DIGITAL MEDIA LAB

at the NEW LENOX PUBLIC LIBRARY

How to Scan 35mm Slides

Make sure the scanner cable is plugged into the iMac’s USB port.

‘The scanner cable is cream-colored.

Turn the scanner on by pressing the power button.

‘The power button is at the front of the scanner, in the bottom left corner.

Make a folder on the desktop.

You will scan your images to this folder. It can be confusing to try and find a flash drive through the

SilverFast software, so this is my workaround. Right click (or ctrl + click) on the desktop, and select

“New folder.” Type in a new name. Hit enter to name the folder.

Launch SilverFast 8 by clicking on its dock icon.

It will bounce to show it is loading. Once the software loads, click the small “Start” button (=)

on the bottom right. At this point, if you forgot to turn the scanner on, you will receive an 7

error message at the top of the welcome window. If that happens, close SilverFast, power on

the scanner, and reload SilverFast.

Load the slides into their holder, and place it into the scanner.

If you need to, use the gray dust-removal tool (gray and looks like a big version of those blue nasal

aspirators for babies) to blow away any dust that has accumulated on your slides. After all twelve

slides are in, place the holder on top of the glass. Make sure the holder is set into place, so that

the “feet” are set into their proper divots, and the

white arrows are pointing at each other.

Check that your settings are correct.

Go to the left navigation. The top four images are

actually drop-down menus. Your options are:

+ Reflective (photographs, documents) or

Transparent (slides, negatives)

+ Positive (photographs, documents, slides) or

Negative (negatives)

+ We can ignore the Bit menu for now.

+ Frame — Many selections for framing images

you want to save. Shows up on the preview

screen in gray (unselected) or red (selected).

Each frame is numbered in the bottom left