A fingerprint scanning and image reconstruction system and method including a fingerprint scanner providing a first scan line and a second scan line separated by a line separation distance in a scanning direction. The system includes an image reconstruction module accumulating scan lines including at least the first scan line and the second scan line over a time period t. The image reconstruction module a value for decimation (t) necessary to produce a selected y axis resolution in the scanning direction based at least in part on (line count(t)/line separation distance)*a selected y resolution, where line count(t) is the number of lines accumulated in time t, and decimation(t) indicates of whether the line count(t) is greater than or less than the number of lines accumulated as a function of the time period t that will result in a selected reconstructed image y resolution in the scanning direction.