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Your Scans Here!

Acetate Sheets to Protect

Your Scanner Glass


Use acetate sheets to protect the glass of your photo scanner. . . especially when scanning messy items and/or working with children!

These sheets are generally used for color separations and layouts. Sometimes you can find them in office supply and art stores. Be sure to get the CLEAR. The 9X12 size, .003 thickness is easy to work with and usually comes in pads. If you can't find the sheets locally try BLICK art materials.

Acetate acts as a magnet for dust, hair, dirt and fingerprints!

Wearing white cotton gloves helps prevent fingerprints! Many photographers use them when working with their artwork. Purchse a cheap pair at most drug stores. If you don't see them, ASK. They are often tucked away in odd places.

Clean the scanner bed before and after using acetate.

Once used be sure there are no spots, stains or pieces of dust, dirt etc. on the acetate before using it again. If you are scanning something "messy" use a new sheet each time you move the item being scanned.

NO, kitchen wrap is not a good substitute! It can leave a film on the glass, which is difficult to remove.



Big Messes


  • Liquids - can be things like juices from fruit and vegetables. When using sliced fruit and/or vegetables, blot slightly on a paper towel before using.

  • Sap and oil - things in nature often have emissions you can barely see. Branches, leaves and flowers can all be sappy.

    Mushrooms are just one of the really messy subjects.

    After scanning some mushrooms (without acetate), I could see the marks left on the glass.

    I placed a piece of paper over the stains and scanned, this was the outcome:

    Scanner photo mushroom stain

    Now I use acetate sheets to prevent an unnecessary cleanup job.


    Watch the Edges


    Be sure the pages lie flat on the glass. Sometimes the sheet may be just a little larger than the flat area of your scanner. If so, trim with scissors. While doing so, wear those white gloves, fingerprints will show!

    Any area that is not flat will give you rainbows and lots of light lines. To demonstrate, this scan photo is of a rolled up piece of acetate.

    scanner photo of acetate sheet




    Will It Show?


    Below are two scans created using acetate sheets on the glass. The quality remains top notch. The first is a tomato slice (glad I didn't have to clean up after that one).

    scanography, tomato slice placed on acetate



    This Petrea flower leaves small sap deposits . . . difficult to remove from glass. Acetate resolved the problem.

    scanography exotic flowers, Petrea




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