Scanning FAQ

From Retromags

Contents 1 Selection 2 Prescan Process 3 Scanner Settings 4 Epson 5 HP 6 Canon

Selection

So you want to scan a magazine? Bravo, You are about to undertake a rewarding process in which the end product is something to be proud of! Let's start off at the beginning....Picking a magazine to scan. You can make this decision many different ways...

• Whats Interesting?
• Whats Old?
• What You Own?
• Whats Already Been Done?

In the end what you scan is really up to you. Retromags only tries to be a centralized location for people to come together and preserve a part of video gaming history. We do ask that you do not submit anything that is not at after December 31st 1999. We also ask that if you are going to submit a magazine that it is as complete as possible. While we don't expect anyone to bother scanning a subscription card, we do expect that people don't skip sections of magazines that they don't have interest in. Examples of skipping would be...

• Advertisements
• Comics
• Posters

One reason we ask that these be scanned, is that the general feel of a magazine is lost when only the articles are scanned. Also since everyone probably has a different scanner, if another member chooses to go back and scan the missing pages....the issue wont look the same from page to page (also known as Frankenstein syndrome)

The last thing we ask is that you only submit magazines that you have scanned. When you take the time to scan a magazine and release it, the last thing you would want is someone else passing that work off as there own. This also applies to magazines you found on the internet and fixed it up. We have more then enough magazines that could use touching up if this is how you want to help.

Prescan Process

Now you have a magazine that you would like to digitalize, the first few things to do are the following.

• Make sure no one else is scanning it
• Make sure it hasn't been scanned already
• Make sure its BEFORE January 1st 2000
• Decide if you wish to debind it
• Create/Update a WIP thread

A quick check around the WIP and download section's will usually take care of making sure you don't overlap anyone else's work. Checking to make sure of the age of the magazine is also self explanatory, Deciding if you wish to Debind (aka remove the binding) is dependent on the value of the magazine to you and if you have an Automatic Document Feeder on your scanner. See: Debinding. The last thing you want to do before you start scanning is to create or update your own personal Work In Progress thread letting people know of what your scanning.

Scanner Settings

I own 3 scanners currently, So I will list the settings and such that I use for each of them. I do have minor changes between all 3 of my scanners, but for the most part they are all set at 300DPI and a JPG Quality of 90.

• Epson 3490 (Flatbed)
• HP 5610 (All in One, ADF)
• Canon 830MP (All in One, ADF)

Epson

Great Flatbed scanner, I use this scanner to scan any magazines that I do not wish to debind. Anything that is stapled together gets scanned with this guy.

HP

This was my first scanner to have an ADF, I dont use it too much anymore because the Canon scanner I have now scans both sides of the pages. Also I really hate the software that HP bundles with there scanners (at least on there multifunction units). So I technically use Windows XP built in scanning wizard. Any attempts to use HP's scanning software has either left me with 30MB images or grainy images in the past.

Canon

This is the new guy, I just place debinded pages into this scanner and it will scan and flip over the page automatically. No more scanning odd pages and then even pages.