to the actual sub-pixels your seeing. Print is always going to scan at 1:1 because it has a fixed DPI.

As far as your drawings are concerned its hard to tell whats going on with out seeing the original, but when blowing something up its safe to say your imperfections are going to become much more apparent.

[Noa K]

blue or light blue col-erase pencils usually won't turn out so well in scanning, the reason is that they are very light for themselves and get "burned" while scanning... if you'll try to sacn water colour you'll discover same result in lighter shades. my advice to you is not to scan with auto-corrections by the scanner, but correct the level yourself in ps or some other edditing program..

[jester]

Your scanner is fine - what you see in the CD cover is the so called Moiré-Effect (see wikipedia) and results from the raster that's used for professional printing (offset, that is, not digital). As for the blue scans, it's true what Noa K says.

Just a hint: Try not to use the "autoscan" function of your scanner, but the "manual" function, where you can adjust light/dark, blur, size and often some more parameters. Experiment, it's free! ;)

jester

[XanaChama]

"Descreen" function helps to prevent the results you see on the CD cover. (probably in advanced options). When you preview in advanced mode, you can control how well it picks up your drawing, because otherwise it is automatic. What scanner did you get?