I have a situation where I need to display and print scanned images. I'm preparing to start the process of rescanning 2000+ images. Currently I have two scans for each image, one for display and a second for printing, both in .bmp format. This is work done from a couple years back. The reason for two scans was that we could not come up with settings that were good for both display and print.

Now we to scale the images when they are printed from 1/2 page size down to a 2x2 size.

The images are drawings done in black on white background. Some, but few, have any shading. Most are just stick drawings that have many curves and arcs. The problem I have has with .bmp files is that if I scale them up, they turn into random dots in the general shape of the original scan. This is not very professional looking.

I would welcome all thoughts on best image format to use, and a good way to display and print these images. Currently in my display form I have the image setup as an image with no source. As I navigate the tables, I programmatically change the source of the image to the appropriate .bmp file.

Since there are so many images and I have two of each I have tried to keep the file size small. This has certainly been part of the problem with image quality. My new goal has to be quality of image and scalability, and let file size fall where it may.

Any help or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Al