Gamefan Volume 5 Issue 4

[triverse]

Here is Gamefan Volume 5 issue 4 April 1997 for those who want it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/149091907/game...l_1997.cbr.html

Hope the editing is fine on this one. I forgot to resize the images and the page numbering is what I use for my scan so I can search them out when I need a review or info on a game.

Other than that, I don't think there is much wrong with this issue, probably needs a better scan of the cover and back cover, as they are slightly worn.

Enjoy

[meppi]

Just had a quick look at the scans, and I'm not sure what actually happened, but there seems to be a massive amount of artifacting going on in those JPGs.

Could it be that you saved the pages at a very low quality to compensate for their size seeing as a width of 2448 pixels and only about 500-600kb per image?

Or it could as well be that you saved the scans as JPGs and kept saving them over and over again when you were doing the editing, therefor getting more and more artifacts each time.

[triverse]

I saved them one time after editing. After checking my settings, I think I see the problem. It was set to best compression rather than best quality. Ooops. On my computer the images look just fine. No artifacting on the images unless I zoom in really really close. I am running 1024x768 if that matters.

If you have time meppi could you take a look at the rescans for me and give me some advice on them? I really do appreciate any help that anyone is willing to offer.

Here is a scan of a page from that same issue, let me know how it works on your computer, as on mine it doesn't seem any different to me than the original smaller scan.

http://rapidshare.com/files/149184407/gamefan2.jpg.html

Thanks

[meppi]

Yeah, sometimes faults can be much easily recognized depending on what kind of screen you're using. I can attest to that myself.

Just took a look at that new page and now it looks very blurry on my laptop. Its 1440 wide and I'm at 1440 so there's no re-scaling going on.

Very strange that.

Which program are you using to edit these images btw?

Could be the scanner settings as well, but as you say that they look great on your screen I'm not exactly sure.

Do you scan at a DPI of 300?

Or perhaps it's because you took the 2448 image of 500kb and resized it to 1440 and saved it at maximum (1.6MB).

But I still don't understand how that would make the image so blurry now. Strange...

[triverse]

I am using the scanning software (lexmark) and their accompanying photo editor to edit the pics. I have a lexmark x74-75 if that helps. Are there any other programs that are compatible with my scanner (it is an all in on).

Using CDisplay to view that last scan, it is blurry. Hmm, wonder what is going on, the pic is not as blurry when just viewing it with photo viewer but there is some obvious blur going on there. Wierd as the blur is not there on the original scans.

I rescanned the page, that is a straight from the scanner pic, not an upscale of the first one. That is why it is weird to me that it blurred. You would think it would be clearer as it is saved at maximum quality after scanning at 300 dpi (all of my scans so far have been 300 dpi).

I will keep trying. No use in wasting bandwidth and time if the images aren't coming out good, you know?

Thanks for the quick response.

[triverse]

raw from printer

http://rapidshare.com/files/149222678/gamefan3.jpg.html

after going through irfanview resizing and saving at 100% JPG

http://rapidshare.com/files/149229997/gamefan.jpg.html

It appears that the blurry effect is happening after being resized in irfanview. Are there any other photo editors that would be good to try out?

By the way, that is the settings I used with that rescan earlier.

[E-Day]

Gimp is apparently good. Or, if you want to be a bit of a petty thief, Photoshop CS3 is excellent.

[triverse]

Thanks, I will download Gimp tonight and try it tomorrow.

[meppi]

Strange as I heard Irfanview was quite decent...

Never even heard of that Lexmark program, so I can't comment on it.

I liked Photostudio by arcsoft very much on Windows XP, but their OS X version is barely a shadow of the original program with many bugs, so I had to look for something else when I switched.

But yes, I have tried GIMP myself actually and it's very good.

A bit clumsy at times, but that might be because I never learned how to configure the program to my likings before jumping ship.

Saving the original scan ones it's resized in GIMP at a quality of 90 should give you a very good JPG picture.

[triverse]

Here, I took the unedited, unscaled, scan earlier, the 4 meg or so one, and used Gimp to resize it at a ration of 100%, I forgot to go with 90 but hey, it looks pretty good on my screen, how about yours Meppi?

http://rapidshare.com/files/149517572/game...scaled.jpg.html

Let me know how that one looks on your screens anyone that is willing to try it out. I apologise for being such a trouble maker for everyone, just want to get this right before wasting a ton of time scanning and every downloading only to be disappointed.

[meppi]

Here, I took the unedited, unscaled, scan earlier, the 4 meg or so one, and used Gimp to resize it at a ration of 100%, I forgot to go with 90 but hey, it looks pretty good on my screen, how about yours Meppi?

http://rapidshare.com/files/149517572/game...scaled.jpg.html

Let me know how that one looks on your screens anyone that is willing to try it out. I apologise for being such a trouble maker for everyone, just want to get this right before wasting a ton of time scanning and every downloading only to be disappointed.

Not at all!

You don't realize how glad I am that you're dedicated enough to try and try and try until you get everything just right. I really appreciate it.

I'm actually the opposite. I'm afraid to give comments on certain things because I'm afraid the person just won't understand that I'm not doing it to tear down their hard work, but to actually help them so that they won't have to through the same path I followed.

I'm currently rescanning some magazines for the 3rd time in less then 2 years because I'm not satisfied with my own work and I'm certain I can do a better job now after all the mistakes I made and learned from in the past.

This latest scan looks leagues better than the previous ones BTW.

I would keep saving your JPG's in GIMP at 100%.

1MB for a 1440 JPG images is certainly not too big and it looks great.

Another neat little trick that I can show you is the following.

Try this out:

You might notice that on your screen, the picture looks not as vibrant as the magazine itself.

Washed out might be too strong a word, but you might notice that there is a sparkle missing which is there in the original mag.

This is most apparent in bright colors, like in screenshots, titles or artwork.

I know because my scanner does the same thing.

Load your image in GIMP and go to colors, go to Hue-Saturation and up the saturation by 20.

Click OK and save the page as gamefan3scaled2.jpg or something.

(You might have to save the page at 90% now as that might be the quality the images was loaded at by not coming from the scanner. You can check by seeing if the size is almost identical)

Now compare the 2 images by going quickly from the original to the new one and back again, over and over again.

(you can make a cbz of the 2 pages if that makes it easier to display them at full resolution on the screen)

See the difference?

It's like there's a deeper layer of depth to your scan now.

[triverse]

I see the difference in saturation, I will definitely start scanning with the new settings since they work oh so much better. Thanks for the advice and don't worry about hurting my feelings I mean, sometimes the critique needs to be hard. If it looks bad it needs to be called bad, you know? Again thanks I do appreciate it and look forward to helping out around here with the Gamefan scans.

I also have a bunch of other magazines that you don't have listed here but Gamefan seems to be the more popular so I will start with it.

I have these:

Game Players (a multiplatform/PC/Commodore/Apple gaming magazine)

PC Gamer (many isssues of it from the late 90's)

Computer Gaming World (not sure how many, but I have a few)

I have others but they escape my mind right now (the floor in my storage area where the mags fell through and now they are dispersed throughout the house to offset the weight till I can re-inforce the floor in there-sad huh?).

I will make sure to have the pages numbered according to the information that I was given in other posts along with the NFO file and thank you page.

Thanks meppi and everyone else that has helped me out during this learning process, it is greatly appreciated.

[meppi]

If you're not sure which magazines to scan first, you can always open a new topic in the magazine section along the line of GameFan or PC mags?, or something similar.

I prefer the GameFan mags myself because I'm not interested in computer gaming at all, but several members have shown interest in those magazines, so there are bound to be people who would be happy with them.