The Best VueScan Scanner Settings I Could Find (HP 8300) 10 10

[Vox Virtus]

The Best VueScan Scanner Settings I Could Find (HP 8300)

Let me start off by saying I searched high and low for the simple solution of just copying someone's settings and couldn't find them for the life of me. So I decided I'm not all that slow and could probably figure it out on my own. After a couple hours playing with every single setting I could find, I settled on what I felt was the best representation of the slabs on hand. So hopefully a few of you can use this post to your time-saving advantage. I've been helped so much over the past couple years by your collective knowledge, I guess this is just my way of giving a little back. 

So first things first! 
SCANNER: HP Scanjet 8300 (white background)
PLATFORM: Mac
APPLICATION: VueScan (Version: 9881.17.206...just kidding, it updated 7 minutes ago and it should update again within the hour )

I'll drop some screenshots here of my settings for you "just give me the goods" type and for the engineers, surgeons, and over-organized collectors I'll post some context below. I'll also make sure I have a before and after shot of our brave test subject Nova #25 (props to Ron C. for the gem). After everything, I'll post a cornucopia of scans from different ages and colors. Every slab I post will be the new CGC case. The older ones can still use these settings, but the new case really shines without that infamous blue tint.

Here we go...

Make sure that in VueScan you set the Options to Professional (or click the Options+ button at the bottom)

That's the short of it. Now for the expanded edition...

Like I said earlier, I spent a couple hours really fine tuning this as best I could. Getting the blacks and whites right was by far the most difficult task. Sadly the glare just wouldn't go away, but I didn't think it was awful. It seems to be worse on white comics. The darker covers tend to absorb the light a bit better. Be sure to clean your glass and slabs. I know that should be a no-brainer, but it's the little things that get overlooked easiest. Here I'll focus more on what I did do, rather than didn't.

INPUT SETTINGS:
The only real thing of note is probably the scan resolution. I only did 300 dpi for simplicity. You could do 100 or 72 and see very little degradation. I tried multiple passes and saw zero improvement even at 600% zoom. 

FILTER SETTINGS:
Restore colors really seemed to get the ball rolling as far as the Red, Green, and Blues go. They "popped" like they should. Part of the reason I used Nova #25 was because of the great inking by Klaus Janson. There are so many deep colors mixed with blacks and whites on that classic cover. Pulling those out of a Bronze Age book accurately was my primary focus. Grain reduction was a surprising touch. Sometimes these high-res scans really pick up every fiber in the paper and it can get a little noisy. The grain reduction set to light made the book still have that textured look, but smoothed it out enough to mimic more of what you'd see with the naked eye. Sharpen was a must. With the deeper wells in these new cases, the scanner actually focuses on the rib/edge of the case. This means that the comic is slightly out of focus. Sharpen corrected that drastically.

COLOR SETTINGS:
This is where I spent most my time, however, it made the BIGGEST difference. I went from "hey, not too shabby" to "holy cow (insert best Harry Caray impression here)" getting these settings right. Neutral color balance was the best option. It really leveled everything out so I had good control over the final scan. The black point I cranked all the way up to pull those dark blacks as best I could. It was tough on some of my Silver Age and Bronze Age because those blacks look dark gray. I don't know if that's due to ink or age. I set the white point right on the edge. Much higher and it starts to look like a blown out photo. I also wanted to match the white on the books. Moderns are super bright, whereas some of the older comics have an off-white look to them. The curves are where the fine tuning came in. Curve low is a setting that darkens the blacks. Curve high obviously does the opposite and brightens the whites. The detail really concerned me and getting these two settings right seemed to make sure the darkest and brightest colors weren't washed or flattened.

OUTPUT SETTINGS:
Just the JPEG quality here. I played with several, and honestly, I think I was tripping myself out a bit. The file size reduction wasn't huge for 50 vs 90 so I opted for the higher setting. 50 would work fine if you're concerned with a few kilobytes. There's very, very little degradation in most scans. On a side note, 90 shines with a super busy cover. Explosions or webs, things like that.

---

So how about the results?! Here's a stock setting scan of the Nova #25 vs the updated settings. 

I could walk you through every scan I did, but this post would be a mile long...wait, it already is. I'll spare you more mileage. Here's a super zoom comparison:

Everything really came together after some pretty simple setting changes. None of these were edited in post. They're straight from the scanner to here.

I just hate I didn't do this before I scanned like 200 slabs! I hope this helps some of you who've asked about correct settings in past discussions. I know we all like to show off our slabs with the best foot forward. I'd be interested to hear from some of you with different scanners. I know the HP 8300 is kind of the standard around here for slab scanning, but I know there are ton of others being used out there. VueScan really is an incredible tool! I can't speak highly enough of that software. Anyways, enough from me. Best of luck to everyone and happy slabbing! Here are a few more various scans for your viewing pleasure...

Edited May 25, 2017 by Vox Virtus

[Barth]

Great post! 

I always seem to get glare on the thicker CGC cases. Did you experience any of that and if so how did you fix that? 

[1Cool]

Thanks for the helpful post.  My scans seem pretty bland and I'm pretty much using the default settings.  I'll try yours out with my next batch of scans.

[Vox Virtus]

55 minutes ago, Barth said:

Great post! 

I always seem to get glare on the thicker CGC cases. Did you experience any of that and if so how did you fix that? 

 

 

Thanks! It's weird. On some books it shows up worse than others. It's always in the same 2 places for me: the rib just under the grade and the bottom right corner. I didn't do anything special to mitigate it. Most of those scans were done at night in a dim office which I've read helps, but I can't prove that. The Nova 25 was done in the middle of day with natural light pouring in. 

Edited March 11, 2017 by Vox Virtus

[Buzzetta]

Great thread as I also have an 8300 and use vuescan and am always looking to improve my scans.  I wish I could find it, but Ghost Town had also offered some advice to me so I will be testing your settings in comparison (eventually).  As far as the glare on the cases I think it depends on the colors of the cover of the book being scanned along with the type of slab itself. 

 

This was what Ghost Town had offered. 

[Vox Virtus]

3 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

Great thread as I also have an 8300 and use vuescan and am always looking to improve my scans.  I wish I could find it, but Ghost Town had also offered some advice to me so I will be testing your settings in comparison (eventually).  As far as the glare on the cases I think it depends on the colors of the cover of the book being scanned along with the type of slab itself. 

 

This was what Ghost Town had offered. 

 

Nice. I'll definitely play with those settings as well. The hardest part is finding that nice medium that works for most the books. Neutral manual really gives a ton of control. Thanks for that!

[Buzzetta]

Increased the white from .5 to 6.5 as it was too dark and was not capturing the reds that this book shows off in person. 

 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

On 3/11/2017 at 11:56 AM, Buzzetta said:

Great thread as I also have an 8300 and use vuescan and am always looking to improve my scans.  I wish I could find it, but Ghost Town had also offered some advice to me so I will be testing your settings in comparison (eventually).  As far as the glare on the cases I think it depends on the colors of the cover of the book being scanned along with the type of slab itself.

Noooooooooooooo!

Do not use GhostTown's setting.  His scans are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too dark.  If GhostTown would have scanned that DD it would have ended up like this:

[picon3]

Excellent information.  Where is the best place to get the HP 8300?  New or used?  Thanks, Paul~

[Buzzetta]

5 hours ago, picon3 said:

Excellent information.  Where is the best place to get the HP 8300?  New or used?  Thanks, Paul~

eBay for me

[Ghost Town]

On 4/13/2017 at 2:27 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

 

On 3/11/2017 at 8:56 AM, Buzzetta said:

Great thread as I also have an 8300 and use vuescan and am always looking to improve my scans.  I wish I could find it, but Ghost Town had also offered some advice to me so I will be testing your settings in comparison (eventually).  As far as the glare on the cases I think it depends on the colors of the cover of the book being scanned along with the type of slab itself.

Noooooooooooooo!

Do not use GhostTown's setting.  His scans are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too dark.  If GhostTown would have scanned that DD it would have ended up like this:

 

Or not:

[Moondog]

Is the Hp 8300 a 12" x 18" scanner?

[Vox Virtus]

17 minutes ago, Moondog said:

Is the Hp 8300 a 12" x 18" scanner?

It's 9" x 14" actually. Great for standard slabs. Magazines are cut off a bit on the sides. Original art is typically too big.

[UnboxingTreasures]

On 3/11/2017 at 2:02 AM, Vox Virtus said:

 

That's

Thank you for providing those settings. I just ordered a used 8300 and will purchase the VueScan software after a couple weeks when I know my scanner isn't going to break :-) I actually ordered two (80$) each in case one breaks.

Anyway, I noticed the direction you put the book in the scanner makes a big difference in terms of the glare.

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by NamesJay

[Tony S]

HP has up to date drivers (Win 10) for the 8300. Why buy VueScan software to get at best slightly better scans? Just askin....

VueScan is useful for sure. Like for my Microtek that doesn't work with any OS past XP. 

[DavidTheDavid]

This thread helped me a great deal. I had to fiddle a bit for better scans, but got these once I did. I think the blacks could be a bit darker to be truer, but it's easy to go overboard on blacks.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by DavidTheDavid

[UnboxingTreasures]

On 6/29/2017 at 0:40 AM, DavidTheDavid said:

This thread helped me a great deal. I had to fiddle a bit for better scans, but got these once I did. I think the blacks could be a bit darker to be truer, but it's easy to go overboard on blacks.

 

Are you using these same settings for slabbed books? (if you collect slabbed books, that is)

[DavidTheDavid]

@NamesJay When I rearranged my home office (and comic room) after starting to work from home, I got rid of my large scanner, so no, I don't scan slabs anymore. I kind of miss it, but it took up too much space.

[Vox Virtus]

Thanks for sharing @DavidTheDavid , I'll play with some slabs on these settings and see the difference. Appreciate it!

[namisgr]

I need to have Adobe Photoshop for work, and I find it terrific for post-scan processing of images.  There are advantages using image processing software over scanner setting adjustments.  Each comic can be customized to look as true as possible to the book in hand, and there are processing features that scanners lack.