Scanning Tips?

[Xenepp]

Essentially, I spent almost a whole day scanning one magazine and it was torturous. Not to mention that once I was done the mag was bent and warped from all that pulling about.

I must be missing something since others apparently can scan about 2-5 per day, maybe my scanner is rubbish, though it is fairly new-ish.

I need to know things like:

Reccommended scanners

Quality settings/File Encoding/Best Compression Methods (my last scan was BIG)

How to scan mags comfortably (when you get near the center it's excruciating!)

Is there a full on guide to doing this out there somewhere? I can't believe it hasn't really been discussed here, those who have scanned a lot of mags must have some valuable tips for those just starting out.

I have an entire collection of ST Format mags to get scanned but armed with what I currently know, I'm sunk before I start.

-Joel

[fusoya]

First of all, the easiest (and highest quality) way to scan a magazine is to debind it. For issues with staples, just remove the staples and scan all four sides, one at a time, refolding it. You might have to look forward or back a couple pages to figure out the page #'s for the ad pages. For issues with glued binding, just go in about 40 pages or so and carefully rip the two pages apart. Once a 40 page section is removed, the other pages should peel apart easily. This way each page will be nice and flat.

There's also the autofeed scanning method which some members use, as it does most of the work for you. However, the time you save in scanning, you're going to lose in straightening the pages in photoshop, since autofeeders don't always scan straight. Or you could just release the pages crooked if you don't care....

If your scanner can do 300dpi without each page taking 5 minutes, do that. Otherwise try 200 or 150. Save everything at the highest quality (100% jpg or tiff) until they have been fully edited, and then resize and compress so that each page is about 800K, or a two page spread is about 1.6M - I generally have photoshop resize to 150dpi and then save at JPG quality 8.

[Phillyman]

Welcome Xenepp

Always glad to see a member step up and help out. I have a few questions for you.

1) Are you debinding the magazines?

2) Do you have an ADF?

3) Are the magazines glued together or stapled?

4) What is the model of your scanner?

For my stapled magazines, I usually just use my Epson 3490 scanner, For Perfect bound (Glued) issues, I usually take them apart with a razor and feed them through my Automatic Document Feeder on my Canon MP830

For tips take a look in my signature

I usually scan 300DPI, and my scans come out to a resolution of 2549x3299. After I have those scans all done I run them through Irfanview and resize them down to 250DPI and a standard width of 1400. Then they are ready to be released.

Let me know if you have any more questions

[meppi]

I'm working on putting a complete scanning, editing and releasing guide together but it's going a bit slow as I have lots of other stuff on my plate right now.

I did come across the "warped pages" problem with my Maximum scans and sadly enough the only way I could get them scanned right was to debind them.

You can try to not put the pages all the way into the corner of the scanner, but only have them aligned on the top and stay a milliliter or 2 away from the side. That might help.

For the pages on the thin side of the magazine, the best you can do is to take another magazine of roughly the same thickness and size and put it on top of the page you're trying to scan.

That way your pages which are on the thick side of the magazines won't be the only one that look great, while the others have that fuzzy effect on the spine side.

Also putting some pressure on top of the scanning lid, but not too much helps a lot.

In the editing department, it's indeed best to keep the files in their original state as long as they are being edited, and only when they are done they should be resized to a width of 1280 pixels and saved as a JPG.

I would certainly keep the DPI at 300 and save at a JPG quality of 90, otherwise all your hard work in trying to keep the quality of your scans as high as possible are diminished greatly by one simple move.

Also what I found out is that for rotating slanted pages your better of using GIMP which is a free program.

Or perhaps Photoshop ( haven't tried this one myself)

The using Photostudio I can only turn the pages 1 degree at a time, which imply isn't precise enough, and I noticed that using Irfanview and such tend to make the page a bit blurry for some reason.

[Xenepp]

1) Are you debinding the magazines?

They are glued so no. They are part of my collection so I'd rather not mutilate them.

2) Do you have an ADF?

Nope, just a bog standard Xerox 2400 flatbed. Not the best but it was free and fairly recent.

I had no idea you actually cut up the glue bound mags, if I had dupes (actually I do have a few) I'd consider it but I want to keep my hard copies intact. I can see why you take this route though, it was agonising scanning that last mag.

I guess I just have to bite the bullet and get on with it.

Thanks for the help, if you have any more advice based on this criteria that'd be great.

-Joel

[Phillyman]

1) Are you debinding the magazines?

They are glued so no. They are part of my collection so I'd rather not mutilate them.

2) Do you have an ADF?

Nope, just a bog standard Xerox 2400 flatbed. Not the best but it was free and fairly recent.

I had no idea you actually cut up the glue bound mags, if I had dupes (actually I do have a few) I'd consider it but I want to keep my hard copies intact. I can see why you take this route though, it was agonising scanning that last mag.

I guess I just have to bite the bullet and get on with it.

Thanks for the help, if you have any more advice based on this criteria that'd be great.

-Joel

You dont need to cut them apart, its a preference. Meppi is the king of scanning magazines without debinding. I am sure he has a ton of tips

[Xenepp]

Yeah I use photoshop to scan and edit my scans anyway, it's a nice handy toolbox for anything graphic based.

I do most of what you said there meppi, I guess I'll just have to persivere and maybe shell out for a scanner that's a bit faster.

Thanks again.

-Joel

[meppi]

What I forgot to mention, when you're having trouble with the spine side of the scans you can also try this trick.

Open the magazine at around the middle page or so, turn it face down so that the cover and back are facing you.

Put it on a table or stable object and gently but firmly start pressing the spine downwards all the way.

This won't ruin the magazine itself, not even the spine. The only thing it does is make it a bit looser, which shouldn't be a problem at all.

The open the magazine at page 10 or so turn it over and do it again.

Nice and steady from top to bottom. Repeat if necessary.

When you now start to scan your first pages you'll notice that your scan alongside the spine will be much nicer.

Combine this with putting another magazine on top of the part you're scanning and it should look very goo, with perhaps only minor editing necessary or even none.

I'm using a flatbed as well, without debinding if at all possible, and I'd say I can scan about 100 pages in 2 hours time with my Canoscan 70, including renaming and saving the pages.

Unless I need to scan the bottom strips as well, if the magazine is a tad too tall, then I'd say 3 hours.

If certain pages still don't look right at the spine, you can always scan the magazine halfway, with the spine in the middle and edit both parts together. But this does take quite a bit more work.

The result does look just about perfect though.