How do you scan your iTunes album art?

[Nubben]

Hi,

I wanted to get a feel for what people do/use to get the best possible album art scans (apart from downloading pristine high-res from iTunes that is) for their iTunes libraries.

I have a Canon LiDE 500F scanner and Photoshop Elements 6 and have set up the following procedure:

1. Scan in 150dpi
2. In advanced settings in the Canon ScanGear I have only Auto Tone pre-selected.
3. Crop the image
4. Resize to 700 x 700 pixels
5. Use a mixture of "Adjust saturation" and "Brightness" to get the right colors (have never gotten good results from the "auto" adjustments)
6. Use the anti-blemish tool to take out any dust/spots etc
7. Unsharpen Mask...
8. Save with (1) Max quality (12), (2) Optimized
9. I also automatically add the color profile in the Elements' save dialog box.

How do you do it?

I am particularly interested in point 9 and the color profile. Is that something you do as well? I often find that while a scan looks great in Elements it comes out quite dark in iTunes - why is this?

Also, which is considered the best scanner - are non-flatbed scanners considered better?

Thanks in advance.

Nubben

 

[kornyboy]

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I actually just download mine from Wikipedia or from Amazon. I figure why bother of someone has already done of for me.

 

[jayhawk11]

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I actually just download mine from Wikipedia or from Amazon. I figure why bother of someone has already done of for me.

+1.

 

[Nubben]

Thanks for your replies.

It's just that I am particularly anal about my covert art. If I do get good scans from iTunes I will defnitiely use those, but a lot of the times iTunes either doesn't sell the album or the scans themselves are really bad.

I do appreciate though that some people cannot be bothered with the scanning. Fair enough.

 

[gauchogolfer]

Thanks for your replies.

It's just that I am particularly anal about my covert art. If I do get good scans from iTunes I will defnitiely use those, but a lot of the times iTunes either doesn't sell the album or the scans themselves are really bad.

I do appreciate though that some people cannot be bothered with the scanning. Fair enough.

Amazon almost always works for me. Often I think they're supplied by the label, so the quality is as good as you could want.

 

[stagi]

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I actually just download mine from Wikipedia or from Amazon. I figure why bother of someone has already done of for me.

+2

 

[arkitect]

I have grown lazy… but usually just pop it on to the scanner and use a preset I created with Canon's scanner software…

Lately though I have noticed the Cover art you get from Amazon.com's MP3 downloads are even better — ie. larger — than the ones used in the CD section.

 

[xJulianx]

I tend to just do a Google image search. The only times this method has failed is with extremely small/obscure bands.

 

[slu]

I rarely have to scan anything, but if I do I use 300 dpi.

 

[Galley]

300 d.p.i, resize to 600 x 600.

For more great album art at 600 x 600 check out http://www.albumartexchange.com/

 

[c-Row]

300 dpi, 1250x1250 pixels - sounds rather large at first, but TVs and screens get larger and larger, and I don't want to be stuck with 300x300 artwork when using Front Row on my (future) TV.

Also learned some nice tricks in Photoshop during the process.

 

[Nubben]

c-Row: How big (in KB/MB) are your image files? At 1250x1250, 300dpi they would be quite large right?

Also, care to share some of your "neat tricks"?

Nubben

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I got the amazon album art widget for my dashboard. Now awesome album art is just a matter of typing the album or artist name in the search window, and I don't have to apply it myself, just highlight the songs and click apply and you're done! It seems that when iTunes doesn't have the artwork, often times Amazon will.

SLC

 

[nep61]

I tend to just do a Google image search. The only times this method has failed is with extremely small/obscure bands.

+1....

To the OP... I'm anal about a lot of things too, but my iPod is usually in my pocket, or in the cup holder in my car... the Art work is nice to have as a quick visual reminder of the Artist... but I rarely look at it... but, hey... knock yourself out if it's that important to you, go for it.

 

[alphaod]

I buy music off iTunes; comes with album art.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I boot up my Windows PC and get all creative in MSPaint....I like to be original!!!

Oh....okay....I use Amazon too! If they don't have it HMV usually does!

 

[brn2ski00]

There is a pretty good dashboard widget that is called Album Art (or something like that). It integrates iTunes music and artwork from Amazon and other sites.

 

[hexonxonx]

In the times that it takes to scan something, you can find it on the internet in less than a minute. There has only been one CD that I could not find a cover for and that was because the CD has been out of print for 15 years. I don't even have the CD, just the vinyl copy and I can't really scan that cover, it's too big.

 

[creationmyth]

I tend to just do a Google image search. The only times this method has failed is with extremely small/obscure bands.

+2

I usually don't care enough to color-correct. However, I do wait the day when itunes will have some kind of e-booklet capability that could be browsed using the cover art window. That might force me to break out the ol scanner for a few weeks.