Test scans of handwritten bios
How a scan looks depending on the width of the handwritten page. Conclusion is at bottom of this page.
To test how well scanning handwritten bios works, I used xerox-copy page from the 45th reunion book. Scans were done at 300 dpi and 8-bit grayscale, and produced a .jpg file of typically 1 MB per page. I'm sure one can optimize the scan parameters to minimize file size yet retain decent visual quality. Scanning an original instead of a xerox copy will also produce a better result.
Note: If you click on any of the scanned text below, you will see the full-size image, which is much large than what is shown here. In the future, the image appearing here will be the largest size (saves space).
The maximum width of a line of text measured 6.5 inches in the following. I cropped the scan, and I used photoshop to sharpen the writing.
The above scan suffered because it was a light, low-contrast xerox copy to begin with, and because I put the whole book on the scanner bed, so it didn't lay flat everywhere.
Conclusion. Handwriting on an 8.5x11 page is OK. We don't have to give special instructions about margins. However, it will look best if classmates used a black-ink pen on white paper if their handwritten bio is to be scanned rather typed by somebody.