When manipulating images from my digital camera I can do it well, but when I try to edit an image from my scanner it takes a long time to do tasks and some times the computer tells ms that there is not enogh memory, why do I not have these problems with the camera? and what is the difference? Thanks J.Lindley

-- James Lindley (jameslindley@tesco.net), April 28, 1999

Answers

Images from digital camera are relatively low resolution compared to what a scanner can produce. for example an 8"x10" photo scanned at 300dpi will result in an uncompressed file around 20 megbytes. Even the best digital camera won't produce an uncompressed file much bigger than 6 meg. For most image editing software a good rule of thumb is you need 3 times the amount of RAM than your largest image you want to edit.The one exception to this I know of is the Live Pix program. It is designed to work with less RAM than other image editors. I have a couple of questions. What operating system are you using? How much RAM do you have? How much free hard drive space do you have on your C: drive?

If you are going to work with scanned images you will probably need at least 64meg of RAM. I got tired of listening to the hard drive run when I had 64 meg of RAM and added another 128meg to bring me up to 192 meg.

You will also need at least 100 meg of free hard drive space on your C: drive for temp files that either Windows or you image editing software will produce during editing.

Images from digital camera are relatively low resolution to what a scanner can produce. for example an 8"x10" photo scanned at 300dpi will result in an uncompressed file around 20 megbytes. Even the best digital camera won't produce an uncompressed file much bigger than 6 meg. For most image editing software a good rule of thumb is you need 3 times the amount of RAM than your largest image you want to edit. That is where the 64 meg sugestion comes from. The one exception to this I know of is Live Pix program. It is designed to work with less RAM than other image editors.

-- Bob G. (rgreg88721@hotmail.com), April 29, 1999.