A useful gasket photo is
flat, square, sharp, and scaled.

Use a scanner when the gasket fits

1. Clean the scanner glass.
2. Lay the gasket flat without pushing or stretching it.
3. Add a ruler or the calibration strip from our tracing kit.
4. Scan at 300 dpi or higher with automatic cropping and image enhancement turned off.
5. Save the full page as PNG or PDF.

For a phone or camera

• Use a contrasting, plain background.
• Include the entire gasket with space around every edge.
• Place the ruler next to the gasket, not above or below it.
• Use diffuse light from both sides to reduce shadows.
• Avoid wide-angle mode; move the camera farther away and zoom slightly if needed.
• Do not use portrait mode, perspective correction, filters, or screenshots.
• Upload the original file, not a compressed message preview.

Always include a direct measurement

Measure one long, easy-to-identify feature directly: overall width, outside diameter, or distance between two hole centers. Write that number in the upload scale note. For small holes and passages, a caliper measurement is more useful than a ruler.

Take supporting photos

Along with the straight overhead image, include a wider equipment photo, component identification plate, mating surface, and any damaged or missing area. Supporting images provide context; only the square overhead image should be used as the primary tracing view.