Scanning old manuals

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Tue Mar 9 20:47:09 1999

I use some software called TypeMaster Pro, or something very close to that
with an old monochrome legal size scanner with sheetfeeder, namely a
Microtek 300, which I've had for about 10 years. I normally plunked a
manual in the feeder (once the binding was cut off) and scanned all the
odd, then all the even pages. It rejects the pictures, of course, but you
only have to nurse it through the first 10 or so pages, by which time it's
learned the font and punctuations in common use in the manual and can do
the rest more or less by itself. Unfortunately it has to be retrained for
the second pass. What it does is pretty slick, though, in that it looks at
the alignment and actually straightens out a sheet which has been fed
crooked. It can't replace text it didn't see, but it does a pretty good
job. One of my colleagues made a quick machine readable copy of the
State's revised statutes in order to investigate a case in which he was
involved. It required less than half a day for him to do that.

Dick

----------
> From: Jim Strickland <jim_at_calico.litterbox.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Scanning old manuals
> Date: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 4:21 PM
>
> > Last I checked, that was a USD 3,000 camera. Prices may have gone
> > down, however. Note that there's no way anything less than the $10K
> > Hasselblad backs that magazines use for studio work can equal a 600dpi
> > scan.
>
> > Which 35mm film are you using? There are some really nifty Kodak
> > technical films -- Tekpan something or other (4-digit number?) is an
> > ASA 25 black & white film, although you'd need a few hundred dollars
> > of lighting equipment to use it for this application. OTOH, T-Max 125
> > probably delivers more than enough quality for the job. ^_^
>
> Hey, you can save a ton of work scanning and get far better resolution
than
> the average scanner by taking the pictures on 35mm film with a good
closeup
> lense and having Kodak process it on to a photocd. Most graphics
packages
> (ie photodeluxe) can read photocds directly.
> --
> Jim Strickland
> jim_at_DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there?
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Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 20:47:09 GMT