Time for higher dpi magazine scans?
I'm the current owner of an iPad 1, and bought at some time in the past, the Crash DVD (that was linked to via this site). The DVD contained scans of all the crash magazine pages that were hosted on WoS.
The iPad 1 had a resolution of 1024x768 and a 132 pixels per inch (ppi). I noticed that most crash magazine pages were not easily viewable without zooming and panning and scanning.
Equally, I realised, that upon zooming, that there were many JPEG artifacts in the source image and that the scans themselves were only done at around 120 ppi when most printed magazines (even in the 80s) - were printed at around 300 ppi.
So, my question is, with the release of the really high-res tablets (such as iPad 3 and upcoming Android tablets), might it not be time to scan these magazines in at the detail which they deserve?
Or perhaps they have already been scanned in at a higher detail and were scaled down for bandwidth reasons on WoS?
I know that in the case that rescans might be necessary, this is a terrible amount of work, but I would wager that in less than five years, high res affordable tablets will be everywhere and as this happens, it makes sense to get ahead of the curve and have higher ppi scans available.
The iPad 1 had a resolution of 1024x768 and a 132 pixels per inch (ppi). I noticed that most crash magazine pages were not easily viewable without zooming and panning and scanning.
Equally, I realised, that upon zooming, that there were many JPEG artifacts in the source image and that the scans themselves were only done at around 120 ppi when most printed magazines (even in the 80s) - were printed at around 300 ppi.
So, my question is, with the release of the really high-res tablets (such as iPad 3 and upcoming Android tablets), might it not be time to scan these magazines in at the detail which they deserve?
Or perhaps they have already been scanned in at a higher detail and were scaled down for bandwidth reasons on WoS?
I know that in the case that rescans might be necessary, this is a terrible amount of work, but I would wager that in less than five years, high res affordable tablets will be everywhere and as this happens, it makes sense to get ahead of the curve and have higher ppi scans available.
Post edited by takapa on
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I purchased the Crash scans off Mort and the resolutions are pretty much the same as those stored on WOS (if not identical).
Excellent! Let us know when you've finished, and how they look on your iPad 3!
D.
Yes, I'm referring to the WoS standard scan detail. For example, this page here:
Example page
The 'a' (as an example) in the "starts" in the top left of the page where the "Learic starts out" text is found bleeds into itself. You can barely see the dot in the middle of the a, and its blurry in general. This is a combination of low dpi scanning and JPEG artifacting.
A more extreme example can be found on pages with smaller text such as this one (try to read the text under the large "ABC" text in the bottom left of the page (above above "cover by Oliver Frey"):
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue38/Pages/Crash3800003.jpg
This is a two examples, but the smaller the text in the scan, the more difficult it is to read. Its the same effect as trying to read a full webpage on any smartphone without zooming in. It just needs more pixels to represent the detail.
I know this may seem like cherry picking, and I love the scans for existing at all, I just think that if these scans are to be the archived master copy, then a higher quality is required or else detail will perhaps be lost forever.
You're going blind. That's easily readable as "Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations" ;-)
D.
I can see it too but it is barely readable and requires work to see all the letters.
Well, I could understand demanding someone else do a re-scan if all the articles are typeset in that font...
D.
This sounds like a sensible starting point to ask, and I am curious myself.
I downloaded all the scans from WoS(staying within the limits of course - it took a while).
Higher quality ones would be great if someone has a complete collection and could do it I'd certainly pay for a DVD of them.
I'd suggest making use of what is there unless you are prepared to put the effort in - which is what Mort did in the first place...
<like>
etc etc
Good point - it's a whopping ask alright.
I won't be doing that however as I'm too annoyed at the fact that I had them....and now I don't. Grrrr. I'm not going to try and re-buy them all.
The existing scans are fine anyway - I've printed a few of them and they came out OK. Better than reading on screen(until colour e-ink is affordable).
Big thanks to Mort for these scans too. They helped soften the blow considerably.
The key point in this is that the high quality scans might already exist which in that case would mean just doing one batch conversion to a new DPI and one batch upload.
Yes, its a lot of work to do it, and beyond the work of any individual, I was just raising the point that the existing scans, whilst great to have online access to, are not at a high enough detail to replace the paper version.
He doesn't hang around here much, but you could try some of the commode sites?
I doubt there is any hope that he did scan them at higher quality though..
I've just dropped him a mail. It helps that I already bought the DVDs.
Page 4, issue 93:
WoS Quality, Proposed Quality
Page 30, Issue 93:
WoS Quality, Proposed Quality
I'll try to post an embed of a side by side magnification later.
Eh? looks find to me...maybe get some glasses?