Digital Comic Museum
Help and Support => DCM Help => Topic started by: Cynicalman on December 16, 2012, 12:37:58 PM
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I made a test scan after finally getting my old scanner working, but have some reservations about uploading.
First, I only scanned the cover and first story (13 pages) of Space War #19, from Charlton (1962). I read the tutorials, and think I did everything correctly, but didn't finish the book because I am only 98% certain it's Public Domain (I heard Charltons have a few exceptions for early 60's work) and second because I felt I should get an outside opinion before wasting a lot of effort and finishing this book as practice before scanning my copy of Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #11 (I wouldn't want to experiment on that one!).
I think I should have compressed the jpg's more, these 13 pages are 37 MB.
Should I upload this test, or compress first, or even finish the book first (that may take another weekend unless I have a slow week at my job).
It's not following the correct naming convention for the existing copy of Space War on the site, and is even named Test as a suffix. If I upload it, maybe somebody could look at it, give any advice, then just delete it as I'll finish the book and then work on the good one after I'm sure I'm doing this correctly O0
Thanks for any advice you may have.
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DCM only takes books before 1960. CB+ already has a copy of Space War 19 so it has already been scanned. Chalton did not carry a proper copyright until 1968. Pre 1968 Charltons are welcome on CB+ http://comicbookplus.com
For the most part your comics should not be more than a Meg a page.
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Yes, Cman as Narf stated we only carry book up to December 1959, nothing newer here, sorry.
We do accept most books from before that date with a few exceptions.
Geo
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OK - Thanks for the info.
I couldn't find much else to experiment on, so will need to find a suitable guinea pig before trying the book I really don't want to hurt.
I misunderstood when I read the bit about Charltons being a grey area someplace here. Thought they'd be acceptable.
Oops.
I'll find sumpin' else to make a test file on first...
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CB+ will be happy to take any Charltons up until 1968. You can save yourself some effort by checking there first to make sure they are not already scanned. CB+ has a substantial number of Charltons between 1960-68
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No problems.
Found the source of my confusion :
Welcome cy and we look forward to your contribution. Check with Tilliban if you need any horror advice. If you happen to have any Charlton's between 1960-1968 they will be OK for CB+
That was in my intro topic, and I had no idea what CB+ was at the time, so "filled in the blanks" incorrectly.
And I'm supposed to be a Scientist??
Eh - Live and Learn 8)
I think I have a copy of Marvels Of Science from the '50s which is not here. Hopefully I can scan that soon. Sadly, I am short on decent material that isn't already posted here as I sold a lot of it back when I was working conventions to pay my way through college. I only started with a more "expendable" item, in case the scanning destroyed it. I worry about mangling things in the digitization process.
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We don't want you harming any of your books so by all means practice first. All 4 issues of Marvels of Science are here already. They are in the Charlton section they just do not have a folder of their own.
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Hi CM,
There isn't a rule against scanning a book twice. Especially if the scan on DCM or CB+ is incomplete, fiche or from a beat up original. We just share them as (diff ver). So please check what we have on the site and if you see you have a book in better condition or more complete please do scan it.
-Yoc
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Righty Ho O0
I didn't realize there were comics like Marvels of Science which wouldn't show on the main page. Is there a comprehensive list of everything posted here available?
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Hi CM,
Currently there is only one way to get a 'master list' of all scans hosted on DCM and it's a function that generates an EXCEL spreadsheet CSV file.
Here is the link - http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/scripts/excel.php
Note there will be several that appear to be broken links but actually just lead to the real download page such as some entries in the Archives and IW sections.
Hope that can help.
-Yoc
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Dear cynic,
about downsizing scan data.
I scan with 300 dpi and produce single pages around 2 MB.
Having scanned all pages and named them, I use an automated Photoshop run including a contrast and tonal value correction.
AND setting the size per page to 1.000 pixels in width.
Thus getting single pages of about 600 Kbyte "fat".
Resulting in a clean and crisp and slim scan to upload.
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Thanks for the link, Yoc - that will come in handy ;)
Dear cynic,
about downsizing scan data.
I scan with 300 dpi and produce single pages around 2 MB.
Having scanned all pages and named them, I use an automated Photoshop run including a contrast and tonal value correction.
AND setting the size per page to 1.000 pixels in width.
Thus getting single pages of about 600 Kbyte "fat".
Resulting in a clean and crisp and slim scan to upload.
I did the 300 dpi scan, as the tutorial suggested, but it also suggested 1024 pixel width, not 1000, to fit most monitors (though these days, 1200, or even 1920, are much more common).
Do you compress your jpeg's? I used the highest setting for quality on the final images, but suspect some compression will be needed to keep the files at 1 MB or less per page.
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Hi guys,
I think a final jpg at 1200 px wide saved at 9 or 10 quality level is fine. T's scans could be bigger by a bit if he wanted but each to their own.
:)
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In Irfranview you can set the file size to the Meg you want
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Sure, lots of ways of skinning this cat.
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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 :(
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I feel you CM. I'm the same working in TIFF until the very last moment.
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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.
:D
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...
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
:)
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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