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Worth giving a read:
http://www.caps-project.org/scanning.shtm

I overally agree with them, except on:

You might wonder if we still want scans for a game which contains slightly different packaging to a previous release... Well, the official line is "probably not". Unless there is something dramatically different about the box / manual we would really just want to provide the best ones (so for example, scans of newly discovered packaging may replace a current "more sparse" set). However, this is best done on a case-by-case basis, so if in
doubt, just mail us.

Something worth trying:

Colour Correction / Balancing

Photoshop (not Paint Shop Pro) is said to have a colour balancing feature. You can use this to keep the spread of colour in the image authentic to the original. By referring to the actual item, you just need to tell it what parts are really black and what parts are white and it does the rest for you.

I tend to use 60% transparent floodfill with anti-aliasing disabled (to avoid eating pixel) when I want to clean a given scan. I'm still sure they could be some filter doing proper color averaging but I can't find some.

I replaced my 13" screen by a 17" one (wow) and about to switch motherboard and CPU from 600 Mhz to 2000 Mhz (wow), hopefully reducing the time it takes to saves those 300 DPI PNG. With the screen I'm now running in 1024x768 and it's changing my perception of computers :)

Quote

> Worth giving a read:
> http://www.caps-project.org/scanning.shtm

I've been meaning to re-write the scan guidelines page for ages. It's hard to get through, there's too much to say and I don't want to overload people who can't even accept the VGM guidelines.

Quote

> I overally agree with them, except on:

Yeah. I want that rare variation where one of the halftone dots is missing.

Quote

> Something worth trying:

> Colour Correction / Balancing

> Photoshop (not Paint Shop Pro) is said to have

PSP definitely does. Look under (from memory) Effects -> Photo enhancement -> Manual color balance. You can select an area and tell it what colour it's supposed to be, and it interpolates from there. There's also an automatic version which guesses pretty well; the manual one is more useful in extreme cases, often requiring multiple passes before it looks right.

This all comes under "then use the colour-correction tools to make the image on the screen look more like the original item" in my guidelines. I think it's worth mentioning my note that monitors vary so there's a limit to what's worth doing - my CRT tends to make dark colours darker, LCDs tend to make light colours lighter, especially since most are shipped set to 100% brightness/contrast and few bother to change it.

Quote

> By referring to the actual item, you just need to tell it what parts are really black and what parts are white and it does the rest for you.

For pure black/white range fixing, I think that's done more efficiently by histogram stretching. Colour fixing is what colour balancing is designed for.

Quote

> I tend to use 60% transparent floodfill with anti-aliasing disabled (to avoid eating pixel) when I want to clean a given scan. I'm still sure they could be some filter doing proper color averaging but I can't find some.

PSP has "edge preserving smooth". Try playing with "unsharp mask" sometimes, it's a very powerful tool.

Quote

> I replaced my 13" screen by a 17" one (wow) and about to switch motherboard and CPU from 600 Mhz to 2000 Mhz (wow), hopefully reducing the time it takes to saves those 300 DPI PNG. With the screen I'm now running in 1024x768 and it's changing my perception of computers :)

My new work computer's LCD is 1600x1200 native. At home I run at 1280x1024 which is almost as good - basically, you never maximise anything, most things can be side-by-side and you have more of a feeling of a desktop rather than working with one maximised window at a time. Coding at 1600x1200 is much more fun, but try ProFont for coding at lower resolutions.

PS. My 486 SX-25 ran Windows 3.1 at 1024x768 (although in 16 colours and at 60Hz). I'm sure you could go higher if you tried...

Maxim

Feel free to copy those guidelines for SMS Power. A link back to CAPS would be nice though :)

Author	Message
Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8651 Location: Paris, France	CAPS scanning guidelines Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:14 pm
	Worth giving a read: http://www.caps-project.org/scanning.shtm I overally agree with them, except on: You might wonder if we still want scans for a game which contains slightly different packaging to a previous release... Well, the official line is "probably not". Unless there is something dramatically different about the box / manual we would really just want to provide the best ones (so for example, scans of newly discovered packaging may replace a current "more sparse" set). However, this is best done on a case-by-case basis, so if in doubt, just mail us. Something worth trying: Colour Correction / Balancing Photoshop (not Paint Shop Pro) is said to have a colour balancing feature. You can use this to keep the spread of colour in the image authentic to the original. By referring to the actual item, you just need to tell it what parts are really black and what parts are white and it does the rest for you. I tend to use 60% transparent floodfill with anti-aliasing disabled (to avoid eating pixel) when I want to clean a given scan. I'm still sure they could be some filter doing proper color averaging but I can't find some. I replaced my 13" screen by a 17" one (wow) and about to switch motherboard and CPU from 600 Mhz to 2000 Mhz (wow), hopefully reducing the time it takes to saves those 300 DPI PNG. With the screen I'm now running in 1024x768 and it's changing my perception of computers :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14744 Location: London	Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:50 am
	Quote > Worth giving a read: > http://www.caps-project.org/scanning.shtm I've been meaning to re-write the scan guidelines page for ages. It's hard to get through, there's too much to say and I don't want to overload people who can't even accept the VGM guidelines. Quote > I overally agree with them, except on: Yeah. I want that rare variation where one of the halftone dots is missing. Quote > Something worth trying: > Colour Correction / Balancing > Photoshop (not Paint Shop Pro) is said to have PSP definitely does. Look under (from memory) Effects -> Photo enhancement -> Manual color balance. You can select an area and tell it what colour it's supposed to be, and it interpolates from there. There's also an automatic version which guesses pretty well; the manual one is more useful in extreme cases, often requiring multiple passes before it looks right. This all comes under "then use the colour-correction tools to make the image on the screen look more like the original item" in my guidelines. I think it's worth mentioning my note that monitors vary so there's a limit to what's worth doing - my CRT tends to make dark colours darker, LCDs tend to make light colours lighter, especially since most are shipped set to 100% brightness/contrast and few bother to change it. Quote > By referring to the actual item, you just need to tell it what parts are really black and what parts are white and it does the rest for you. For pure black/white range fixing, I think that's done more efficiently by histogram stretching. Colour fixing is what colour balancing is designed for. Quote > I tend to use 60% transparent floodfill with anti-aliasing disabled (to avoid eating pixel) when I want to clean a given scan. I'm still sure they could be some filter doing proper color averaging but I can't find some. PSP has "edge preserving smooth". Try playing with "unsharp mask" sometimes, it's a very powerful tool. Quote > I replaced my 13" screen by a 17" one (wow) and about to switch motherboard and CPU from 600 Mhz to 2000 Mhz (wow), hopefully reducing the time it takes to saves those 300 DPI PNG. With the screen I'm now running in 1024x768 and it's changing my perception of computers :) My new work computer's LCD is 1600x1200 native. At home I run at 1280x1024 which is almost as good - basically, you never maximise anything, most things can be side-by-side and you have more of a feeling of a desktop rather than working with one maximised window at a time. Coding at 1600x1200 is much more fun, but try ProFont for coding at lower resolutions. PS. My 486 SX-25 ran Windows 3.1 at 1024x768 (although in 16 colours and at 60Hz). I'm sure you could go higher if you tried... Maxim

fiath Guest	Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:55 am
fiath Guest	Feel free to copy those guidelines for SMS Power. A link back to CAPS would be nice though :)

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