Second... can you provide a scan which would improve these pages? I'm interested in:
- Better scans - higher quality, higher resolution, better condition covers, more accurate colour reproduction
- Scans of cover variations, including US/Europe back covers and minor variations
- Any scans I haven't got
- Japanese/Korean/TecToy cover scans
- Label scans for games with label artwork (Codemasters, Japanese, cards, etc)
- Game catalogues
- Magazine adverts
- Anything else that you think would go well here
|
If you can help, there are a few guidelines to follow, I'm afraid.
- All scans you submit MUST be your own. Please don't download a scan from a website, then send it to me claiming it's yours. If you get permission from the person who did the scan or the owner of the website then please tell me their name so I can give proper credit.
- The scan should either be:
- In JPEG format with similar resolution, size and quality to the best of those already on the site, or
- In JPEG or PNG format at high resolution and high quality, for archival and conversion. One day we'll have space and bandwidth to put the full-size original online.
|
Easy, isn't it? Well... there's some more. Here are my instructions on how to make a good scan. If you think you can do better then by all means do, but these are what I suggest.
- If possible, scan the whole cover at once. That means removing the paper from the sleeve. If you're scanning a cardboard box, do as much as is reasonable, if you can.
- Make sure it's straight in the scanner.
- If you put it right in the corner of the scanner, the edges might be a little cut off. Avoid that if necessary.
- Make sure it's flat - to do this, I put a weight on the scanner lid.
- Turn off all the scanner's image enhancement features, automatic cropping, etc. if you can. It generally makes it worse.
- Make sure the scanner background is white.
- Scan it at 300dpi, and leave a gap around the edges (don't try to crop it fully in the scanner window).
- In a good-quality image editor (eg. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro), first rotate the image (if needed) so that the edges are properly straight. Try using gridlines/guidelines to help. I rotate to within 0.1° of perfect straightness. Some items just aren't straight, though.
- Then use the colour-correction tools to make the image on the screen look more like the original item. Don't aim for perfection, as different monitors will make the image look different anyway. If possible, check that you've got your monitor's gamma correction or colour matching set up correctly.
- If there are any imperfections (holes, tears, stains) in the item you've scanned, and you can do a convincing job of "repairing" them in the scan, please do. If it looks like you've done it, don't.
- Then crop the image to show only the scanned item. Try and crop as precisely as you can.
- Now resize it. For a front-and-back Master System cover scan, I suggest you set the width to 1600 pixels, and let the program set the height accordingly (maintaining the aspect ratio). For smaller items, try to get around the same scale.
- Finally, save it in JPEG format. If available, use the program's previewer to finely adjust the compression level. You should aim for the highest compression possible without adding noticeable compression artefacts to the image. To check for these, you need to zoom in to about 300%, and look at areas of high contrast. I generally look for an area where there is a red or blue area with a sharp boundary. Adjust the compression until you can see problems in these areas; then decrease the compression by about 2 or 3 points. The final image should be in the region of 400KB, or higher if it does not compress well.
|
Then please email it to me at the address shown here. Also include your name (as you wish it to be displayed in the popup information boxes), your website and preferred email address (if you want them linked), and where in the world the item is from.
|