Scanning Documents

A properly configured scanner can make a large difference in costs throughout a clinic. Scanning at an improper dots per inch (DPI) (Ex.: 75, 100) or color depth (color, grayscale, black and white) can have a dramatic effect on the file size of the scanned image. This results in longer upload times and higher hard disk space required.

Valant recommends a DPI setting of 200 or less in the scanner's interface software for scanning black text on white paper. For standard laser or inkjet printed Word documents Valant recommends scanning to standard PDF rather than JPEG or TIFF image files. Testing may be required to find a resolution that is readable while maintaining the manageability of the file size. The maximum file size is 50 MB. The total maximum upload size is 500 MB.

Color Depth
Another key to managing file size while scanning documents is to properly set the Color Depth of the scanning software. There is no need to scan a word document with black text in color. Grayscale and color scans of black text can create large files and slow down the scanning process.

Patient Pictures
To avoid picture distortion, the picture should be 241x284 pixels. For best quality, the picture should be in .JPG format.