Digital Comic Museum
DCM Download Site => New Uploads => Topic started by: RabbidBunnyy on April 27, 2010, 05:19:27 PM
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I just uploaded an enlarged version of Boy Comics 044 over in the DCM Download site. Let me know what y'all think. If it passes muster, I'll do more.
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Hi RabbidBunnyy,
You've entered muddy waters here. It's like the age old argument about including ads vs not.
It's a no-win situation for anyone trying to argue the point and it can get ugly. People on either side of the issue will likely never convince someone on the other side to change their mind. It's close to the same nature as arguing politics. It can never end well.
We will leave the topic open but if it becomes heated as it can sometimes become when talking about scans we will lock the topic. :-\
Some scanners have made it well known they do not welcome others re-editing their works. Most scanners I know feel this way. Others such as Narfstar feel if you can improve on their scans please do. As an unofficial rule we've tried to avoid misunderstandings by discouraging re-edits unless you've gotten permission from the original scanner. Keeping upgrades part of your own personal collection is common, I do it myself but I never share them. Now in the case of incomplete scans, adding missing pages without changing the original files to a scan is encouraged. Older freddyfly scans will often be missing ad and text pages. If you have some to add to complete a book please do but only if you know for sure you have the missing pages!
In the case of Boy44 the original scanner is unknown to me. Yes his scans are on the small size but they are readable. I took a close look at the small originals vs your re-edit. Without trying to be mean or hyper critical here - Yes, your pages are larger but because they are re-saved jpgs and enlarged they've inevitably lost some of the original detail. It's the nature of jpgs and can't be avoided when re-saving them. Jpgs are a 'lossy' format like MP3s, unlike the much less popular Tiff and Png formats. Adding a sharpen filter might improve the readability of them but make them harsher on the eye at the same time and increasing the file size.
I thing we will just keep the original file and thank-you for your efforts on trying to improve them. I hope that doesn't upset you.
Ideally we'd love to have someone come along with a new set of larger scans of their own. If anyone has an original book they know they could make a superior scan of than a book already on the site please do and mark it 'rescanned' and add your own name to the end of the file name so we know it's not just a re-upload of a scan we already have.
Thanks again for efforts here RB, take care,
-Yoc
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Just enlarging the files only adds blurriness as each pixel is replaced by four or nine or some fractional multiple more by averaging the neighboring ones. You achieve a larger file size with more pixels but no additional information/detail.
There's a program called Genuine Fractals which actually allows you to enlarge files considerably WITHOUT blurring. It uses a proprietary algorithm which you'd have to be a mathematician to comprehend. I don't know how well it would work on a low-rez jpeg, but I used it effectively on some 300 ppi scans that I enlarged to 1600 ppi for my last B&W ImageS issue. I don't have it loaded on this computer, but there might be a functioning trial sample available from On-One Software.
It is probably a second rate solution. The best way to get bigger/better scans is, as Yoc says, to scan them originally at a higher resolution. ANYTHING you do in post-production will never be as effective as capturing more information at the original scanning stage and, in the long run, is just temporizing.
If you have time on your hands for these efforts, RabbidBunny, perhaps you might volunteer to perform post-scanning edits for some of the scanners who prefer to scan rather than clean up. ALL assistance is welcome and there's never enough time for some folks to do as much as they want. So check in with some of the people who might have some scans just waiting for someone to come along and edit them. You might be able to facilitate posting NEW material - always to be preferred to massaging already posted issues.
Peace, Jim (|:{>