Resize a scan to what size is good idea?

[Major Eazy]

I scanned magazine articles (they're roughly around more or less nearly A4 ish size) so that I could have them in digital format, rather than having a pile of papers with nowhere to store. I have been scanning them at 600dpi to start with, and while I know that would give a far too large file size, the idea is to scan large then resize smaller, rather than scan small then resize larger. Well, some of those pages are now roughly about say around 4000 x 7000 (ish).

The output for those image files are going to be used in various ways, sometimes just display on screen (I have dual monitors, so I can read the article on one monitor while doing research and typing on other), sometimes sync to iPad to read on the iPad, sometimes may need to print off the article when needed. May also later turn them into pdf files rather than leave them in jpeg files.

I often resize them down to about 2400 x 3300 (ish).

I was wondering what sizes would you think seems more suitable? How far down can I resize them before they reach a point where any lower, they would be hardly easy to read? If it was you, what would you prefer to resize to?

Many thanks.

 

[Ploddles]

Why not just reduce them to say 90%, then resize that to 90% and keep going until you think it is too small. You will then have the baseline on what to reduces the rest of them to.

 

[Major Eazy]

Why not just reduce them to say 90%, then resize that to 90% and keep going until you think it is too small. You will then have the baseline on what to reduces the rest of them to.

I reduce by 50% (sometimes 40%) and they're fine for me. I'm not worried, just wondering in general what do most people prefer.

 

[Nod]

Can you not scan them with character recognition so they're a text file rather than an image?