First Time Comic Scanner Looking for Some Tips

[Hayabusa449]

Hey guys, long time reader first time poster here.

I recently acquired a copy of Commando Comics #6 (a rare "Canadian White" from Bell Features) and was thinking it would be nice to give back to this site that I have been following (if not necessarily a member) for many years.

Unfortunately, this is my first time scanning a comic book and I'm scared of damaging it (this is now the oldest and rarest comic in my collection). Do you veterans have any tips to minimize damage while still doing a high-quality scan?

I'm also missing a couple pages (13-14, 21, 23-28). I know THAT isn't an issue, but I wanted to confirm whether you guys prefer if I have a single page listing the missing page numbers, or if I should include individual "this page is missing" pages for every single instance.

[Yoc]

Hi Hay,
If you are very nervous about damaging your book there is the option of sending it to Rangerhouse, a DCM Staffer, with an amazing professional level scanner you can see in action on our Facebook page in the videos section.

If you'd like to try it on your own Geo has a tutorial posted here - http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1826.0.html

Either technique works for missing pages.  Most people just mention in the final file name that it is incomplete or (XX pgs of XX).

Very much looking forward to seeing another Canadian White scanned and shared!

Good luck,
-Yoc

[tilliban]

Hey, Hay!

Scanning is pretty easy, don't be scared.
I use a normal 100 $ flatbed scanner - connected with a Photoshop student version!
Just put the book page by page flat on the machine (I hold them down with a small wooden board to flatten and position the page to be scanned).
Scan with 300 or 400 dpi.
Worst part is correcting off-square images. Tilt the book so far as to make it appear square on screen. Takes some practice.
Another way is correcting off-square scans later on in Photoshop...
After the scanning process save each page individualy by naming the files "Pagexy_SeriesName_IssueNumber".
Now you have 36 RAW files.
What I do next is starting an automated Photoshop run of decreasing page size to a 1440 pixel width each - and running auto contrast along.
Sampling these in a newly named folder, mind you. Save your raw files in another folder.
Now I got 36 edited files. I pack these in a ZIP file - and voilá.
Uplaod that ZIP file.
Well, it's a cinch if you do it regularly...
 



 

[Yoc]

Thanks T!

Having double digit page numbers at the start of each jpg page saves DCM a lot of headaches so thinks for mentioning that point.

Your final page size is up to each editor.  I've been using 2000 pixel height the last few years and aiming for each to be about 1mb per page file size.

[Hayabusa449]

Thanks for the help guys. The comic is now scanned and uploaded!

[Yoc]

Thanks H!
It's now up and looks wonderful but just a warning .
Your final zip file size is right on the upper limit of individual files allowed on DCM.
In these cases we suggest breaking them into two parts.  Don't worry about this one though.
Just for future reference is all.

Thanks again!
-Yoc