How do you edit magazines?

[Data]

I'd like to share my process for editing magazines.
I use Photoshop CS6 inside a VM Workstation 12.  I like using the VM Workstation because if my power goes out or something goes pear shape with my computer, the workstaton remembers everything the way it was, even on a different computer.  It's also a good way to multitask my day to day stuff without having retromags stuff in the way.

So I have been editing Marktrade's raw scans which he made available on archive org.

I've made 3 videos of me working with the scans inside Photoshop that may or may not be helpful.

I start by dragging a page with alot of text to make my template.
I plumb it and line two corners up with the desktop.
With rulers on and set to pixels I resize the image while holding shift so the width is between 1600 and 1700 pixels.
I crop the desktop to fit the page plus a couple pixels on each side.
I then drag another high text page onto desktop and resize it.  This time I pay attention to the percent it takes to resize it to my template plus a pixel or two on each side.
Now I drag all the raw pages onto the desktop.
I hide all but one layer and then select all the layers in the layer panel.  I press Ctrl + T and then enter the percent needed for all the layers.

I run a script that rasterizes all layers

http://www.mediafire.com/file/rv63nv3d71rya8a/Raterize+all+layers.jsx

Now I start from the first layer and only worry about plumbing the image and centering it on the desktop.
No editing yet.

Everything is plumb and in my layers and saved to one file.
I can work away at this a few pages at a time.
I use Healing brush alot.  Normal mode when I can and replace when I'm close to the edge of the page or edges within the artwork.

 

How do you all do it?

[kitsunebi]

I gave up on the first vid after it was 4 minutes in and it was just finishing up the cropping lol.  Everyone has a process, so even though I find it WAY faster to use CS6's straighten tool followed by a quick and easy crop, I would never suggest that you should do it differently if that's what you're comfortable with.  I should point out that I use Fuji's Scansnap ix500, which automatically crops the image accurately, so the only cropping I sometimes need to do is on the gutter side of the page.  Those scans of marktrade's or anything scanned on a flatbed are obviously going to be a bit more troublesome.

 

However, I'd like to point out that resizing the image the way you do is problematic.  In order to be displayed consistently in a CBR reader (or PDF if someone converts the file), the pages should have a constant height, not width.  The RM minimum is 2200px high.  But whether it's 2200, 2300, 2600, or whatever strikes your fancy, it's important that each page be the same height, especially on any pages that have content that continues onto a facing page, even something as simple as a colored page border.  Rather than using rulers and dragging the image to resize, you should type in the pixel height in the "image size" menu to get it exact (and in my opinion this should be done after all other editing is finished as part of a closing action.)

 

Anyway, here's me (using Photoshop CS6):

1. Open a single file
2. Use straighten tool (done by drawing/dragging a line against a straight horizontal or vertical line printed on the page)
3. Crop
4. fix blemishes using combination of content aware fill and clone stamp
5. Record the following as a single action:
   • adjust levels
   • adjust brightness and/or saturation (usually not necessary)
   • set image height to 2300/2400 (depends on the mag)
   • save copy of image at compression level 9
   • close image
6. Open next file, repeat steps 1-4, then hit the play button to execute the action that does everything in step 5
7. Repeat

The action created in step 5 can only be used on a single magazine, since other mags may need different level/color adjustments.  Likewise, if a single mag has more than one type of paper stock, I'll create an action for each paper type.

 

This is the most expedient way I know and gets good results.  Content aware fill is a blessing that older versions of Photoshop don't have - those guys are stuck using clone stamp more or less exclusively.  And oddly even the straighten tool seems to be absent from older Photoshops, forcing people to rotate the page by degrees - crazy.

[Data]

I just want to confirm that all pages are consistent in height and width because the're scaled proportionally.  I followed Eday's guide for editing which states, "The general standard dimensions for a scan is 2100 pixels high, or 2200 pixels tall if that gets the width of your pages closer to 1600 pixels wide."

 

If you quit watching after 4 minutes, then I did my job.    This is some boring and tedious stuff, so it's best to have a system where you can take breaks and return while waiting for something.

[Sean697]

The main thing is , and you may not have been here when they changed it. But it's constant height on a scan. Where used to be constant width. Due to consistent reader viewing. The width doesn't matter it seems your cropping doesn't vary. Whereas when I crop some pages will vary somewhat as I crop depending on page content. A ful page artwork I'm cropping as little as possible. A page with mono color borders or pattern I'm doing an easy crop and if the page is t cut straight I'll be cropping more so I don't have to fill in during editing.

[Sean697]

I gave up on the first vid after it was 4 minutes in and it was just finishing up the cropping lol. Everyone has a process, so even though I find it WAY faster to use CS6's straighten tool followed by a quick and easy crop, I would never suggest that you should do it differently if that's what you're comfortable with. I should point out that I use Fuji's Scansnap ix500, which automatically crops the image accurately, so the only cropping I sometimes need to do is on the gutter side of the page. Those scans of marktrade's or anything scanned on a flatbed are obviously going to be a bit more troublesome.

However, I'd like to point out that resizing the image the way you do is problematic. In order to be displayed consistently in a CBR reader (or PDF if someone converts the file), the pages should have a constant height, not width. The RM minimum is 2200px high. But whether it's 2200, 2300, 2600, or whatever strikes your fancy, it's important that each page be the same height, especially on any pages that have content that continues onto a facing page, even something as simple as a colored page border. Rather than using rulers and dragging the image to resize, you should type in the pixel height in the "image size" menu to get it exact (and in my opinion this should be done after all other editing is finished as part of a closing action.)

Anyway, here's me (using Photoshop CS6):

• Open a single file
• Use straighten tool (done by drawing/dragging a line against a straight horizontal or vertical line printed on the page)
• Crop
• fix blemishes using combination of content aware fill and clone stamp
• Record the following as a single action:
  • adjust levels
  • adjust brightness and/or saturation (usually not necessary)
  • set image height to 2300/2400 (depends on the mag)
  • save copy of image at compression level 9
  • close image
• Open next file, repeat steps 1-4, then hit the play button to execute the action that does everything in step 5
• Repeat

The action created in step 5 can only be used on a single magazine, since other mags may need different level/color adjustments. Likewise, if a single mag has more than one type of paper stock, I'll create an action for each paper type.

This is the most expedient way I know and gets good results. Content aware fill is a blessing that older versions of Photoshop don't have - those guys are stuck using clone stamp more or less exclusively. And oddly even the straighten tool seems to be absent from older Photoshops, forcing people to rotate the page by degrees - crazy.

Once again , your steps nearly mirror mine. And like you said I don't have content aware fill or straitened tool. But you can draw a line and rotate command and it will straitenen the line. Just not as straight forward as the newer command.

[Data]

Then I wasted many  hours because mine don't meat the height requirement.

[E-Day]

I create an action to do all the colour corrections (levels, brightness, saturation) as well as resize and save a copy at full size, and then resize down and save another copy at 2200px height. I also have an action for cropping.

I use the same colour correction adjustments on everything coming out of the same scanner. I find it works just fine. I have different adjustments for different scanners.

I also map the actions to F keys to minimize the time wasted clicking on stuff.

[kitsunebi]

32 minutes ago, E-Day said:

I create an action to do all the colour corrections (levels, brightness, saturation) as well as resize and save a copy at full size, and then resize down and save another copy at 2200px height. I also have an action for cropping.

I use the same colour correction adjustments on everything coming out of the same scanner. I find it works just fine. I have different adjustments for different scanners.

Every scanner is different, so I won't say to avoid it outright, but I would like to warn potential newbies that adjusting the saturation level is usually not necessary with a non-sun-damaged mag using a decent scanner and could actually deteriorate the quality of your image.

As for using the same color correction adjustments on every magazine on the same scanner, I couldn't disagree more.  I'm sure the results of doing so are serviceable, but I would bet my entire collection that better results would be gotten by catering the adjustments to the individual magazine.  Different mags have different paper that reflects and absorbs light differently, so any single scanner will produce different results based on what is being scanned.  Beyond that, older mags may have extreme yellowing you want to compensate for, requiring different settings.  As it only takes about a minute to create a new color adjustment/resizing/saving action, there's no reason not to do one for each mag being edited.  (Some of the mags I've edited have 2 different paper stocks within the same magazine, requiring 2 different adjustment actions)