Ever lost a DVD, had your DVD collection stolen or damaged in an unforeseen accident? Strange things happen, which is why more people are backing up their precious DVD collection, which can potentially be worth thousands of dollars. While people are creating back-ups of their movies, many forget to create back-ups of the DVD covers inside the cases. If you want your DVD collection to look brilliant on display then they must have covers. This is why it is good practice to scan your DVD covers collection, especially those rare covers that may be difficult to find on the Internet at a later stage.

Scanning a DVD cover is simple however requires that you have some basic Photoshop knowledge/ skills. We need to make some basic image edits to ensure our covers are just right if we ever need to print them to serve as replacements. Here are some tips to help you get the most from your scans.

• The first tip doesn’t require any computer. Instead I recommend that you remove your DVD cover from its case and place it under a stack of heavy books. It is recommended that you leave it there for approximately a week, however even one day makes a difference. This step helps flatten the spine of your cover and will make the editing process much easier.

• When scanning, ensure you set your dpi(dots per inch) to 600. This will give you a large image with a great amount of picture information and detail. This setting will help to better edit the cover.

• It is recommended that you switch off any filters, such as sharpness, brightness, contrast etc. You will achieve better results editing these settings once the cover is scanned in Photoshop.

• Select the de-screen option. This setting helps remove the moiré pattern(crosshatched effect) which haunts so many scanned images.

• Once the scan is complete you must immediately open the levels tool (image > adjustments > levels) to repair the DVD cover’s black, mid and white tones. For a more detailed explanation on how to use the levels tool, check the link below.

• Fix any dust or rip spots on your cover by using the clone tool. If you are working on a solid color you can use the brush tool, which can be much quicker and highly effective at times. Remember to play around with the opacity settings of these tools to ensure your repairs look authentic.

• Use the gaussian blur tool to remove the remaining effects of moiré patterns (not always necessary.

• Reduce your DVD Cover to 300 DPI prior to saving. We do not require 600 DPI for print and also saves on storage.

These are the basic steps to creating high quality back-ups. Please remember that some DVD covers may require more work than others depending on the age, quality and color of the DVD Cover.