# Q: Scanner had no calibration sheet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529 "2002-11-13T03:20:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529/1 "2002-11-13T03:20:13Z")
A friend of mine said all scanners should come with a calibration sheet. Obviously, this is some way to calibrate the scanner’s colors, etc. But, I swear ours never had one. How critical is this? Can oru scanner work properly without one? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529/2 "2002-11-13T05:12:26Z")
IIRC, CorelDraw comes with one. I don’t think all scanners come with one. Many cheapo scanners can’t even be calibrated. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529/3 "2002-11-13T10:33:39Z")
I just got a new Epsom scanner to replace my Canon scanner. Neither had a calibration sheet. Nor have I ever seen one for a scanner. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529/4 "2002-11-13T11:49:57Z")
Cheap scanners don’t come with calibration targets. Most people don’t care about calibration and don’t need it anyway. If all you do is scan photos to make copies, then you don’t really need a calibrated scanner. The colors in photos are normally distorted anyway, so it doesn’t really matter if you distort them a little more. I mean, who really cares if your orange colored sweater turns a little more red in the copy? On top of this, your printer doesn’t print colors perfectly, either - nor does your monitor display colors correctly. For a calibration target to be of any real use, you need to calibrate the whole system from beginning to end. That means you have to scan the target and then have a program calculate the deviation and store a set of correction factors that get used everytime you scan. Now you have to print your corrected scan of the target then scan it back in and have it corrected for the scanner’s deviation. Now, you run the calibration program again and it generates a set of correction factors that have to be used every time you print. If you want to see things on screen, then you have to put the scanned and corrected target up on screen and use a colorimeter to measure the deviations and then generate a set of correction factors for the monitor/graphic card combination. Professional graphics artists do this kind of thing so that they can be certain that what they scan/create is also what end up on paper. Also, anytime you use the auto enhance/automatic brightness adjustment the calibration data is irrelevant anyway. Since just about everyone uses these features of the scan software, most folks won’t need to calibrate their scanners. If none of the above made any sense, then you can see why a mass market product doesn’t have something - Joe Average doesn’t understand/care about it. BTW: Scanner targets aren’t cheap. I bought mine from a guy who copies them using good photographic equipment and then provides correction data for the color deviations of the copied target. I paid about twenty bucks for it instead of the couple of hundred you have to shell out for one for professional use (which are of much better quality.) Oh, and its “Epson,” not “Epsom.” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-scanner-had-no-calibration-sheet/136529/5 "2002-11-13T22:00:42Z")
Oops, must have been thinking about soaking my feet.