Digital Comic Museum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: builderboy on December 31, 2010, 06:14:42 AM
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I've made this a new topic.
Comics scanners, please tell us about your scanner/computer set-up and what you think works best for you.
This topic isn't limited to hardware. If you'd like to talk about how you handle your books, apps you use or anything else you'd like to share in the 'art' of making a good scan please share it here.
-Yoc
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Sure! It all started when JVJ was telling us about his scanner, which is a Epson 15000, which he uses to prepare his graphics publication.
The Epson is a really nice rig...11x17 platen size, fast scan rate, etc., etc. It is also roughly $1500 new, and nobody seems to be selling theirs used at a bargain. I looked and looked, and started to despair of getting something affordable. I was trying various Google searches to see who else had anything to offer.
A scanner by a company I had never heard of before, Mustek, kept coming up. Nobody had done any reviews of them in a tech article, and the consumer reviews painted the thing as either heaven or hell. You really can't trust those too much.
The Mustek A3 USB 1200 Pro was available from dozens of on-line sellers. I got mine for about $165, shipping included. I figured this was the only way I could possibly get my hands on that kind of hardware, and was worth the risk.
The verdict is this: the hardware is great, the software that comes with it, just OK. The way I use the scanner is to open Photoshop and import the image through the twain driver, and use Photoshop's software for all image correction. Any shortcomings in the scanner's software package don't impact me, and I couldn't be more pleased. Besides being able to scan my own original comic art in a single pass, I can also scan two pages at a whack of a comic if the staples comply. I would recommend it to anyone.
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Thanks BB I will keep that in mind when I am in the market for a new scanner. I want something that will do two pages at once
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Thanks for the info BB. Would you have a figure for the scanning rate? My Xerox 7600 requires 30 sec to scan one page. This doesn't include going back to trim the page after scanning.
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As a comparison, guys,
The Epson 15000 scans two 100% comic pages at 300 ppi in 20 seconds - that's from pressing Scan to getting the pages in Photoshop. Setting up the comic might take another five seconds.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Holy Crap that's FAST Jim!!
My HP is about 2mins and that's at bloody 150dpi!
:(
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I did a post on picking a scanner recently here:
http://darwinscans.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-scan-pt-1-picking-scanner.html
I use your method of scanning directly into photoshop when using my A3 Mustek, too, BB, as the software that comes with it isn't too great. After a few years of sometime-use, mine has developed a bad spot in the bulb (which is at least only about an inch in), and I'll probably replace it with the same model. I'm tempted to try another make of A3, but the prices are just so high, I'd hate to get it wrong, and most of the reviews for A3s seem to be from artists that probably aren't putting the wear on a scanner that I would. I'm not surprised to hear that Jim likes his Epson, they seem to make very solid machines.
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Holy Crap that's FAST Jim!!
My HP is about 2mins and that's at bloody 150dpi!
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Here's some math, Yoc:
Your scanner takes about 1.75 hours more than mine to do a 64 page comic (assuming you are quoting 2 minutes per page not per spread). At minimum wage of, conservatively, $7.50 an hour (U.S.), that's around $13 per comic you're spending in extra time. You can probably get a 15000 on line for around $600-$700. At $13 per comic, you only have to scan around 50 comics to have it pay for itself. AND, you'll be able to quadruple your scan quality at 300 ppi. If, like me, you think you're worth more than minimum wage, the number of comics drops precipitously.
It's your time...
Peace, Jim (|:{>
"One Day at a Time: The Speed of Life."
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I did a post on picking a scanner recently here:
http://darwinscans.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-scan-pt-1-picking-scanner.html
I use your method of scanning directly into photoshop when using my A3 Mustek, too, BB, as the software that comes with it isn't too great. After a few years of sometime-use, mine has developed a bad spot in the bulb (which is at least only about an inch in), and I'll probably replace it with the same model. I'm tempted to try another make of A3, but the prices are just so high, I'd hate to get it wrong, and most of the reviews for A3s seem to be from artists that probably aren't putting the wear on a scanner that I would. I'm not surprised to hear that Jim likes his Epson, they seem to make very solid machines.
As you say, different scanners give very different results, darwin. I found that my Epson 15000 doesn't do the best job on material I intend to reproduce in pure b&w (i.e. eventually output as bitmap). I kept my HP 7400 running for over a year or so just to get its scan quality on high resolution line material. I eventually replaced it with an Epson 500 which works GREAT on line stuff but not nearly as well on photos. And I have an Epson multi-purpose device with a scanner in Paris and it is only just adequate when scanning at 400 ppi.
I have no experience with Mustek beyond a short experiment with one of their handheld units about 15-16 years ago. What a trial that was!
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Darwin: Thanks for your informative blog on scanners
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I was updating a scanner project thread and Yoc said the response could just as easily end up over here. Well, my 2 year old Plustek Optibook developed a series of lines in October and I got a new Epson V300 based on a couple recommendations. It started having lamp problems by the 2nd set of raws I had sent to Darwin. I got a replacement a couple weeks ago and everything seems fine. I'm rawing up the last of the huge St. John's box I got from JVJ and Darwins been plowing through them as fast as I can get them to him. I always try and scan covers at a nice 400 - 600 Tiff. The rest of the book I hit at 300 dpi jpg with fairly standard settings. I really liked the raws I would get from the Plustek, I had a series of pre-sets that I loved, I could easily manipulate the saturation and gamma settings so when I went int Photoshop, I really just had to work with some color replacement, cloning and curving to get great results. Now I know editors who want raws with a lot of the work already done, but most of the guys I work with like letting Photoshop do most of the heavy lifting. So as I have gotten more comfortable with Photoshop CS5 I've modified some of my actions, but I still have some pretty clear-cut edits, for modern comics, black and white mags, slick mags and golden age and older comics. So that's my story :-)
2X4
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Thanks very much for the posts guys!
I for one appreciate any info before considering a replacement.
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My Plustek 3600 is now 3 years old, and still going quite well, even after scanning over 10,000 covers in my on-going attempt to inventory my collection, AND after upgrading to Windows 7, with the necessary fresh software download from Plustek... My Mustek A3, on the other hand, died an ugly death after only a handful of scans, spread out over a couple of years. I think when I get around to buying a new A3, I will go with a Plustek, even at the 600.00 pricetag.
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Is the scanner you have Jim? Seems like a good buy for a good fast scanner
http://cgi.ebay.com/Epson-WorkForce-GT-1500-Document-Scanner-Brand-New-/190457769388?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c582aedac#ht_1055wt_1139
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No, narf,
this is mine:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=38633256 (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=38633256)
It's been discontinued, but there is likely to be a better replacement for less money. My needs run towards size, speed and optics as opposed to ease of feeding the source material. I'm sure the 1500 is a decent machine, but I have no experience with it. Sorry.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Yeah, narf...I tried finding a used version of JVJ's 15000 on line (it has been discontinued and replaced by the GT20000).
My efforts were frustrated by the fact that they now offer a 1500 (not 15000!), and many web pages listed the specs for JVJ's rig, and the price tag for the 1500. Sheesh! I would have thought Epson would have forseen the confusion between the similar model numbers.
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Yeah, you'd think, bb, but you'd be wrong.
Just as wrong as to imagine that retailers would pay some attention to what they are selling. Sigh...
Add a GT after the 15000 and you'll lose most of the mislabeled items.
Still will cost over $900 and there are probably better deals and machines available. Old technology usually carries a steeper price for a while after being supplanted by the new.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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My old scanner was a Umax Astra 2200, an old work horse by the way from around 2000, but is to slow with only USB 1 compatibility (about 5 minutes per scan, so slo-o-w :'( since I don't have a SCSI card in my new computer to make it work faster.
Here's the one I'm using now, Microtek ScanMaker i800 (http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/MI8/MI8.HTM) and it was in my price range. I do have the SilverFast SE software I use with my current scanner which I like, so it wasn't a problem adjusting to this scanner's software (it comes with SilverFast Ai). I just want something faster then the old Astra 2200 I used and to work with a Mac. I've used it for a year or so now and it does a fine scan job at 150/300 dpi and is much quicker then the old scanner (1.5 min pre-scan/final scan). Too bad they didn't have LED's as a light source at the time, the quick, no warm up time is a real plus with the new scanners coming out now.
Geo
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Hello everybody,
I have been in desktop publishing since about 1983 and have seen a lot come and go over the years.
At my previous job we purchased a Epson just like JVJ's and it worked absolutely wonderfully.
But that is not what I want to talk about.
I stumbled across this really good scanner software a few years ago.
I really like it, but what makes it really unique and valuable is that it works with just about ANY SCANNER!!!
It is called VueScan, it is up to version 9 now. Developed by a guy named Hamrick.
Works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux! Costs you $39.95 for the standard edition license(free upgrades for a year) or $79.95 for the Professional version.
Stop by www.hamrick.com, you won't be sorry you did!
You can download and see if it works with your scanner at no cost or risk. Until you register and get a serial number all your scans have a few grey "$" signs across the scans. A neat form of copy protection that lets you see if the software works with your system.
Take a look at it, a very nice piece of software that fits a unique niche. Those of us who might have a scanner, inherited one, but no scanner software, or if it does have software not the best!
Yours,
Brian M.
I have copied some of the text from his sight and pasted it below:
VueScan 9 is a powerful, easy-to-use program that:
* scans documents, photos and film
* creates PDF, JPEG, TIFF and TXT files
* supports 'File | Import' from Photoshop
* supports more than 1600 scanners
* has 32-bit and 64-bit versions
* has been downloaded over 8 million times
* you can try with your scanner for free
VueScan 9 guides you step-by-step and gives you lots of help. Just click the Download button and you'll be scanning in a few minutes.
If you've never used VueScan, you can get more information from the VueScan User's Guide (also available in PDF). There is also a list of supported scanners.
You can download other versions of VueScan for:
Windows Mac OS X Linux
VueScan 9 x32 9.0.14 9.0.14 9.0.14
VueScan 9 x64 9.0.14 9.0.14 9.0.14
VueScan 8.6 8.6.66 8.6.66 8.6.66
VueScan 8.5 8.5.41 8.5.41 8.5.41
Some of the improvements in VueScan 9:
* Adds 64-bit versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This lets you use more scanners on 64-bit operating systems (and lets you use Canon transparency adapters on 64-bit Windows). Also lets you work easier with scans larger than 3 GBytes.
* Generally faster and more responsive, faster starting up
* Easier to install and use - VueScan 9 is only _one_ file on Windows and Linux, and a single icon on Mac OS X. You can copy it to anywhere on a hard drive or USB memory stick by copying this one file.
* User interface is easier to use, and more screen space is used for scans and less space for options. You can also customize the font size if you want to change this (Prefs | Font size).
* Automatically installs Photoshop plugin and TWAIN driver
* Universal binary on Mac OS X - x32 is Intel/PowerPC and x64 is 64-bit Intel and 32-bit Intel
* Improved internationalization - better non-English support
VueScan 9 x32 runs on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Mac OS X 10.3.9+ and most Linux distributions.
VueScan 9 x64 runs on Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista x64, Windows XP x64, Mac OS X 10.5+ and 64-bit Linux.
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I went through several Umax Astra scanners. They worked great with SCSI but they weren't so great with USB and they stopped upgrading the software around 2001. I had both a PC and Mac laptops a few years ago and I didn't like having to boot into OS9 to use the Umax scanner and picked up an HP Scanjet 3670 at a yard sale that supported both Windows Xp and OSX Panther. The hardware is good, nothing special but it shines in it's software. I do volunteer work that periodically has me scan legal documents and I can scan them directly into a multi page PDF file and it has OCR software that really works well and sends any text I scan directly to MS Word when I need to do document revisions. When I did my first comic book, I was pleasently surprised by both the image options and that the software can scan a sequence of images and number them sequentially which is perfect for magazines and comic books. It isn't that fast but the speed is adequate for my needs. It is currently set up with a Thinkpad laptop running Xp.
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Thanks for all the posts guys. Please keep them coming!
:)
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A bit of an update.
After reading this thread, I checked ebay to see what replacing my scanner would cost if it failed and it was quite a bit more than the yard sale price I got it for. Then I took a look at the manual which covers 4 related HP scanners as I was scanning a comic yesterday and found mine had a USB 1 connection and not a USB 2 as I had assumed. The higher end 3970 model did have USB 2 as well as 2400dpi resolution and I did an ebay search for it and one popped up right away for $15 buy it now and I bought it on impulse and paid more for the shipping than the scanner. It takes me about an hour to scan a 36 page comic at 200 dpi with my current scanner and I'm not losing too much time due to the slower USB speed which takes about 10 seconds to transfer the image to my laptop after the scan is finished. This should happen almost instaneously with my new scanner. If the mechanical part of the scan isn't any faster it won't make that much difference. It might be. My experience with HP printers is that the more you pay for the printer, the faster they print and it might be the same for their scanners. In any case, I seem to be spending more time straigtening the comic book in the scanner bed than anything else. There is an auto alignment option in the scanner software but it doesn't seem to work too well.
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Good luck with the HP AG.
I have to say I'm far from impressed with the HP Scanjet 4370 that I have.
'If it was any slower it would go in reverse' ;)
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Ami straightening has always been the thorn in my scanning side.
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Ami straightening has always been the thorn in my scanning side.
Just tossing my 2 cents in here, regarding straightening.
I've had the best luck doing straightening in my editing software. I generally straighten based on the printed material on the page, not the paper or spine edge. I use Paintshop Pro, which has a Straighten function in which you position a "rubber band" line along a horizontal or vertical feature on the page. Then you click the "Apply" button and it rotates the page fractionally so that the line you positioned is now vertical or horizontal (whichever is closer). It works pretty well. I'm told that Photoshop has a similar tool, but I don't use that software so I can't tell you how it works.
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I'm using an old version of Image Ready to do image size reduction. I'll check and see if there's an image alignment function. I was looking at my Blue Beetle 5 last night and--good old Charlton print quality--the pages aren't straight in the book and it will scan skewed even if the pages are straight in the scanner.
The seller just sent me friendly message and said the scanner has very little use. I'm hoping this parallels an experience I've had with HP printers. I had a Deskjet 722c and it was good quality for the price and the ink cartriges were huge and it was fairly inexpensive in per page costs but it was slow as mud. It gave up the ghost and I'd just bought cartridges so I got a more expensive 882c which on the outside and inside hardware was absolutely identical and used the same cartridges and this printer just churned out pages. The difference in the 2 printers was mostly firmware and it looked like a marketing trick to me--if a salesman let a prospective customer try both, they would more than likely pop a few more dollars for the fast printer. These days I use an Officejet business printer which is huge and has separete ink cartriges and printheads and can print up to small poster size and it just rocks in the speed department.
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I use Infranview and straighten manually according to the panels. I will see if paint.net has that "rubber band" it would really make things easier and done better for me. Spunky the Jr Cowboy 4 is uploading as I type. I had to straighten it by hand.
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Narf, it might be under "Rotate", mine was, with/under "Rotate with line".
Geo
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Can't find anything like that in Infranview or paint.net
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Can't find anything like that in Infranview or paint.net
I did a few searches, and assuming you have the IrfanPaint plugin installed, there is a Straighten function available. This web site includes a description of how to use it:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Irfan%20View/Help/Tutorials/Editing/editing.html#Straighten
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Thank you sir Snard. It works wish I would have known about this a long time ago it makes it soooooo much easier and better
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Thanks Snard, I wasn't aware of a newer version of Irfan or the plugin
:)
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I'm using a HP Scanjet 8300 Professional and I use Corel Photo Paint x4 to edit the images.
The scanner is very fast at 300 - 600 dpi but is very large. Works with Windows 7.
Somtimes I have issues with darkness on page curl (when I cannot get issue totaly flat)
Corel can correct some of it but it those entire image off when doing color / light corrections.
I was wondering (I may have missed) how you long time scanners deal with page curl. That 1/2in that is much darker than the rest of the page (when you just cannot lay it flat without damage).
I tend to go overboard if its a pretty rare issue and find myself working on one page for a day. The cause is that 1/2 in where it changes the color / darkness so much from the rest of the page.??
Thanks RH
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RH I use a flat piece of white cardboard with a heavy book to hold it flat (I sometimes only have one page is why the white cardboard piece is used as a background). Also I sometimes hold my hand on it if it's not all the way flat too.
Just don't use to heavy a book or press to hard down is all.
See if that helps you out on this problem.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5247/scanss.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/i/scanss.jpg/)
Geo
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I'm not certain just how it would work on your scanner, RH,
but I use the scanner lid as a "weight", but insert a pencil between the lid and the bed so the pressure is minimized to only ¼" or less. I have an 11"x17" scanner with the hinge along the back (long edge). When laying the comic open (picture Geo's scanner with a half-sized comic rotated 90 degrees), the lid would come down from the left of picture and the pencil would be inserted right at the spine of the comic. Sometimes I have to use two pencils, one on each side, but usually the one keeps just a soft pressure on the spine and doesn't do any harm. Or, you can use something thicker than a pencil as the situation requires.
Some books, of course, are even too fragile for that, and, like Geo, I either lay a piece of white paper over them and hold them manually or I don't scan them. The ½" of discoloration CAN be fixed in Photoshop using a levels adjustment layer with a clipped-to-layer gradient mask. That's just one way. I often mirror the page border from the clean side and meld it with the darkened side and use gradient mask to blend them. I've never used Corel Photo Paint, so I have no suggestions for that product.
And I simply have no clue as to why people get fixated on the color of the paper. When you think of how many years comic fans DREAMED of getting their comics printed on good white paper instead of pulp... And now everybody is longing for the "good old days" of yellowed backgrounds. Sigh. Comics are almost dead because of the cost. Getting them onto bright white paper has put their price range so high that they've become a luxury item. How come I don't hear anyone complaining about the paper on modern comics? Guys? Why is it okay for new stuff and yet not for scans and reprints of the old stuff? Sorry, but they are SUPPOSED to bright, garishly colored pictures - just read all of the parental and sociological complaints from the '40s and '50s.
I know, I'm just a an old fart and I'm never going to understand this.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Jim compare that to people buying antique furniture. They want PATINA. Which means if it is old it should look old. The value of some pieces of furniture go down tens of thousands of dollars even though they look a thousand times better. Now that does not quite apply to scans but in a way it does. The scans are the closest thing we get to the real thing.
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The interesting thing is that, arguably, the most valued part of the books has always been the cover...most times illustrated by a more highly-valued artist than was used for the interior pages...AND it has always been printed on quality stock. So it is still shocking for me to look first at a cover image that has held up well in terms of brightness, and then open the book to see the dull, darkened images inside. I guess I don't see why anyone would want that.
I think that doing the color correction on the interior pages brings those images back closer to what the newsprint originally looked like before the pulp yellowed, turning blues to greens and so-forth. Sure, color-correction can be over-done. I've tried to avoid that myself, but I may be guilty on occasion (probably so, in the eyes of some reading this).
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One thing I do love about the old comics printed on pulp is getting my sniffer inside them. Love that smell! Had my nose inside a vintage Battle Action yesterday enjoying both the merits of Syd Shores' artistic stylings and the aroma of 1950s newsprint.
Best
Joe
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How come I don't hear anyone complaining about the paper on modern comics?
Wait. I've never ranted about that? I must be mellowing in my old age.
I actually would prefer newsprint, but I also think there's a strong inverse correlation in the industry between the quality of the paper and the quality of the work, for a variety of reasons.
I'm also an office supply nerd and come from a long lineage of them. With only mild exaggeration, I treasure (and use) the three rolls of yellowed teletype paper I rescued from the dumpster (I had just missed the teletype itself!) and was probably on the verge of being a novice collector, when Staples and their ilk first started popping up...
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I will say as I just found out that its a HELL of allot easier scanning a issue when issue has great paper (off white) Nickel Comics 2 took me about 2 hours to scan and edit... all do to great paper. I will say when trying to make all uniform you need a base color... and in a comic book it will be WHITE..
Thanks for all the tips I applied them in Nickel Comics 2, now the Catman issue I'm posting soon.. that's another story
Thanks I hope some day we have every public domain comic available.
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Jim compare that to people buying antique furniture. They want PATINA. Which means if it is old it should look old. The value of some pieces of furniture go down tens of thousands of dollars even though they look a thousand times better.
You'll have to show me a real world example of this, narf. Condition is ALWAYS the key to the highest prices. Can you point me to two similar (preferably identical) sales that reflect this valuation of PATINA?
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Antiques Road Show has something along those line every show. Also there is furniture sold now with faux wormholes and other signs of wear. Have you ever been to a place that sells weather vanes? They age them all green and ugly even though they are brand new.
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How come I don't hear anyone complaining about the paper on modern comics?
Wait. I've never ranted about that? I must be mellowing in my old age.
I actually would prefer newsprint, but I also think there's a strong inverse correlation in the industry between the quality of the paper and the quality of the work, for a variety of reasons.
I totally agree with your "inverse correlation" observation, and I have nothing against newsprint, John, despite my comments above. It serves a variety of purposes - one of which was to make comic books a viable medium because of the cost. Nowadays, the cost is so high that the break-even point is so low that ANYTHING gets printed.
Without newsprint, there would have been no Spirit, no Superman, no Fiction House, no Marvel Comics, no EC, no Jack Kirby, etc... forever. It was the combination of cheap paper and cheap printing that got the medium going and kept it going for so long. So I am a big fan of newsprint, but I have NEVER thought that it ADDED to the enjoyment of the comic book stories.
It was a necessary evil, not an aspect to be savored and treasured in any way that I can imagine (although the smell is certainly nostalgic - but you can't smell the scans...). I know I'm in a small minority here, but I remain obstinate in my objections. It's a small privilege, but it's mine (to paraphrase Ann Elk).
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Antiques Road Show has something along those line every show. Also there is furniture sold now with faux wormholes and other signs of wear. Have you ever been to a place that sells weather vanes? They age them all green and ugly even though they are brand new.
I don't own a TV nor have I ever seen Antiques Road Show, narf, and the other references are to marketing techniques, not value. I can understand to some degree someone desirous of a "look" to complement their home design, or decoration scheme, but neither the furniture nor the weathervane doctoring examples has much effect on their functionality. And since they're new products, everyone knows that it's all pretend aging.
I still am interested in an example of a true antique being worth more money because it is discolored more than a comparable counterpart.
In comic books, the reality is that the whiter the pages the higher the price, so artificially maintaining a yellowed look to the scanned pages is the exact opposite of what you're trying to convince me.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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I will say as I just found out that its a HELL of allot easier scanning a issue when issue has great paper (off white) Nickel Comics 2 took me about 2 hours to scan and edit... all do to great paper. I will say when trying to make all uniform you need a base color... and in a comic book it will be WHITE..
Thanks for all the tips I applied them in Nickel Comics 2, now the Catman issue I'm posting soon.. that's another story
Thanks I hope some day we have every public domain comic available.
And were you at all tempted to make those pages yellower, RH? I mean, just for the nostalgia value? I'll bet not...
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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You are right Jim. An antique dresser that is pristine would be worth more than one looking old. But with some very valuable antiques restoration reduces the value tremendously. A hundred thousand dollar old looking dresser could be only worth 10K if refinished to look like new. I assume however if it looked like new with no restoration it would really be worth a lot. No one wants to yellow already white pages. Some just would rather not restore yellowed pages to white.
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Now I see your point, narf.
Of course. In comics it is exactly the same, isn't it? If a book's been restored, it can't compare with the "value" of an unrestored one. My point has always been that if we put a premium on white pages in original comics, shouldn't we try to strive for that "ultimate goal" in the scans? And it is my belief that NO comic book artist WANTED his or her art to be printed on yellowing pulp paper. That seems to be a nostalgia/fan thing that somehow (to me, anyway) defies logic. I know it's real, I'm just incapable of comprehending WHY, if we prize white pages in real comics, we don't prize them in scans.
So shoot me...
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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I would say you are in the majority Jim. Yes there are us fanboys who like the "natural" look. I also love the perfect look. When I do edits it is mostly straightening. Thanks to Snard that will be a lot easier now. But I admit that on some comics I do brighten them because that is what people like.
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No on the Yellower JVJ never.
With me so far its if I got a pretty rare issue or I've got good paper quality I will always go for the white. I always feel like I'm on some sort of crusade to preserve and restore issue.
If I got a bad copy or no time, I still run some kind of filter on it. Brighten it up a little.
Scanners just pickup so much so sometimes I think scanned copy doesn't look like what I just read anyways.. Looks like someone urinated on the book and now with strange spots I never noticed before.
So I think in the end its the scanners choice for sure with the most important point of getting all this stuff scanned before it turns to dust..
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Interesting. As a kid, I loved comics for what they were, cheap thrills, mass produced art and story telling available almost anywhere for very little money. I lost interest when they started going upscale and taking themselves too seriously. Better paper and having to go to a comic book store to buy them put me off. The only comic book store I ever really liked was Gary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Company. I never liked the whole collector/comic speculator mentality. I bought comics to read and enjoy and, yes, it was nice to have them in nice condition, but it wasn't necessary.
I don't mind scans of comics that have yellow pages as long as the scan is good quality. I like the touch of reality. I was looking at some digital silver age Marvels recently and I would much prefer a scan of the real comic with all the ads and letters and imperfections.
One of my scans (Jungle 153) looks better to me than the original book. The scan seems to just show the art and not the imperfections of the actual book. It might be just my reaction to the smell of the old newsprint which I don't really like. It seems to be a lot worse in comics coming from a humid climate. Most of what I have has been stored in a dry house in the arid southwest since I bought it and doesn't have a strong smell.
I've never quite understood the value placed on a patina. I do metal work and jewlery fabrication and copper and copper alloys all will develop a patina naturally in no time and if you polish them, they will always patina again and if you are in a hurry, there a lots of chemical patina compounds sold just to do instant patinas. If I found a really nice piece of old silver jewelry, my instict would be to polish it and restore it to the condition it was in when it was made but the general mentality of those who deal in such things is that it takes away from the value. I can understand liking a patina look which can be a nice effect but why a piece of antique brass work should be worth so much more if it hasn't been polished in 100 years is beyond me.
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AMI - I'm in agreement with your opening paragraph. And, I'm surprised some enterprising publisher doesn't go back to the cheaper newsprint to bring the price of comics down a bit. With today's tight cash climate, that might turn out to be a successful competitive move - might increase sales & pressure other publishers to do the same. Also, would be nice for comics fans to have more product choice & competetive pricing.
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I agree Larry.
I've long thought the move to Baxter, etc paper with super high-end printing wasn't needed and drove the price way higher than I was ever comfortable with paying. Of course it's been ages since I bought a new book anyways but I know that was a big factor in my stopping.
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My point has always been that if we put a premium on white pages in original comics, shouldn't we try to strive for that "ultimate goal" in the scans? And it is my belief that NO comic book artist WANTED his or her art to be printed on yellowing pulp paper. That seems to be a nostalgia/fan thing that somehow (to me, anyway) defies logic. I know it's real, I'm just incapable of comprehending WHY, if we prize white pages in real comics, we don't prize them in scans.
I'm halfway in agreement here. I'm sure no artist intended their work to look smudged and discolored from fading pulp paper, and I definitely appreciate it when scanners apply color corrections to neutralize the obvious color cast from the scanned newsprint.
On the other hand, I also prefer it if a comic scan is able to preserve at least a slight background tint or texture from the paper (a very faint grey or off-white?), not because of any sense of nostalgia but for ease of reading onscreen. I feel there's a much harsher contrast in the glowing "white" of an LCD monitor screen than the subtle shades of "white" paper that would be prized in a printed book. (The glare from the glossy paper of modern comics tends to annoy my eyes for similar reasons.)
Obviously, this is not a "right" or "wrong" rule for scanning, it's just how my eyes react to colors onscreen. As they say, your mileage may vary.
-- Kevin
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I was told that it actually cost more to get a book printed in newsprint than glossy. No idea why but the artist/writer of Sactuary http://www.comics.org/series/28442/ said.
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Newsprint probably carries a higher expense because nobody does it. You need to find a shop that can fit you into its schedule and cover the start-up cost for their plant. If the industry changed, there'd be contracts that would drive the price to a competitive level, I'm sure.
As for the paper change, since I brought it up, I guess I should quickly run down the list of things I think went wrong when better paper became available.
- The bleed: Being able to draw to the edge of the paper has provided some innovative panel arrangements, but it's mostly responsible for two-page splash panels that convey nothing and/or inter-panel art that muddies the action. The splash panels then lead to decompression, the misguided idea that comic books are like movies and the way to show passage of time is to have many panels where people stand around not doing anything interesting (or for continuity of motion--no, no, I get how the pen got to the floor from the table!).
- Faux-collectability: Sturdier paper suggested the collectors' market by making them an "investment," making it responsible for millions of "gimmick" issues and covers, while anybody with half a brain realized that old comics were worth money because they were hard to maintain.
- Lazy art: Seems like every time in the last ten years I've opened a book that so much as mentioned outer space, we've Photoshopped the background of at least one panel to use NASA stock. The effect is invariably jarring, rather than smooth. A problem with Photoshop, maybe? Perhaps, but I don't think anybody would try for that kind of "quality" on crappy paper.
- Fussy art: Along the same lines as satellite pictures of Earth, we all remember the fiasco of Wonder Woman's new costume? The one that I'm pretty sure already never existed? My problem with it is that every dang bit of it is covered in scritchy-scratchy filigree. That sort of detail would never survive to the printed page without modern paper, so no artist would even try it. And that example only stands in for decades of "constipation lines" on the scrunched-up faces of characters and cross-hatching everywhere.
- Lack of restriction: It's been said that the Hulk would have been gray or brown, had it not been for the fact that he was impossible to print consistently that way, and I don't think he'd be an icon if he were. Today, artists (often) don't bother to worry about how something will look to the reader, because "what you see is what you get." And what you get is a lot of poorly-planned trash.
- Glare: Like Kevin, reading from glossy paper bothers my eyes and makes it hard to take the entire page in at once, since the glare shifts.
I think that's it...and not to take away from Jim's points, since he's got a different purpose in mind when he reads the scans.
(Now, let's never talk about computer coloring or using standardized fonts for lettering, OK...?)
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Funny that our local paper that comes out once a week with color printing and is printed on about 4 or 5 comics worth of newsprint at a cost of $1 and it isn't economically feasable to print comics on newsprint??
:-/
What I really miss in not just the newsprint but the widespread distribution and availibility of comic books. When I was a kid, the spinner racks were everywhere, every supermarket, drug and convenience store sold comics. Now, in the rocky mountain version of small town America where I live, the spinner racks have all disappeared, there are no comic books sold anywhere with the exception of digest size Archies--printed on newsprint at $4 a pop. I have an almost 3 hour drive to the nearest comic book store which will more than likely disappoint me in it's offerings.
And back to the subject of scanning, I got the hp 3970 and, just like I thought, it is a lot faster than the 3670 unless you try to scan at 2400 dpi--it took about 40 minutes to do one comic book cover and the jpeg was 150mbs. The ink dot patterns looked kind of psychedelic when fully magnified. At 200 dpi, it is something like 3 times as fast. I've scanned 2 comics so far and the ratio of straigtening to scanning time is way up. Once it's straight in the bed, the scanning takes no time at all. :)
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I'll just weigh in here shortly in support of the natural look. Even when they were brand new, these comics pages weren't pure white, and the paper exhibited a pulpy texture. As a scanner, I feel like I should represent the physical object I'm scanning and not some ideal. That's not to say I don't do some corrections and that there's not subjective judgments that come into play here but only to say that I'm looking to make a comic look like it did fresh of the newsstand or at least as close as I can get it without distorting the colors too much. Sure artists may not have been pleased that their work was being reproduced on pulp paper with rough printing methods, but I also believe they probably took some of this into account when producing the original work. The new re-colorings I see of a lot of golden age comics are truly atrocious. The flat colors and perfectly solid inks in my opinion take something very vital away from the experience. When you lose all the texture from the pulp paper as well as from the layered printing, the old comics just don't look right. Similarly, I doubt much of the modern digital, gradient-heavy coloring methods would reproduce well on the old paper...
Call me crazy, but if a page of text is scanned from a pulp I want it to look like it was scanned from a pulp. If a page of text is scanned from a paperback I want it to look like it came from a paperback. If it was scanned from a slick page, I want it to look like it came from a slick. Otherwise every digital book might as well look like something you'd read on a kindle, and I personally much prefer an "authentic" scan that accurately reflects the character of the publication it comes from. All that said, I do understand tastes vary O0
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can anyone tell me about a Minolta PS 5000C Book Scanner and if it would work for comic books.. I know, its a face up scanner, will do jpg, at least 300 dpi, ANYONE???
Thanks Rangerhouse
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can anyone tell me about a Minolta PS 5000C Book Scanner and if it would work for comic books.. I know, its a face up scanner, will do jpg, at least 300 dpi, ANYONE???
Thanks Rangerhouse
"The PS5000C gives you a fast, safe, cost-effective way to scan, digitize and share the content of your color publications. Books, magazines, scientific manuals, historical materials and artwork can all be preserved and shared in full color, without damage to brittle pages or fragile bindings.
Digital scanning in just 3.4 seconds per 8-1/2” x 11” original lets you scan more documents in less time. You’ll have flexible scanning modes for books and single pages -- and selectable scan resolution from 200 dpi to 600 dpi allows you to match scanning power to the needs of each original.
11.69” x 17.00” scanning area accommodates oversized bound volumes, ledgers, artwork, maps, archival records and other large documents.
Direct PC interface with USB connector and TWAIN driver lets you scan color originals to your computer for use in websites, desktop publishing or Email.
Selectable image modes to fine-tune output for Color Text, Color Photos, Grayscale Text, Grayscale Photos, or Line Art (bitmap for text or line art).
Automatically compensates for page curvature and automatically erases centerline shadows, page borders, and images of fingers holding down pages for scanning.
3D Scanning lets you digitize the images of objects placed on the PS5000C scanning surface."
You sure you got 10K+ (List Price: $11,975.00) to put out for one of these puppies? For what you'd pay for one of those, you could buy a whole lot of other scanners and try each one to find out which one is best for you would be my take on it. By the way, way to pricey for me. As to your original question, yes it should be able to do so.
Geo
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I have a chance to purchase a used one at a fraction of that cost.. Thanks for the info Geo..
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OMG...a ten THOUSAND dollar scanner? betcha its got seat warmers! How cool is that? Let us know if you seal the deal, rangerhouse.
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I am curious what the final cost is going to be....
b.
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GL, it better have GPS and play movies while it's at it for that cost!
;)
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I have a chance to purchase a used one at a fraction of that cost.. Thanks for the info Geo..
Just note that it requires a SCSI card (that is supplied, I see) and isn't likely to function with Windows Vista or 7 and you might have difficulties using any TWAIN scanner with a 64 bit OS.
Be certain that it will function on your system.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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I just took a look it on the Minolta website and it has a USB connector and there are Vista drivers for it. It's perfect for scanning comics and just being able to scan a high grade book without worrying about damaging it would make it worth it. If you can get it at a great price, buy it, Rangerhouse. In all of the books that have been uploaded over the last few months, one that really struck me in it's scan quality was the Amazing Mystery Funnies with the Basil Wolverton story you uploaded and this scanner would be in good hands with you.
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Well looks like this deal I'm working will take some effort .. I will let all know if I able to purchase one. Thanks RH
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RH, see if they can maybe throw in some of the useful accessories too at the same time, link below for available accessories:
http://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/content/products/models/ps5000c.html?info=Accessories
Geo
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What do you mean by Scanners ?
Flatbed scanners for one:
(http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/846/31g9kchwj4laa300.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/31g9kchwj4laa300.jpg/)
We're talking about the machine that does it.
Geo
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Well, nothing new on scanner but 1st deal from Ebay has fallen flat, :( haven't given up hope, I have a online store I'm working with now..
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Just discovered this topic, so here's my input:
I surely win the prize for cheapest machine - a 90-dollar-flatbed CANON Lide 110.
Hooked to a Sony VAIO notebook running with Windows 7.
State-of-the-art-setup though...
I "post produce" the pages with an automatized Photoshop run correcting tonal values (is that the term?) and scaling down page size.
I am quite happy with the results: readable, sharp and clear panels.
They are lighter than the original book, just a bit yellowed, which is perfect in my eyes.
I don't care for scanning speed, cause I process only one book per day.
It's a labor of love. Most of the time I spend trying to get a STRAIGHT scan out of those crooked, slantwise printed books.
>:(
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Thanks for sharing T, I only learned about automated actions in PhotoShop after JVJ-Jim told me about them. They sure do save time don't they? :)
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anyone know how to scan the comic printing plates??
without breaking or scratching the glass??
i want to upload a bunch of Golden Age Comics but need to scan them to file then invert image so they can be read ,,,
i can do them so theyre eligible but have broken 2 scanners after 4 plates, i have 184 plates to scan so at this rate ill need about 30 or 40 scanners which isnt too economical..
Any ideas?????
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Wish I could hep Rob. I can only suggest a tripod and good digital camera and lighting.
Maybe Jim will have a suggestion?
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anyone know how to scan the comic printing plates??
without breaking or scratching the glass??
i want to upload a bunch of Golden Age Comics but need to scan them to file then invert image so they can be read ,,,
i can do them so theyre eligible but have broken 2 scanners after 4 plates, i have 184 plates to scan so at this rate ill need about 30 or 40 scanners which isnt too economical..
Any ideas?????
What do the printing plates look like? Are the curved? If so, what sort of radius are we talking about? Can we see a picture anywhere?
A good digital SLR camera would work. If you can stand the plates on end, you wouldn't even need a tripod - though that would certainly help. With a curved subject, you're unlikely to ever totally eliminate the depth of field variations, but it could work if you made one shot for each row of panels with the camera turned sideways to match the aspect ratio. You'd capture a lot of the images above and below the panel row you were capturing, but that would just give you more alignment material in Photoshop. Then merge all of the individual shots, maintaining only the center, focused portion of each.
I'm totally winging all this, but if it makes sense, robby, give it a try. A good SLR can be had for $500. Not cheap, but you wouldn't be likely to break it and when you were done with the printing plates, you'd still have a great camera. I would say that 10 Megapixels would easily do the job.
FWIW.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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What about inking the plates and pressing them on a piece of paper like they were made for ?
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Has anybody tried to scan in some books using a really good digital slr camera and a tripod?
It seems with the high resolution of cameras these days it would be very quick to do a 64 page book, once you get it all set up with the lights, tripod and camera all in the right place.
You could capture two pages at a time.
I would think it would work just fine.
B
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That was my suggestion but Narf's is even more simple.
:)
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What about inking the plates and pressing them on a piece of paper like they were made for ?
tried that, doesnt work, apparently the pressure needed for a good print is extreme, i only get messy fingers and a very vague picture out of it,
Camera will be the best ive got a half decent kodak that ive photod with b4, scanning the plates difficult, they are completely flat sharp edges scratch glass too easily, i broke first scanner just by letting go of the plate while i was putting it into position,
re; other query, i have posted pics of plates in other post
Cheers Rob
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Going in a different direction, if you don't care what they look like (though I do) but want to retain and preserve the structure, I've heard good things about what they call "milk-scanning." I don't know where you'd get a liquid that's not damaging to the plate and a good contrasting color, but the idea is that you put the object in a tub and take repeated pictures from a camera above, with software looking for the border between the liquid and the object. You get a stack of outlines that then get turned into a 3D model.
Here's the original approach:
http://milkscanner.moviesandbox.net/
(If you instead want to spend a few million bucks to do the same thing, they scan important archaeological finds with a laser, doing pretty much the same thing. There's a guy with a recent TED talk who is currently sent by the UN to do major sites in any kind of danger of loss.)
It'd have to be tweaked to be able to manage one surface, but could be very interesting in terms of a DIYer taking the model and producing his own plate with a CNC router or 3D printer.
Of course, it might also be too much work and not interesting enough to work through the details, too, especially when the majority of us probably would just rather look at the plate.
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Thinking outside of the box, Rob,
Most scanners will probably work upside down, so why not put the scanner on the plate, rather than the plate on the scanner?
Might work and would be better quality than you're going to get with a Kodak. You would need a digital camera with LOTS of MegaPixels to get the resolution and quality needed.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Wow, some great ideas being mentioned here. Nice work guys!
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Jim you may have given the answer
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What about just inking the plate and making a print?
-Eric
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Discussed and it didn't work Eric. The pressure needed is too high.
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I can see that if you are pressing the plate down onto the paper, but what about if the paper is on top of the plate and pressed down? I'd think that would work.
-Eric
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Isn't their a comic book museum? Perhaps they would pay for shipping to have the plates on display. They may have the resources to print them.
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Minolta PS5000C USB I/F Color Book / Publication Scanner w/ Book Craddle
waiting on shipment & will test as soon as it arrives
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My scanner is an Epson Perfection 1650. I Have an Epson Perfection V700 at work, but as long as we are scanning paper sources, there are no big differences. For the italian comics' publications of the 1930s and 1940s I scanned I used our huge Canon color copier, but although the quality is good, it reaches a 600ppi resolution at its best.
I'll just weigh in here shortly in support of the natural look. Even when they were brand new, these comics pages weren't pure white, and the paper exhibited a pulpy texture. As a scanner, I feel like I should represent the physical object I'm scanning and not some ideal. That's not to say I don't do some corrections and that there's not subjective judgments that come into play here but only to say that I'm looking to make a comic look like it did fresh of the newsstand or at least as close as I can get it without distorting the colors too much. Sure artists may not have been pleased that their work was being reproduced on pulp paper with rough printing methods, but I also believe they probably took some of this into account when producing the original work. The new re-colorings I see of a lot of golden age comics are truly atrocious. The flat colors and perfectly solid inks in my opinion take something very vital away from the experience. When you lose all the texture from the pulp paper as well as from the layered printing, the old comics just don't look right. Similarly, I doubt much of the modern digital, gradient-heavy coloring methods would reproduce well on the old paper...
@darwination: PRECISELY my point. I agree 200%. :)
Call me crazy, but if a page of text is scanned from a pulp I want it to look like it was scanned from a pulp. If a page of text is scanned from a paperback I want it to look like it came from a paperback. If it was scanned from a slick page, I want it to look like it came from a slick.
Oh, surely I won’t call you "crazy", since I developed this insight in 20+ years of being an autodidact in typography, graphic design and type design. You have no idea on how much I have reflected upon the issue.
All that said, I do understand tastes vary
Yes, but nonetheless they are subject to a criteria. Which may not be intelligible but has objective elements which can be discussed.
I don't care for scanning speed, cause I process only one book per day.
It's a labor of love. Most of the time I spend trying to get a STRAIGHT scan out of those crooked, slantwise printed books.
@tilliban: Oh, how I understand you. And think of this: italian comics' publications are even worse, and they are tabloid size or more. Ugh. :)
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I have an Epson 10000XL Photo Scanner. Everything I scan is at 1200dpi 24 bit. When you blow the file up in Photoshop, you can see the fibers in the paper and the dot screens are perfectly captured. This helps a lot to avoid moire on resizes. The 24 bit gives a great deal of leeway in color correction. I haven't done a lot of comic books yet... mostly illustration, comic strips, animation and caricature going back over 100 years. I've got about 8 TB of scans so far.
If anything has any comic books or comic strips that they need really good scans of, I'm happy to let you use my scanner if you're in the Los Angeles area and will allow me to add copies of your scans to my collection. It can take a while to scan though. A full pass across the bed takes about 18 minutes. I have a crew of volunteers helping me.
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Hi permpoom, welcome. :)
May I ask you: where do you store the files? As long as they do not exceed 2-4TB one can keep them on an internal HD, but since I like to scan high resolution too, I was wondering if you also keep copies on DVD or the like.
Which model is the 10000XL? Is that for photography and transpariencies? Flatbed?
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The Epson 10000XL is one of the best 11x17 flatbed photo scanners around. It does 2400dpi (hardware) and 48 bit color. It's a real workhorse.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&sku=E10000XL-PH
I have about 50 TB of data on 8 four drive Drobos. All of the drives back up the others, so if a drive fails, you just pop a new one in and the Drobo recreates the missing drive. I've only had one drive failure (knock on wood) so far, and the Drobo fixed it perfectly. It took a long time (two days) to recreate the missing drive though.
Drobos aren't as fast as regular hard drives, but they're a lot safer. I swear by them.
http://www.drobo.com/
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@perm: Wow, thank you. I think I have found my scanner. :)
I have always used EPSONs, and I did not even know about these large format models. Many thanks, really!
The Drobos looks very promising as well.
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Hey everybody.
There is a nice large format Epson over on Ebay right now. It ended today with no bids today (minimum bid of $150), but it has been relisted.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290706078563
It is an Epson Expressoin 836XL flatbed, 11"x17", it is SCSI so it is fast!
It does not come with software, but I checked and Vuescan from Hamerick Software will work with it.
I would like to get it, but that is not in my budget right now!
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Thanks for the heads up I put it in my watchlist to check later. I take it that I would be able to scan two comic pages at once with it? I would assume the software is avaialble at Epson
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There seems to be several Epson Expressoin 836XL flatbed, 11"x17", scanners on Ebay at the moment.
Do a search for Epson Expression and you will see them!!!
A couple for $150 another for $225.
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Cheapie Epson V33 Perfection flatbed scanner. Nice and easy to use.
Mr. Goldenage
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Not to "high jack" the tread but there are a lot of people who do scans here so I want to ask how do you
keep from damaging the comic when scanning ? Particularly with a two page scanner. Does this not destroy the
spine ? Or at least do considerable damage ? :'(
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That's one of the bigger concerns with scanning. Our most prolific scanners like freddyfly try to buy the cheapest comics they can partly because they know there's a chance an 8.0 wont survive a typical scanner and stay 8.0.
Rangerhouse has spent big money and bought a museum level scanner designed to protect the originals. You can see it here (scroll down a bit) -
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4081.0.html
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Mr. Rabble,
I scan a lot of old books (the hard way, by pressing them page for page onto the machine) and it's like this:
A book in good condition will survive the process without noticeable damage!
A book in fair condition may detach the cover or the centerfold (if it were hanging by a thread in the first place).
A book in poor condition (brittle and dry) will flake considerably and may lose pages.
But poor books can only win by being scanned - because they now will "live on" as nice looking scans.
Which don't fall apart when you look at them.
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Or buy old books for under the cost of a new book. Cut them apart and put the pages through a document feeder.
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Narf and Snard!
You're scaring the bejeezus out of people!
:o
Removing staples or cutting up the whole book???
:)
What I do is to relieve pressure from the spine - I use a half-inch thick slat or board to hold the page and make it flat for scanning.
There's no pressure on the spine this way. Or hardly.
Good condition books can stand more than you might think...
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Removing staples or cutting up the whole book???
:)
Staples always seemed to be to be an easy win. Unless the metal is corroded, they're easy to pry open and re-close without any damage to the paper (not that I've done much scanning, but I've disassembled a few books for various reasons). And if the paper is going to flake away from that, there's not much it was going to survive, at which point, just cut the thing.
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I too had good luck with removing staples before scanning. But start with a very crappy condition book to get the hang of it first.
The resulting scans are superior for sure when done that way.
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I too have removed the staples when scanning a book, much easier on the book too.
Geo
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Interesting comments but I have to say I don't think I am emotionally/psychologically/whatever capable of doing harm to any comic to scan it, and I certainly can't alter one. (I'm the person that started the petition to add an amendment to the constitution to prohibit the restoration of any comic for any reason...)...that said has anyone had any experience with some of the cheaper document scanners. Saw on Amazon several like the Ipevo usb document camera, Hovercam, Desk lamp/scanner and a slew of others. Most got a wide range of reviews but I saw little in regards to page scanning and zip in regards to comics.
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Hi Rabble,
If needed Rangerhouse with his amazing museum quality scanner (see link above in one of my earlier replies) is willing to scan comics for members. I can put you in touch with him. It's the safest way to scan a book and he's scanned 1000s of comics with it in the last year he's owned it.
Just a thought,
-Yoc
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You can try photographing books.
I will next month.
A collector lets me have a shot at his horror books.
Main problem is the surface distortion (how do you say?) --- bended pages.
You can minimize that by lying one page flat and supporting the other with something stuck under it to support...
Hafta see it to believe it.
Look, like this:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2543l4p7nTc
http://www.redferret.net/?p=22459
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-Speed-Book-Scanner-from-Trash-and-Cheap-C/
If you do a search on something like "home made book scanner" you'll come of with a plethora of ideas. What I'm going to do.
The "cheap" commercial ones are enough for me to buy a life time supply of '5 fer a buck' comics from the local shop. ???
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From the reading I did a while back on DIY scanners, my understanding is that the key is good lighting. Everything else is comfort, like holding the book open at an angle facing two cameras. You could probably get away with just a tripod and a glass plate, if the light is strong and diffuse.
It probably won't solve the problem of bad stapling, though, bear in mind. Anywhere you'd have trouble holding the comic down on a plate, you'll probably also have keeping the page smooth.
I keep wanting to rig something like this up, myself (I probably don't have many comics that aren't already scanned, if any, but I have plenty of books taking up space that I wouldn't mind having access to on the road), so I'm interested in how it goes.
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I think it's CBpop who is making his own scanner apparatus as well.
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I used to use a large graphic arts camera for shooting flat art for printing, which is by pure coincidence what we are trying to do with comics!
What those cameras have are the following:
1. Artwork held down by glass, sometimes in a vacuum frame
2. Lights at a 45 degree angle.
3. Photographed in a dark room, I believe this helps with any reflections or glare that you may have on the glass. Unwanted glare is a major problem.
4. What I would add to this kind of setup is a good polarizing filter to the camera being used. This will also help eliminate any unwanted glare.
I think if you made a nice setup like this it would work very, very well. A 32 page comic could be shot in just a few minutes.
Any thoughts on this?
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I don't know optics as well as I probably should, but I wonder if the polarizing filter might be either overkill or potentially counterproductive, depending on the kind of lighting (I very vaguely remember reading that some LED lights are strongly polarized, but I can't recall where I heard it, so that may well be wrong). A diffuser for the light source (on a dimmer) might solve the same problem in a more global way.
The trick the DIYers seem to use is to have a v-shaped glass rig to insert between the pages at a right angle. That keeps the overhead light at 45 degrees and keeps both pages available to be shot.
The dark room is a really good (obvious now that someone's said it) point.