text quality poor after moding work

[sonoma]

am trying to combine 3 pages that were scanned from one long page.when I combine them the text is so poor it is hard to read.
what am I doing wrong that is causing this and what do I need to do to improve the quality?
thank you

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I assume that you're using "Create Panorama Image" with the vertical setting.

Make sure the three pages are the same width so that they are not scaled when joined. You can use the Custom Crop (Shift C) on each image before joining them to make sure they're the same width.

Scan the text between 150 dpi to 300 dpi for clear text.

[sonoma]

they are all the same size and they are a schematic.before I join them you can blow them up and read them.after I put them together the printing on the schematic is blured and can not read them .I have tried it 3 times and I get the same results each time.I can join them in paint and they are a little better but I did not want to use paint since it does not do a good job. I have been told by others irfanview was better so I am doing something wrong. the scans are at 300 dpi. I thought that was it but now I am lost on this,thanks for any help.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

No problem here. I took three screen shots of this thread in my browser, and joined them with IrfanView. As you can see, the text is sharp. I saved the panarama as a PNG image.

Perhaps you are saving yours as a low quality JPG? That is never the best format for text or line drawings.

[sonoma]

I was saving as jpg and tried what you did as saving as png and it worked great
thank you