Made A Test Scan - Not Sure If I Should Upload It

[Cynicalman]

In Irfranview you can set the file size to the Meg you want

Sure, lots of ways of skinning this cat.

Agreed, and I don't use photoshop - so Infranview or ULead's PhotoImpact (or Pixelmator when on my mac) are my choices.

I just can't get past my aversion to jpg files and still prefer a lossless format like png, but they have much larger file sizes   

[Yoc]

I feel you CM.  I'm the same working in TIFF until the very last moment.

[tilliban]

Catskinning man calling!

I think these oldy and moldy books do just FINE in a slim JPEG variety.
They even look fine.
Scanned that way they even look better than on paper!

Golden Age comic books were printed so miserably.
Handling them too good will enhance the misery.
 

You can't get a glossy result from a shabby original. They have to be that bit ragged, else something's missing.

Back to scanning that cat now...

[Geo (RIP)]

CM, have you looked into GraphicConverter on your Mac. It's the one I use, it does except plug-in's from Photo Shop. Kind of a poorman's Photo Shop. I've used it for years now.

Geo

[Cynicalman]

Hi tilliban, I agree they look better by far without whitening the pages and making them "glossy."  I wasn't talking about postworking them, but rather presenting a final image that will have use beyond just reading.  Say I wanted to make a motion comic out of a cbr file.  jpg format does not recompress well, so the image may look good, but has limited value beyond being "just" a cbr file for reading.  The files may be bigger using png's, but future archeologists may appreciate it    (tiff, as Yoc said, is a great format - I just prefer png for file size since it's still lossless)  (but tiff takes layers, so ...  yeah).

And hi Geo.  I had a trial of Graphic Converter on my mac at one point.  I think.  At least it sounds familiar.  Pixelmator does quite a lot for me, and has also been called a poorman's photoshop.  I don't recall if it uses photoshop plug-ins...  have to look into that.

[Yoc]

Hi CM,
Many scanners keep their TIFF or PNG files on reserve for a rainy day.  For reading though cbz/cbr files with jpgs are the default standard.

[tilliban]

I wasn't talking about postworking them, but rather presenting a final image that will have use beyond just reading.

Allright, I wouldn't know anything about that. I'm just a "historian" presenting finds from the comics' prehistoric days.
 

[mr_goldenage (RIP)]

Or.....if you really like BIG scanned pages with nice rich colors at higher dot pitch and resolutions I scan @ 360 dpi @ 110% set the rate @ 1000 wide @ best quality (10) and then set the color balance @ 0 on RGB - background light on high - fine print setting on High - mask on medium - a -9 on Brightness a +32 on contrast and a +32 setting on saturation and I do not tweek the color balances. Then I scan. When I am done (because the program already names my pages for me mostly) I only name the Front cover, the inside cover if there is one the individual stories if there are any and the back inside cover and the back cover, other than that if it's all too bit I split the thing into 2 zip/rar files before uploading them. Another alternative is to batch resize your scans @ one time at whatever size you want. It is a simple program to use and it works rather well. I hope my 2 cents helps.

RB