Scanning old manuals

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Tue Mar 9 14:18:49 1999

> The one attractive thing we loose by creating 60meg PDF files is the
> ability to browse pages without downloading the entire thing....
> Or am I missing something in Acrobat that will pull pages on demand
> from a table of contents?

If you "optimize" the PDF using Acrobat Exchange 3.0 or newer, and your
web server supports HTTP 1.1 byte-serving, and the user has the Acrobat
Reader plug-in for the browser, you do get page-at-a-time browsing.

I've considered writing a CGI script for my server to construct
PDF files of page ranges of documents on-the-fly. But so far I haven't
convinced myself that it's worth the trouble.

> What scanner are you using? Your scans look pretty good.

I'm using an HP ScanJet 3c. Your 4c is the same scanner with different
bundled software). A 6100c is an improved version of the same thing.
But the newer HP scanners (6200c, 6250c) are a step backwards, at least
in terms of the quality of the sheet feeder.

For text and line art, make sure you use the "HP AccuPage" feature
(automatic thresholding). It does a much better job than the fixed
thresholding, or any of the software-based automatic thresholding that
I've found.

> Did you do that 500+ page manual by hand or with the sheet feeder? :-)

The Processor Reference Manual was done by hand. Actually, I guess I
don't have any of the ones I've done with the ADF on the web page yet,
although I've sent some HP calculator-related scans to Dave Hicks for
the next edition of his Museum of HP Calculators CD-ROM set.

I'm slowly working on scanning the entire set of TOPS-10 Software Notebooks.

> Right now I have a stock HP Scanjet 4C, but am considering investing
> in a ledger-size scanner with a decent sheet feeder so I can archive
> not only my manuals, but my printsets as well.

There are inexpensive scanners with ADF, and there are inexpensive B-size
scanners. But there aren't inexpensive B-size scanners with ADF. :-(

I keep hoping that HP will introduce one. And it would be especially
nice if it was designed for heavy usage, had a high-capacity ADF comparable
to a high-end copier, and a 100-base-T network interface.

Eric
Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 14:18:49 GMT