Manual Scan request thread...

[Zeon]

UPDATE: I am now in the process of scanning all of the covers of my tg-16 manuals, of which I have a lot of. If anyone has any requests I will do so on a first come first serve basis in my spare time. Rather than make a list of what I have just pm me what you want and I will see to accommodating your request. Scans will be in 300 dpi 32 bit tiff format uncompressed and are about 7.7 mb in size.

Anyone else who has a decent scanner and wants to contribute can do so too. This thread will serve as the community tg-16/pce manual scan sharing thread. It is highly appreciated if you can contribute. Also if anyone is willing to host these files for download in their original unadulterated form that would be great too.

END UPDATE

So i scanned in one of my tg-16 manuals for the tg-16/pce original art preservation project, and was less than satisfied with the scanned image of the dithered printed material. So I took matters into my own hands and took a crack at making it look cleaner in gimp. 4-5 hours later (2-3 of those hours wasted on trying to find some free software that would get rid of the dithering easily and finding nothing. I even wasted some time trying to get a program compiled for linux in cygwin) here is what I came up with:

Original scan

Btw it's not the exact scan i edited, in my tired state of mind i saved over the original scan i was working with, though this scan is pretty close:



After messing around in gimp:



As you can see it's not perfect, but I sure think it's a lot better. I couldn't completely get rid of the dithering without losing a ton of detail, and I already lost a fair amount of detail as it is. Just look at the W, l, and c in "World Class", or the now almost indistinguishable "TM" after the yellow "baseball" text.

I don't think I did a half bad job considering my rather amateur skills in photo manipulation. What do you guys think, I'm open to all critique and suggestions. If anyone knows of a better faster more reliable way of getting rid of the dithering than gimp or photoshop, I'm all ears. Oh and keep in mind that the photobucket pics I linked are lower res and smaller than the source images.

[ooPo]

The true test is to print it out and compare with the original at the same size. It looks a little over-processed, but it may look normal at a smaller size than my screen.

I usually scan my stuff at 600dpi, apply a simple gaussian blur and resize to 300dpi.

[Necromancer]

I don't think it's necessary to eliminate all of the printing pattern, since if you're scanning at high enough resolutions it should look pretty much the same as the original would under high magnification.  Of course, it's a different story if the pattern is noticeable without zooming way in.  If that's the case, try scanning at a much higher resolution and saving down to the desired end resolution.

P.S. - I prefer the unedited scan, as the edited version looks too fake and plastic (just one man's opinion).

[Zeon]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestion guys. I will have to try your method oopo and see how that turns out. You are absolutely right, looking at it after getting some rest it does look a bit overprocessed. My goal is to create an image near to what the original would have looked like before being printed on paper at 100% zoom on the image ie no zoom in or out, and neither of the pics, either the original scan, or the one after the editing look right. Looks like it's back to the old drawing board.

Edit: some newer ones, scanned in at 600dpi and downsized to 300dpi, one is just straight downsized the other is after some touching up and a slight Gaussian blur:

No filters:


After touching up:

[nikdog]

the filtered one looks pretty good. the first touch up lost way too much detail on the guy, otherwise it was good. this new one is awesome.

[sunteam_paul]

You might want to check for a 'descreen' option in your scanner software as that can also help.

[MotherGunner]

AWESOME, do it to the bonk 3 turbochip manual!

[Zeon]

You might want to check for a 'descreen' option in your scanner software as that can also help.

Yeah i tried my scanners descreen option, however it only works on either 300dpi or 150dpi, and the image comes out far too blurry and far from acceptable. Thanks for the tip though.

AWESOME, do it to the bonk 3 turbochip manual!

I would if I had that manual, I only have the cd version's manual, feel free to send me yours for scanning though! 

[somery]

I think the unedited version looks best. Why blur it? Reminds me of those blurry, smeary filters on some emulators.

[Zeon]

I think the unedited version looks best. Why blur it? Reminds me of those blurry, smeary filters on some emulators.

It's a matter of personal preference really. I am trying to get as close as possible as the source art looked before it was ever printed on paper, that means fixing small creases, scratches, blemishes, and yes getting rid of the dithering that results from printing on paper.  Unfortunately there really is no good or "proper" way to do all this and it isn't exactly an exact science. I will probably just scan a whole bunch in and edit them as i get to them keeping both the unedited version, and the touched up one.

[ooPo]

AWESOME, do it to the bonk 3 turbochip manual!

It isn't very exciting, just black & white. I can do up a quick scan if you want...

[MotherGunner]

AWESOME, do it to the bonk 3 turbochip manual!

It isn't very exciting, just black & white. I can do up a quick scan if you want...

I think the real one has color...

[Zeon]

Fresh off the scanner with a few touch up filters, no blur though this time. Unfortunately you can see the print on the other side of the paper vaguely in the title text:

[ooPo]

This one of those 'oh crap' moments.

After taking a closer look at my Bonk 3, it ends up I have the duo-style box and the french turbochip-style instruction booklet.

Doh!

[Zeon]

So I got to experimenting with scan settings, file formats and whatnot, and discovered a method for much higher quality scans:

Old way:



New way:



Overall, the colors and blending looks a whole lot better. Yes I am aware that the second one is a bit crooked, after scanning multiple times and not getting a straight image, I just settled on that one for now. Also if anyone know of a method to get rid of the other side of the page bleeding through in some scans without scan settings, or destructive filters that would be great. Tips on getting rid of manual imperfections neatly (like the area near the spine) would be greatly appreciated too.

I currently in the process of scanning in my collection of manuals. I am hoping to get some place to host em (the original files are about 7.7 megs each) and I won't bother to upload to photobucket anymore, it was just for previewing purposes anyways. I'll keep you all posted.