[Editors note: Written by Rachel – the Titus 2 Homemaker.]
As an avid genealogist, I found the Flip-Pal mobile scanner while looking for scanning solutions that balanced ease and quality.
As a homeschooler, I was excited by all the possibilities it presents for additional applications – like compiling portfolios of the kids’ work. Including even the oversized projects.
The first project I attempted was using the EasyStitch software to save and stitch this large poster my youngest students made.
It’s about two-and-a-half feet high and three feet across. Unfortunately, I made some mistakes along the way that forced me to re-scan the poster multiple times. Let me tell you about what I did wrong so you can get it right the first time.
The first time I scanned the poster and ran the software, the eventual output was simply an error message. Insufficient overlap. The software couldn’t discern which scans to stitch where.
The back side of the scanner has lines etched into the window, specifically for the purpose of showing where to line up the scanner for adequate overlap.
Too Much Overlap
At the other extreme is having too much overlap. This can be a little tricky when you’re trying not to skimp on the overlap and not to miss the edges of the image, but be careful not to duplicate your content by overlapping the scans too far.
If there is duplicate material in the scans, the EasyStitch software tries to fit them in, and you end up with something really wonky, like this.
The key is to go back and scan more carefully, ensuring you haven’t gone over the same areas twice. The trick in the next section can help, too.
Gaps
Even if you don’t have too little overlap (in general) or too much overlap, you can still have gaps. I was actually pretty impressed that when I scanned the poster the second time, and got sufficient overlap, the software was able to stitch together virtually the entire picture – even though I’d missed a spot. It simply left a hole.
With a small piece, it’s easy to keep everything lined up. Some larger pieces, like quilts, might offer built-in guide lines. But with a large, somewhat random image like the ocean collage I was scanning, there are no clear lines. Missing spots is pretty easy to do.
The folks at Flip-Pal suggested the use of a yardstick to keep everything lined up. I’m not sure whether or not my manner of using the yardstick is what they intended, but it was a considerable help. All I did was lay the yardstick across the image:
Then I butted the Flip-Pal mobile scanner against the ruler, so I was able to simply slide it along as I moved to each new scan. That way I only had to line up the scanner once on each row, and then the yardstick did all the work to make sure I wasn’t drifting up or down. This gave me a much more workable result.
One last detail you’ll notice is the black edges. That’s because the piece of paper my children used for their poster didn’t have even edges, so the resultant scan is necessarily a but uneven. The black is where there was nothing to scan. This is no big deal; I just went into my photo software, selected the black, and changed it to white. (Depending on your needs, you could also just crop off the edges.)
And now my children’s work is preserved with much better
quality and integrity than a snapshot full of weird shadows.
Thanks so much for your expertise over the years. Sad to see the company exiting business. Hopefully another avenue will open up for you to continue.
I have scanned many large pictures and have rescanned them, also. I really like your yardstick hack! I will be using that in the future. Thank you!
Wouldn’t it be nice if Flip-Pal had made their scanner A4 size.
I sure appreciate your instructions. I have a large oil painting that belonged to my grandparents (72″ x 18″). I remember the painting hanging on the wall in their home and now it brings back many happy memories from being in their home. I want to scan it so it can be shared with my family and extended family so they can enjoy their memories, too.
I tried using the Flip-Pal and stitching software with the same results you described in your opening paragraph. I’ll do it again using your suggestion.
Thanks