Lacero

Thanks, I saw how to make CBR's in the scanning guide but I didn't believe it to be a fake file format - a rename of zip for cbr and zip for cbz. I opened issues with 7-ZIP to see they really are just JPEG's that display in alphabetical order. You're right but isn't publishing magazines that can't be easily edited desirable? Is anyone here editing magazines already published? Trivially easy to remove the RetroMags page out of the CBZ to re-brand or compile in a product for sale. PDF's also seem to take up 2-3x less disk space, if my conversion of EGM Issue 54 from 418 MB in CBZ to 159 MB in PDF is any indication. I think it's disingenuous to force one file format upon the masses. I like archive.org's method of making issues taken from here available for download in (original?) ZIP, EPUB, PDF, searchable PDF, text-only, MOBI and GZ. They also apply ABBYY FineReader 11.0 to make a set of the PDF's searchable, which is a huge advantage. Too bad software costs $200. Granted, text slanted at more than about 30° wasn't searchable when I tested. Who doesn't mind using a PDF reader? Easy to zoom in and out and change viewing from single page to double page, which I think is all that most people care about. PDF is 100% standard in the business world. If PDF were the only format offered then I'd be concerned but RetroMags obviously already has zipped JPEG containers (CBZ/CBR). I tried free STDU Converter to convert a CBZ to PDF. Worked well enough. I'm sure there are many ways to convert JPEG's to PDF. Banned for using another file format that has endless free readers available? At least you were unbanned. Can we not take upload their searchable PDF's here too? Particularly if they're half the filesize? The CBZ/CBR-only decision must have been made a long time ago. Perhaps it's time to revisit it in the wake of making images searchable with OCR software.

Okay great! Can you explain why color matching / patching / stamping / cleaning is needed? I get the idea if there is a scratch to cover it up and not all colors look correct after scanning, but I would like to tell myself if these processes are needed for each guide or issue I scan.

Thanks for explaining. I meant EGM '94-'95 in the sense of being multiple issues in that 2 year range. I can tell some EGM's were removed without being rescanned. I luckily found issue "074r" from an archive.org backup of EMU Paradise. Issue has an older version of the RetroMags "thank you and enjoy" page on page 1. Issues 69 and 72 file names have the "r" denoting a rescanning was needed. Still never rescanned and uploaded back here. No one can download those 2 issues anywhere now. I can't tell who scanned in the first place to ask if I could buy the magazines to rescan. It matters because of the availability and the brand. No one wants to visit 3 websites for 11 issues of EGM or Nintendo Power and scratch their head over if the 12th issue from the year has ever been uploaded. That we don't own the copyright gives other sites free reign to upload on their servers, which is fine, except all I see is copying what's available here. No further scanning contributions. You all are the leaders for gaming magazines. Instruction manual collections spread all over the place. Super annoying. I don't want to rescan what's already available and it's a daunting task to catalog and organize everything from the 16-bit era.

Right, not much to go on in the guide for not de-binding. I can experiment on my own. I think if I flatten enough then I can still meet the standard. Maybe I'm saying that out of blissful ignorance. I'm looking at the published EGM '94-'95 and the crease from binding is visible and on a rare occasion the shadow from a curved page. Thanks for the advice to crop away the gutter side of each page. I hadn't thought of that. PSP guide of Tactics Ogre in English by Brady Games I have is 400 pages. Still pretty huge! Good to know I'm not the only one around with an interest in the series. SNES Ogre Battle and PS1 Tactics Ogre English guides are each under 100 pages. Nice life for scanning. The Knight of Lodis (GBA) seems to have 3 different Japanese published guides (none in English). I have 2 and the other is 255 pages. Coolest thing is SFC Ogre Battle instruction manual has 2 parts of game-related manga in it! But I don't see instruction manuals on here.

Crap, not that I can't buy a 600+ dpi scanner but the less steps I have to complete per publication the better. I understand the logic behind starting at high quality and minimizing down. Actually, how do you create a CBR? I can save each scan as Bitmap, JPEG, PNG, TIFF or PDF. Easy enough to save as an image format, edit then and compile together into a single PDF.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I don't know Japanese but the strategy guides seem better / more thorough when I have the English version to compare. I think the casual masses would enjoy comparing the two as I have. I posted test scans in the editing thread for input. Rolling with an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M225dn flatbed scanner that goes up to 300 dpi. That seems to be the typical resolution here. With my test pages, 200 dpi was about 1 megabyte per scan and 300 was 2.5 megabytes. I can understand why no one uses 600 dpi for the sake of filesize.

Thanks @E-Day, I saw Photoshop mentioned in another topic but thought maybe 6 months later there would be more viable free options. I know cropping and cloning in famous MS Paint, Paint.net and Paint Shop Pro. Have GIMP but never used it. Actually, let me post my first-ever scans: (200 dpi) https://imgur.com/a/30d1dQY and (300 dpi) https://imgur.com/a/22jxCKE Without de-binding, I realize I need to weigh down the top half. Is a small strategy guide and 160 pages. Only ~83 scans since the guide flattened easily fits inside the scanner. Seems like a good starter project! Assuming I flatten to remove the blurring at the top and crop correctly, what other editing would I need to do?

I appreciate you breaking down the process for me. Ehhh, I feel like Internet Archive is the B Team. So super thin Game Genie code mailers could remain bound and make it on here, thick strategy guides probably not. I think quality is relative though. When I read said thick strategy guides / magazines, the binding gets in the way and scanning with the binding intact reproduces that effect. I realize professional eBooks are flat sheets and Retromags follows that line of thinking.

Thanks for the fast response! Scan properly, I don't want to remove the binding to get perfect even scans. Are scans with folds along the binding with a flatbed scanner acceptable? Can you name a posted guide or magazine that does this to use as a control?

I see Japanese magazines (Famitsu!) are scanned but the strategy guides section is English only. My Japanese guides are SFC/GBA/SS/PS1 era so much older than the 10 year window.

What do you mean by editing? What kind of software do I need?