[bksvol-discuss] Re: Scanning Old Mass Market Paperbacks
- From: "Lori Castner" <loralee.castner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 12:48:04 -0700
Hi, Roger,
Have you ever experimented with the settings in the Scanning settings under the
Settings menu?
In that submenu, there is an option for "scanning contrast". There are options
for automatic contrast, normal contrast, darken page, and lighten page. But
below those choices, there is a list of numbers from 1 to 255. Using one of
these numbers allows you to darken or lighten the page beyond the perameters in
the other options.
127 is the number that is similar to normal contrast.
One time I had a book that would barely scan using automatic or normal contrast
darken page or lighten page. The letters either ran together or created
garbage. I played around with using the numbersdarkening the page by using
number 25 and the book scanned really well.
So if you have not tried these custom settings for scanning contrast, check it
out. Hope this helps.
Cat Lover Lori
----- Original Message -----
From: Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:26 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Scanning Old Mass Market Paperbacks
Some of you will recall that when I first started scanning books for
Bookshare I was looking around for something to scan and found an old mass
market paperback that was published in 1963. Scanning it turned out to be an
impossible task. Since then I have scanned and submitted several hardcover and
trade paperbacks and learned some techniques for scanning. One of those
experiences was a trade paperback that was turning out terrible, but when I
scanned one page at a time and checked each page before going on to the next
one I was able to rescan the difficult pages as I came to them and some of them
I rescanned over and over before I got it right, but I finally did get it
right. Since that time I have adopted the one page at a time method for all my
scans. I remember that even though that book was a trade paperback the pages
felt like they might have been made of mass market quality paper and that might
have been the problem. Anyway, now that I have some experience behind me I have
laid my hands on several older used mass market paperbacks and I have been
experimenting with them. So far I have found only one page that scanned
perfectly. Other pages have numerous errors throughout them, but I think they
can be repaired. Still other pages scan nothing but garble and remain garble no
matter how many times I rescan them. I had someone with sight take a look at
them to see if there was a difference and I was told that they looked pretty
much the same except that the pages that would not cooperate at all might have
slightly more age darkened paper. Since the variation occurs in the same book I
would hate to start scanning a book that started out okay and then get to the
middle of it and find out that I could not continue. If I do scan one in its
entirety I want to assure myself that I can correct any difficult pages and
finish the job, so I want to experiment some more before I start. Does anyone
have any advice on scanning an older mass market paperback? I am using Open
Book 6.0.
"Philosophers have merely
interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." Karl Marx
The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com/txtindex.shtml Pathfinder Press:
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
Granma International: http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
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