Thread: About scans.
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Old Jan 22, 2009, 02:23 PM
CaptainCommando CaptainCommando is offline
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This is following up on some of Secret Squirrel's comments in another thread:

Quote:
We don't want them too large because they take up space and take forever to download, and there's a point beyond which there is no benefit. Yours are readable, and are about 1400 pixels per booklet side (300 dpi?), which is what I use.
300dpi is an archival quality, and it is always best to archive with the highest quality possible - just because there is no discernible benefit today does not mean there will not be a benefit even 5 years from now. So it is always best to do things once than to find you have to do them again later. PNGs can be created for lossless, compressed file size, and are used by Library of Congress and other archives as an image format standard:

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/f...dd000153.shtml

Despite the popularity of JPGs, they are lossy. I think there are also save-for-web settings for PNG, but some of those are lossy.

Here is additional scanner information from my brother, who has done a lot of work with scanning:

Get a good scanner (Epson, Cannon). Scan at least 300DPI. Have a decent scan bed size something at least 9x12. Make sure that you make previews of the image you are scanning and draw a marquee around the image you want to scan (some things look better scanned in Photo VS Document so play around with the setting and see what looks more accurate to your original source). Also check to make sure the colors on your preview image closely match the colors on your actual source. If the Image is faded, try to play with the contrast and brightness and see if you can try color restoration if your scanner supports it.

If you have a spine there are various ways try scanning. If your whole book fits on the scanning bed you can flatten it on there or scan a page at a time if it doesn't fit and edit the pages together later. If you get darkness near the spine you can either edit it or delete it because there is not much else you can do about it unless you despine your book (The next best thing would be to photograph the spread).

When you are satisfied with your image save it as a lossless (PNG, TIFF) for archival purposes and make multiple backups of your good lossless image then you can save it as a jpg. If you are thinking about making a book type file out of it CBR is the best choice VS PDF (PDF is lossy) and try to put single pages in the book because spreads make the previewing process slow. It also helps if you have a good quality monitor and a program like Photoshop.

Also remember that some things that look great on a monitor can look like crap when you print it out. Also make sure you completely square the image using the ruler tool in Photoshop and edit stuff like creases and junk out. Do not watermark your original images. Yes this takes a long time, but if you have a good scanner and patience you will prevail!
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