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Thread: Questions about self printing

  1. #1

    Questions about self printing

    I'm putting this in sound off so the right people will see it and participate. A mod can feel free to move it to the printed page after the discussion gets started.

    This weekend I plan to finally scan in one of these rare books. Or do a search for archivist in Shreveport, Monroe or Vicksburg to do it for me.

    My questions are for after that.

    What kind of image should I save these pages as? TIFF I would assume? I'll probably need to do some cleaning on these images later to remove stains, align text, etc.

    If I pay for a service to do this, what should I ask for?


    After I have the pages how I want them, I'm going to print copies. What kind of paper would you go with? I want something close to the original, but durable.

  2. #2
    Not mine, but an example of what a scanning service will probably provide if I don't have preferences

    https://www.scribd.com/doc/52148226/...art-Light-Tank

    They've scanned at a low file size, and detail is lost and small lettering is blury. There is lots of garbage that needs to be erased. Edges need to be cleaned up, binding needs to be erased and images need to be resized so they print like the original.

    What is the best file type to start with for that kind of work? And what are the best programs for doing it if the final result is to print it? The classics like Photoshop and illustrator?

  3. Proper scanning would require cutting all the pages out of the original binding so they can lay flat in the scanner. Just in case you thought you would keep the original.

    There are others that know more about this, so feel free to disregard. TIFF is a standard file format for this kind of work, it's uncompressed and supports multiple layers. It may support compression. We always used it in school when doing photoshop stuff instead of the photoshop-specific .PSD format.

    Image size kind of grows exponentially as you increase the resolution. You can keep the file size down by limiting the colors, like your example looks to be just two colors, black and white. Standard print resolution is 300dpi, so you could scan at double that if you were being a stickler for quality. Your example book might have been scanned at a better quality, but it's downscaled so much because it's still legible enough for web use.

    If you're looking at cleaning up the scans, I'm sure there are tons of tutorials available about manga scanning that could be applied to this. I don't know anything about getting professionals to do it, or printing. Photoshop will be the most supported software for this, and you could probably find some macros that'll do the basic leveling/cropping for you.

  4. #4
    I've learned a lot from the manga scanning crowd but I didn't know if they were the best to listen to if the end product was reprints (and I can't ask on their forums or I'll get banned, assuming I'm trying to create manga bootlegs).

    A previous topic on that http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/thr...-art-books-etc

    The vhs to digital project has me rethinking my work flow for this project however. If it is anything like video, you need to think a lot about the final format and how much editing you're going to go through. The ultimate goal for my rare books is reprints. I want to get this stuff back out there.

    Right now I'm thinking 300dpi or higher scans, TIFF format, clean up in photoshop, ???final file, ???printers and binders,

  5. If you're just trying to reproduce the information, why no just OCR it?

  6. #6
    most of these books are 25% or more consist of images.

    I don't want to derail the thread with a discussion on why OCR is unappealing. It would be on par with spending $300 on an converter to play nes games on bigger tvs with the correct color palette, or trying to get the correct shade of brown in images of the declaration of independence. If you have to ask, you probably won't agree with the answer.

  7. I can provide more guidance when I'm home but would using some kind of ocr scan on the text to turn the scans in to actual text be at all helpful? Then you could paste the book in to InDesign and rip a high resolution PDF

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Fe 26 View Post
    most of these books are 25% or more consist of images.

    I don't want to derail the thread with a discussion on why OCR is unappealing. It would be on par with spending $300 on an converter to play nes games on bigger tvs with the correct color palette, or trying to get the correct shade of brown in images of the declaration of independence. If you have to ask, you probably won't agree with the answer.
    no

  9. #9
    Other examples

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/vtg-1944-Wha...-/181946090654

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/OFFICIAL-WWI...-/131723365884

    The presentation, graphs, tables, colors, pictures, etc is just as important as the contents of the text.

    OCR is not an option.

  10. Questions about self printing

    Quote Originally Posted by Fe 26 View Post
    I've learned a lot from the manga scanning crowd but I didn't know if they were the best to listen to if the end product was reprints (and I can't ask on their forums or I'll get banned, assuming I'm trying to create manga bootlegs).
    I really don't know anything about printing, I thought about them for editing help. I've seen some of the before and after with manga when they are scanning essentially newspaper that you can see a ghost of the back page in the image, and they end up with a good looking final product.
    Why are you reading this? go to your general settings and uncheck the Show Signatures box already!

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