The user enters the desired image capture parameters to be used when capturing an electronic image of an original document into one or more portions of a preview graphical user interface. Then, either automatically, or upon selecting a preview function, a preview pane portion of the preview graphical user interface is generated. The preview pane portion graphically illustrates how the various image capture parameters selected by the user will be applied to the original document to generate the captured electronic image data. Each of the different types of image capture parameters has a different visual cue associated with it. The visual cues visually inform the user of the image capture parameters that the user has selected. Thus, without actually capturing a preview image and without filling the preview pane portion with an actual preview image, the user can accurately determine what the resulting image will look like after the original document is captured. Thus, most preview scans can be eliminated. The user can also easily determine whether a preview scan is required. For example, a preview scan may still be desirable if it is difficult for the user to determine if the selected image capture parameters will result in the desired captured electronic image data. However, even if the user determines that a preview scan is still desirable, the selected image capture parameters will generally be closer to the required image capture parameters before the actual preview scan is generated than without using the preview graphical user interface.