HP DeskJet Scanned Document Image Size Problems

Many of Hewlett Packard’s DeskJet all-in-one printers come with a built-in flatbed scanner that your small office can use for all of its scanning needs. Though all of the scanner specifications and controls are different depending on the specific model of DeskJet, all HP scanners are subject to errors from time to time. These include problems with the scanned image being too zoomed out or in, or too large or small a file size. You can control all of these settings with HP’s software.

Scanning from the Printer

Most HP DeskJet’s have a one-touch scanning control on the printer itself. This button is meant to simplify the scanning process. Put a document on the scanner bed, press the button and the printer scans and sends the image directly to the computer. But scanning in this method doesn’t allow you to choose the size of the scanned document; the printer simply scans according to its default settings. On some DeskJets, this might mean a cropped scan or a scan much larger than the document you are trying to scan. For precise control of image sizes, use the HP software on your computer.

HP Software

Different models of DeskJet printers come with different software, including HP Print Manager and HP Scan. Launch the program from your computer, either by clicking on its icon on the Desktop in Windows 8 or by clicking “Start” and searching for “HP” in earlier versions of Windows, and then click on the “Scan Documents” tab. From the first screen you have more control over image size than when scanning directly from the printer. Choose “Image” or “Document” to change the scanner settings; typically images scan at a higher resolution over a smaller area, whereas documents scan a larger area at a lower resolution.

DPI

With HP Scan, you can manually control every aspect of the scanner to control the size of the image in the scanned file. From the scan preview screen you can adjust the resolution, a numerical value denoting the dots-per-inch (DPI) of the scan. The higher this number is, the clearer the scan will be, but the larger the image size. For legal documents, scanning at high resolution (300dpi or higher) is recommended, though file sizes will be large. For basic documents, you can scan at 72dpi to keep files sizes down, though the quality will suffer.

Image Dimensions

You can also use HP Scan to adjust the physical size of an image. After the scanner has performed a preview scan, use the preview Window to select the area of the document that you wish to scan. HP Scan shows you the dimensions of the document. You can adjust the dimensions to change the output of the scanned image without affecting the scan area; if the page is 8.5 by 11 inches, you can reduce the scanned size to 4.25 by 5.5 inches to save space on your computer. Additionally, the program may already be set to a reduced size, and you can increase the value to have larger images.