Scanning gold leaf, or for that matter, any reflective object, is virtually
impossible because what makes you perceive the object as reflective is the
ambient light, the light sources, and other objects reflected in the
surface. The moment you place it on the scanner bed, you've removed all of
these elements, and replaced the light source with a single flourescent
tube that positions the direction of the light directly perpendicular to
the surface. It just don't work.

Better would be to take a picture of it (without flash, if possible, but
augmenting the light sources with some additional lighting), and scan the
picture, or, better yet, use a digital camera (same lighting considerations
and cover up the flash mechanism with a piece of carboard or foil) and skip
the scanning step altogether.


At 11:37 AM 4/6/98 -0500, Guy Hoyle wrote:
>I am trying to scan some gold leaf, and so far the scans have been coming
>out very dark. Has anybody had any luck scanning similarly shiny materials?
>What do I need to do to produce a "gold" texture?

Barn
(Byron Canfield)
http://www.byronc.com
================================
    "Inside every large problem
     there is a small problem struggling to get out."
          --Hoare's Law of Problem Solving

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