Scanning old manuals

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Tue Mar 9 12:06:29 1999

At 12:32 PM 3/9/99 -0500, Stephen Dauphin wrote:
>I'd like to second this notion. Could those on this list, who are
>scanning for posterity, share their methods?

I've only done a few, and those on a standard flat bed scanner.

>I am especially puzzled by dpi. Seems everybody in the world is scanning
>at 600 or over. I am contemplating using a Hewlett Packard at 300 and
>from some test scans, including pictures, I am hard pressed to tell the
>difference between 2 and 3 hundred.

300 DPI B&W is good for most printed manuals _without_ graphics because it
is a 1:1 ratio with what most printers can print. 200 DPI gives you a 2:3
ratio of real pixels to printer pixels and I've seen that introduce banding
on the printed output.

>I am also interested in what people are using to descreen/despeckle
>material that was printed using a screen. Are there any third party ways
>to do it or am I dependent on the scanning software? If there is other
>software, are they any more successful than what I have seen?

I use Corel Scan (its part of the Corel Draw package)

>I realize that these summaries could be considered somewhat off topic,
>but I don't think it is a major hazard, given the traffic on the list in
>recent days. Certainly, there may be particular peculiarities involved
>with the material we are saving and I am hoping any respondents will
>specifically address this.

If I replace my scanner with a USB scanner I will definitely get one that
has computer readable buttons on the scanner! My biggest hassle is holding
the book while I reach over to press enter to start the scan.

--Chuck
Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 12:06:29 GMT