Quote:
Originally Posted by David Dunlop
For what it is worth, Chris, I have found the imaging, cleanup, scanning process on your site excellent, compared to a number of others on the Internet.
David
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If the original is poor quality there's only so much you can do with it. I have manuals ("Notes for RAC Wireless Instructors 1947" springs to mind) that was mimeographed with poor quality ink (faded to grey) on low grade paper (oxidised to brown) and the only thing to do with it is retype it (very carefully, because some parts are virtually unreadable by the Mk.1 eyeball) and probably re-set it as A4 because the original is foolscap (13"x8").
Early photocopies are a disaster area for images.
Post-WW2 manuals can be horrendous: they used up all the decent paper, so the 1948 training materials (hand-mimeoed by bored National Service conscripts who didn't really know what they were doing) have to be seen to be believed - I've got "Trade Training" handouts that were inked in by hand where the duplicating faded out due to too little (or too much, which is another failure mode) ink being fed. Those will need to be re-typed.
...as will the "samizdat" copies of WW1 R.E.Signal Service manuals, though I may just scan them as-is because the hand lettering is a tribute to the officer(s) who couldn't get printed copies!
I have a large backlog of scanning, mainly due to $Dayjob and ill health, but the current project is Clansman Installation manuals for the Land Rover and its variants - which at least will whiz through the scanner after I get the staples out.
Best regards,
Chris. Nearly midnight and I'm on-call all week.
