User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Fri Aug 13, 2021 10:25 am

Hi all, I am starting to scan some of the manuals I have from my Amiga collection that I can't find on-line. It being my first attempt at doing this, it would be great if you could look at the first one I have done. This is the tutorial manual for Imagine 1. The manual itself is a rather poor printing, so it is not the prettiest of reproductions. It almost feels like a photocopy itself.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wfFdSO ... sp=sharing

So things I am looking for is:
  • Is the scan resolution high enough?
  • Are the pictures clear?
  • Can you read it easily?
  • Do the bookmarks help navigation?
  • Anything else I may have missed

Thanks all.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:47 pm

Very cool project.

I think the scans are high enough resolution, yes. I've not tried to print the PDF, which I downloaded (so I can use Acrobat to read it rather than the browser) and it looks fine. A couple of the pages were scanned in at angles - some scanners can try to auto-correct this, I believe - but it's not a big deal.

One thing Acrobat Pro provides which is extremely useful is the ability to scan and OCR a document. For something like a manual, where you might want to search for keywords, a scanned-to-text doc can help a ton.

I think that would be icing on the cake if you have the tools to do so. I converted your PDF after I downloaded it.


Screen Shot 2021-08-13 at 12.44.13 PM.png
Note how I can now select text in the document to even copy/paste elsewhere if I so choose.

Screen Shot 2021-08-13 at 12.46.04 PM.png
I can also now search the document.


Now, since your scan is good enough I can do this for myself in about 2 minutes time. But not everyone out there will have the software.

Where do you plan on hosting them?

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Sat Aug 14, 2021 2:10 am

I did notice Acrobat was doing something on the OCR front, but it is the first time I am using the software, so no doubt there is more I can do. I thought it was doing it as I went along. Time to read the manual….ha ha.

The skew pages do bother me and so does the changing offsets of the pages. Some of this is down to the scanning process which is a sheet feeder at work. It makes quick work of the scan, but things like alignment and rotation do take a back seat. I am starting to think a camera on tripod setup with a custom rig to hold the pages might work better.

As for hosting, I was thinking of dropping it in multiple places. My website, archive.org, the eab ftp come to mind first. Have you got any other suggestions? I do feel we need a good home to show off the Amiga productivity and creative software.

User avatar
iljitsch

Posted Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:18 am

I've done some scanning using a flat bed scanner and I can tell you that carefully adjusting the paper gets old fast.

A camera is even worse because now you have to worry about the scans being properly rectangular, too.

Perhaps running the skewed pages through the same scanner again once or twice and just let it go if that doesn't work is a better approach.

The scans look sharp on my Mac high resolution display so the DPI is definitely high enough.

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Sun Aug 15, 2021 3:25 am

And this is a small manual. Some of these others are tomes with hundreds of pages. I did notice Acrobat was trying to correct for skewness, so I should look into that.





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