Publication Quality Scans?

[RJ Bowman]

I have a question about how the archive here works.

Do the images in this archive exist anywhere in higher resolution; say 300 to 600 DPI?

I ask this because some of the really rare comics are only available to most people in digital form, but someday someone might want to reprint these books, but might not have access to originaLS. Or there might be a time when these comics will be viewed on more advanced devices that will rival print in detail and resolution. Either way, it would be great if there were a high-resolution archive of these rare books.

[OtherEric]

I'm not aware of any high resolution archive.

I will say this much:  If anybody ever needs scans of books I own for publication, I would be happy to rescan the books at whatever resolution was required.  (I particularly hope somebody someday asks me for scans of Peter Wheat for just that reason!)

[Yoc]

Hi RJ
Some scanners are keeping higher resolution versions of their books for posterity.  It all depends on the scanner.
There might be a handful of 300dpi scans on the site but we don't have them singled out in their own section.
DCM is a library for GA PD scans.  Each scanner chooses how and what he scans and shares.  Beyond demanding that a book be in the public domain DCM has no say on the details of the scans beyond asking for covers at the front of the file and no single files over 150mb in size.
DCM exists solely at the generosity of the donated scans and with donations towards our server bill.

[Snard]

For most of my recent scans, I have saved the original raw files, which are either 300, 400 or 600 ppi, depending on the book and when I scanned it. Note that these are raw, unedited scans, before any straightening, cropping, retouching, color correction or other edits have been performed.

If anyone wants copies of these files, they are available for the cost of a blank DVD and postage (the files are quite large, because they are saved as uncompressed TIFF or PNG files. Therefore an entire book takes up the better part of a DVD-R.) I don't currently have a list of books whose raw scans I have archived, but feel free to message me if you are looking for a particular issue and I'll see if it's one that I have.

[Geo (RIP)]

Most, if not all my books I've put up are at 300dpi on the finished scans, you can do a search with "Geo" and it should bring up the books I've scanned here. And like Snard stated, the files for each page are very large before the finished work is saved.

Geo

[fett]

There are still a ton of unscanned books from the 40s and 50s out there that have not been scanned yet. I for one am grateful for any scan of some of these rare books, let alone worrying about the dpi. Luckily we have found several collectors/scanners over the years  that are willing to donate their books and/or sacrifice their rare books on the bloody Altar Of Scanning. For example Spirit #22-was that guy crazy or what?

[narfstar]

Even worse was Wham 2 poor Henry

[OtherEric]

Hey, in the case of some of my Fox Giants I literally removed the staples and took off the cover to get better scans.  And the one slabbed book I ever bought- a 9.6 file copy- was out of the slab and on the scanner within an hour of getting it.  (And since it was a glued spine, not stapled, there was no chance of keeping it in that grade.) 

Kudos to ALL who are willing to scan.  And that goes x5 for JVJ, who is willing for OTHERS to scan.

[srca1941]

I just wanted to add, that 150 dpi scans CAN be scaled up, and provide acceptable results for printing with a little work. Here's the first page of Daredevil Battles Hitler #1 from this site, that I upscaled, and was printed (in B&W) on page 46 of Alter Ego #103: http://www.goldenagegraphics.net/misc/DDHitler_Ch01-01.jpg

It isn't as good as a 300 dpi scan would have been, but it works. Now, I've compared scans VERY closely, and I personally can't tell any significant difference between a native 600 dpi scan of comic book art and a upscaled 300 dpi scan. Academically I know that 600 dpi is always better, but for practical purposes (scanning time, disc storage space, etc.), I believe that 300 dpi is the optimum resolution in most cases.*

(*The one exception I would say applies would be SUPER-fine line artists like Lou Fine, whose finest brush work can be tricky to capture properly even at 600 dpi.)

-Eric

[srca1941]

Also, if anybody ever needs higher res. copies of my scans, I do keep 300 dpi masters of everything I've posted here, and would be glad to share.

-Eric

[Yoc]

Good to know Eric. 

[vaillant]

I track this because – whenever I will contribute – I will surely scan at high resolution, and I may really enjoy to have high resolution of certain books.
There is also another valuable motivation. In english language, you may have had reprints of Golden Age classics, or rarities, but in many countries people do not even know they existed.

A banal example. Even among copyrighted material, hardly a few people have read the original Timely/Marvel stories of the Golden Age (the original run of Captain America, Young Allies, etc.). This goes even more for not-known books which are now in the public domain.

@fett: The Mysterious Traveler, ah – great, and never published here in Italy. I have the Eclipse reprint book.

[jeffcannell]

Hey, in the case of some of my Fox Giants I literally removed the staples and took off the cover to get better scans.  And the one slabbed book I ever bought- a 9.6 file copy- was out of the slab and on the scanner within an hour of getting it.  (And since it was a glued spine, not stapled, there was no chance of keeping it in that grade.) 

Kudos to ALL who are willing to scan.  And that goes x5 for JVJ, who is willing for OTHERS to scan.

I love this--to hell with slabbing, it's about the readers enjoyment!!

[vaillant]

I suppose "slabbed" means the CGC "encased" books, right?
Being Italian, I see this as an interesting idea when it comes about guaranteeing the grading, but an absolutely ominous idea when it hinders the reader to read his comic book.
The only copy I have in this situation is a Fantastic Four #3, and I am still undecided if I should keep it encased or break the box.

Ehi Jeff, aren't you the guy who's selling on eBay these wonderful coverless Golden Age comics?

[Yoc]

I agree, slabbing is a bane to the reader but I know many buyers that seem to think it worth while.  Personally I call them coffins - where comics go to die.