Fiche scanning redux

From: Brian Chase <vaxzilla_at_jarai.org>
Date: Fri Feb 15 14:41:01 2002

On Fri, 15 Feb 2002, Tom Uban wrote:

> I would have to agree with Brian's comments. Piecing together the
> various panels to create one page would be a pain. The slide scanners
> are not that cheap either though and might be comparable to the
> anacomp fiche scanners in price.

What does the Anacomp go for? The really nice Nikon Super Coolscan
8000 ED runs about $3000. Lower end models (limited to 35mm scanning)
can run less than $900. They aren't *cheap* exactly, but it might be
worthwhile to someone with mixed photography and vintage computing
hobbies.

I like the backlighter idea as well, but I've a feeling the resolution
wouldn't be adequate for microfiche.

Another possibility would be to setup a projection system to enlarge the
microfiche, and then capture that. For example, you might be able to
put the fiche in a photographic enlarger and project the image onto a
flatbed scanner. I guess this would be kind of like a backlighter with
magnification. Another possibility would be to project the enlarged
image onto a white opaque surface (i.e. a wall). Then use a tripod
mounted digital camera to record the projected image.

In either case, you take the resulting images and process them to be
high contrast b&w TIFFs for incorporating into a PDF file or for
further processing with OCR software.

-brian.
Received on Fri Feb 15 2002 - 14:41:01 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:34:47 BST