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[3style]

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> DC-UK issue 16 - december 2000 (UK) - 115 pages - scanned: 116 - edited*: 0

> DC-UK issue 14 - october 2000 (UK) - 115 pages - scanned 0 - edited 0 **

* by meppi
** status "debinding"

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Hi there,

First I like the approach of your website.

I want to scan some DC-UK Half Life reviews for someone, but the copyright issue got me quite confused. After reading the goals and intentions I thought it would be better to place the
articles on your site protecting and respecting the copyright holders and share it with more people.

Is it necessary to scan the whole magazine or is it possible to scan specific articles (in this case the half life articles)?  Could you please provide me with some more information about scanning (resolution, format etc) the magazines?

[Anthony817]

Again, thank you so much for doing this! You are doing great work for Dreamcast fans!

[meppi]

Sorry about the late replay.
It's been a bit crazy over here at my place recently.

Just to give an example.
I'm working the night shift this week, but since I have truly awful neighbors (and are thus looking to move when I have saved up enough money), that don't care if I need to sleep longer than from 6AM till 8AM, I now have to go over to my moms house to get a decent nights or should I say day sleep, while she comes over here and stays the night till I come how in the afternoon.

So I just got home. 

We naturally prefer to be able to present the full magazine so that it gives a good representation of the original publication.
That being said, I think it's certainly a good idea to have special features or interviews that can't easily be found anywhere else, even though it might not be possible to scan the full magazine at the time.

The most important thing to remember when you scan magazines is to keep the dpi to 300. and scan at "full platen" or whatever your scanner calls it. It just means using the full scanning bed.
If the page is too big to fit on a scanner, like most UK magazines tend to be, you can do one of two things.
The first one is to simply scan the page as best as possible in just one go. This might get you a decent scan, but it's not ideal.

The second way to do this is to scan the left side of the page first and then the right side, or vice versa.
Be sure to get the spine of the magazine a couple of inches onto the scan plate when you scan that side and also put ample pressure on the lid.
If the page is to long as well, you can also scan the bottom strip separately as well and edit it in manually later on.

When you have the two scans, you need to crop them so that it removes the blurred sides of the scan. (The one that hangs over the scan plate) Cropping about 2-3-4 inches of the side should be fine.
Then if you use Photoshop, you should be able to use Photomerge which stitches the pages back together using the AUTO setting.

Otherwise it's still possible to do it manually, but it's very hard to get the same result when it comes to pages with full page images for instance.
The bottom strips always need to be put back on manually, but this usually isn't that hard to do since it's mostly just the page numbering and such.
Getting this in the exact spot can easily be done by setting that particular later to 50% transparency so you can see how they overlap, before putting it back to 100% and merging the layers.

As for the page sizes, with a full release we tend to go for a page width of 1920 pixels, but on the website we use images of 900 pixels wide as it would take too much time and bandwidth to load in 2-2.5MB images whenever a page loads.

[3style]

Argh awful neighbors, lets hope it gets better for you very soon. Is your mom looking after your children or pets when you are away?

Ok, I am willing to scan the whole magazine, and maybe more. I have not the perfect scanner, its one of those multi copy printers.
The best thing for me is to scan the whole page in one scan. I have scanned some pages already. They are maybe not as perfect compared to your scans, but quite ok I think. It is possible to crop the blurry sides in the HP scan software. Is it necessary to crop every page exactly the same?

Maybe you can look at it first, before I scan the rest. I can email the files tonight.

[meppi]

Well, I would move in a matter of months if it weren't that this is my own home. :-/
But I'm looking to sell it in about 2-3 years time. Just want to save up quite a bit of money as a sort of insurance policy in case something bad happens like losing my job, or if there are any big renovation costs for the new house.

Luckily I don't have any kids, otherwise the situation would be even worse.
Broke up with my girlfriend last year and taking a bit of a break from relationships right now. Don't think I'm ready for a new one just yet after the things I went through.
Both my cats died this past summer so it's just me right now.

My mom used to live here with me up till 10 years ago, so she feels at home here.
It was actually her idea to come sleep here and I to go sleep at her house.
She doesn't want to stay there so she doesn't wake me up during the day. (You know how moms are. )

It's not really necessary to crop the pages exactly, but it helps id they are more or less cropped in a similar fashion.
They don't even have to be resized or anything as I can easily put them through a batch re-sizer algorithm which gives all the pages the same dimensions in the end.
That way they do stretch a tiny bit here and there, but it isn't noticeable at all, especially when the cropping of the pages doesn't differ drastically.

A preview would be great. That way it's easier to give feedback and adjust things instead of having to do it after a magazine has already been scanned completely.
My personal mail is nightopian64@yahoo.com.

Not sure if I'll be able to get back to you this night because I have to leave for another night shift in a couple of hours.

Andy

[3style]

Just sent you 10 pages...

[meppi]

Just had a quick look at them since time seems to fly by today without having time to do any work on my scans or the site it seems. :-/

They look rather nice, although I notice there's some weird blurring going on at the top of the pages.
It is natural to happen on the spine of the magazine, but I haven't seen this happen at the top before.
Could you try and put a bit more pressure on the lid of the scanner? I'm pretty sure that this might fix the blurriness, at least at the top. A page or two should be fine to compare them to the first set of scans.

Oh and I'm gonna have to switch from the nightshift on Thursday to the late shift on Friday, so if I'm not around for the most part, it's because I'll be zombieing it up over at work.
Also if the site update is a bit late, thats also the cause. But I'll try to get the update online tomorrow evening just in case.

[3style]

The blurriness is because of the paper size, bigger than the scanner surface (A4, what you also said). Its always the top because the bottom always fits straight to the border (correct English?). I will try pressing harder otherwise you can crop some blurriness?.

[KiwiArcader]

Is it necessary to scan the whole magazine or is it possible to scan specific articles (in this case the half life articles)?  Could you please provide me with some more information about scanning (resolution, format etc) the magazines?

Or you could grab an A3 colour scanner as these are getting cheaper and then you can pretty much scan in any size mag in one go. That's what I did anyways. The PC Gamers/Amiga Formats I have uploaded are way to big for an A4 scanner

You might want to consider debinding the mags as well. I know some people don't want to do this but I debind the mags to get an even scan ... no blurred area near the spines. I only do this on mags that I don't want to keep or sell off, eg, what I'd get for them isn't worth the agravation of going down to post them etc. The benefit of this approach is you can scan right up to the edge of the page which means Meppi has a far easier time joining double pages for the website. You do ruin the mag though so it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[3style]

Or you could grab an A3 colour scanner as these are getting cheaper and then you can pretty much scan in any size mag in one go. That's what I did anyways. The PC Gamers/Amiga Formats I have uploaded are way to big for an A4 scanner

You might want to consider debinding the mags as well. I know some people don't want to do this but I debind the mags to get an even scan ... no blurred area near the spines. I only do this on mags that I don't want to keep or sell off, eg, what I'd get for them isn't worth the agravation of going down to post them etc. The benefit of this approach is you can scan right up to the edge of the page which means Meppi has a far easier time joining double pages for the website. You do ruin the mag though so it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Ok thanks for the tip, debinding succeeded  
Email sent to meppi with two new scans. The other thing what I could do is cut all the pages to A4 format to fit the scanner surface.

[KiwiArcader]

Ok thanks for the tip, debinding succeeded  
Email sent to meppi with two new scans. The other thing what I could do is cut all the pages to A4 format to fit the scanner surface.

Don't cut pages. Ugh .... LOL

Seriously ... if they are debinded just scan the left half followed by the right half of the same page. Meppi can join split pages like a Pro ... that way we can get the full images that go right into the spine, making it easier to join if we want double page spreads at some point.

[Anthony817]

Oh noes, debinding the mag will ruin it, I hope this is what you want to do, it will make for better scans, but that is up to you.

[KiwiArcader]

Oh noes, debinding the mag will ruin it, I hope this is what you want to do, it will make for better scans, but that is up to you.

Like I said ... do it on mags that you are okay with losing. I have no issues doing it with some mags while I wouldn't do it with others that I own. But it does give a far better result with those mags that are printed edge to edge. It's a personal decision.

I am doing it with my PC Gamers and Amiga World's as they are not worth much on the resale market. Haven't made my mind up on the Amiga Format/ ST Formats but as I read everything on my iPad I am tempted to throw caution to the wind and just debind everything in the interests of preserving mags in as good a quality as possible.

[Anthony817]

Well, as long as it is for a greater cause I dont see the problem with it. I would much rather prefer the best quality scans than blurry ones. This is the most selfless thing you could do and you are taking one for the team, I will be happy with scans of any quality, but this would be VERY awesome of you 3style. 

[3style]

Its not for all magazines that I own. Some are more special. In the end, the DC-UK magazines aren't ruined. They just dont stick together anymore 
And hey I make Dreamcast fans happy right 

...just scan the left half followed by the right half of the same page. Meppi can join split pages like a Pro ... that way we can get the full images that go right into the spine, making it easier to join if we want double page spreads at some point.

How do you scan the half of the same page the best? My scanner surface is slight deeper than the edge of the scanner causing the image scan blur when hanging out
off the scanner.  Or just take a margin on both sides of the same page and meppi will split them.

[Anthony817]

hey I make Dreamcast fans happy right  

That you do!  

Just imagine, this will be the only site to boast that they have every Dreamcast magazine released in English Speaking countries! It is a win for every Dreamcast fan that can read English!

[3style]

hey you better get some sleep    I am working already here.

[Anthony817]

Lol, it's 4:07 AM here in Texas lol, I know I should right? 

[3style]

Lol, it's 4:07 AM here in Texas lol, I know I should right? 

You should, if you have to work or have childred like me 

Taxas, my dad went there once to fort hood. He was a military officer in the Netherlands.

[triverse]

How do you scan the half of the same page the best? My scanner surface is slight deeper than the edge of the scanner causing the image scan blur when hanging out
off the scanner.  Or just take a margin on both sides of the same page and meppi will split them.

The best way I can think of (meppi is the pro at this part, especially) is to put the page about half way on the scanner, scan that, then slide it over with the remaining part completely on the scanner and scan that half.  Using a program like GIMP (with the merge/join plugin) you can join those two scans of the same page and make one clean page with no blur.

[Anthony817]

You should, if you have to work or have childred like me 

Taxas, my dad went there once to fort hood. He was a military officer in the Netherlands.

Oh wow thats awesome. I am from Fort Worth btw, we have a lot of airports in the DFW area, more than any other 9,286 square miles area of land in the world.  As you can imagine, many of those are military.

[Nreive]

If you are not keeping the magazines as collectables, then debinding is definitely the way to go.  It saves time and effort when scanning and there is significantly less editing needed done to the scan.  You can still keep the debinded pages together with a binding clip or something similar and can still read them.  I have about a dozen magazines debinded myself that are still waiting scanning. 

One of my magazines that was debinded and has been scanned is Mega issue 1 - you can check it out to see the results.  As you may have noticed, another advantage of debinded scans is that you don't lose any part of the page - the part that is squished into the centre of the pages where the binding is. 

Scanning debinded pages is a breeze.  As triverse explained, you get a nice clean scan of each side, then you can crop out the blurred edge that you don't need as this makes it easier to join them together.

[meppi]

Just woke up an hour ago (yes at 3PM :p) and had a look at the new scans.
They sure do look much much better this way! 

I wouldn't cut down the pages any further or anything to make them fit on the place, certainly not in length.
If you are having trouble with them not fitting in width, then perhaps cutting a sliver of the spine side, but I wouldn't do anything too drastic there. Certainly not when it comes close to the text on the screen.

About the slight blurring at the top, I think I have a workaround.

Since it's due to the fact that the pages are a little to high, why not scan the pages upside down?
My reasoning for this is that the top of the pages usually have more graphics on them compared to the bottom.
So when having to edit out the blurriness and having the choice between a hard to do top, or a relatively easy bottom, I'd certainly pick the bottom. It'll save me quite a bit of time.

[KiwiArcader]

The other option I guess would be to scan sideways and do the page over 3 scans ...top ... middle ... bottom. That way there shouldn't be any blurriness and although Meppi would need to piece together 3 parts he's doing that more or less with his own scans anyway.

Me? ... I just went A3 as I couldn't be bothered with all that agro. One scan =  a lot of time saved.

[3style]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll go scanning the pages upside down because I prefer one scan a page.
As for the A3 scanner, I checked some second hand sits but the price is still to high for me now.

[KiwiArcader]

I hear you that. Originally A3 flatbed scanners $1500+ but over time they have come down in price. I purchased a Brother A3 All-in-one scanner/inkjet. Over here in NZ they originally retailed at $480 ( what I paid ) but they have been decreasing steadily and now they retail around $300.

However, if you only have a smallish pile of mags to scan just stick with your A4 and work around the limitations. I personally have 1500+ mags to scan so don't want to waste more time than is absolutely necessary. Each to their own .....

[meppi]

Yeah most high quality A3 scanners are a bit out of my budget as well, at least the ones they sell over here.
They start at around 10x the costs of a regular high class A4 one and go up to 50x the price!  

I tested out the sideway scanning a while back but it brings more problems to the table than it solves, so that wouldn't work out I'm afraid.

Well I'm off to work my first 8 hour shift now, so I guess I'll see you guys on Saturday.

[3style]

Scanned the first 24 pages yesterday, so thats the first quarter. The only thing is the contrast/brightness of the scans, but that is something to edit later I think.
I have a new technique and that is sticking one overlapping corner of the page with a little tape so that it wont move.
One question, where do you upload these files eventually?

[triverse]

Color correction, sharpness and other fine details are definitely something that is fixed after the scanning process (that is why we go with 300 DPI, so that the original scan is high quality and easy to work with).  Meppi taught me quite a lot about this process, I mean, seriously, my early scans were simply not presentable under the quality levels that we have set here at Out-of-Print and, honestly, are an embarrassment now that I think back to them.  lol  I was all over the board on the scanning, luckily, I have learned and fixed those problems.

To get files back and forth we use services like Rapidshare, MegaUpload and Hotfile, etc (much easier to upload a zip file of a mag than trying to e-mail page by page to each other).

Thanks for taking the time to help out, it is greatly appreciated and I can't wait to see more DC mags up.

[Addicted to Chaos]

Just to give an example.
I'm working the night shift this week, but since I have truly awful neighbors (and are thus looking to move when I have saved up enough money), that don't care if I need to sleep longer than from 6AM till 8AM, I now have to go over to my moms house to get a decent nights or should I say day sleep, while she comes over here and stays the night till I come how in the afternoon.

You know meppi, when I worked nights, I delevloped this great idea for sleeping better. Ear plugs! I still wear 'em even though I don't work nights anymore (if I forget to put them in, I start wondering why I'm not falling alseep?). Same with my brother.

I use these orange disposable ones (32 decibles) and wear em a couple of times until they lose their.. compactness ability or whatever. And there is a way to get them to really block out the noise too (it's a way you put them in your ears. Just let me know if you ever decide to get them).