Tip:
Scanning 101.

The issue:
GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). Getting a clean scan gives your music scanning software the best chance of giving you something intelligible.

Any music scanning software (such as SharpEye or Photoscore) relies to some extent upon the software that came with your scanner for its results. Using whatever software that came with your scanner, verify the following settings. Note that your dialog windows will undoubtedly differ from those illustrated below.

If SharpEye is your music scanning software: Scan as "Line Art" or "Black & White" at 300-400 dpi and save as a TIFF file (or scan directly into SharpEye using the "Acquire" function).

If PhotoScore is your music scanning software: Scan as "Grayscale" at 300-400 dpi and save as a BMP file (or scan directly into PhotoScore using the "Acquire" function).

When saving your scans, make note of where you are saving them.

2 other helpful tips:

• Adjust the Contrast settings in your scanning software to make sure that the most fine markings in the music, such as barlines, are being picked up.
• If you are scanning music that is on smaller staves (such as orchestration scores), increase the dpi to 400 dpi. There is no need to scan at higher resolutions like 600 dpi. That just makes them take longer to process.