Digital BW, The Print

> >>> Do you believe it is high bit justified, or just left low bit
> >> justified?  In
> >>> other words, does the scanner A/D give you a 12 bit value of
> >> 0101 1010 1010.
> >>> Does that end up in the 16 bit space as 0101 1010 1010 0000
> OR 0000 0101
> >>> 1010 1010?
> >>
> >> What difference does it make? I was answering his question of why the
> >> raw scan doesn't fill the whole 16bit space. Luckily, we don't have to
> >> worry about what our images look like written out in binary.
> >
> > It matters in how much space the values will occupy in the 16
> bit space when
> > you get them from the scanner.  If the values are low bit
> justified, they
> > will occupy a smaller span than if the values were high bit
> justified.  Do
> > you know the answer?
>
> I know I for one await *your* answer (Austin) with baited breath.
> If you can
> explain this clearly, and why the difference yields differing
> spans, we will
> have come a long way.

The answer is, it depends on the scanner and the software.  Viewscan DOES
high bit justify the data.  It really doesn't matter either way (except for
someone like Mike who insists it's useful for him), because all the data is
still there, in either case.  You still need to apply setpoints in both
cases, and that will distribute the data pretty much exactly the same too.

I believe the answer is, it doesn't matter as far as data integrity goes,
but if you happen to "like" it one way or the other, then it seems that it
matters ;-)