OT microfiche

yes, and disapointing, but maybe I didn't have enough DPI - I used an HP scanjet 5370c at max resolution

Bill

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Do you have any idea what the equivalent DPI is on last-generation microfiche? If you have lines of text with 100 chars, and a 5 x 7 matrix plus the space between chars, that is about 700 pixels minimum across the page, and most are MUCH higher resolution than that, like about 4000 pixels across a page. Now, that page is reduced to less than 1/2", so that is an absolute minimum of 1400 DPI, and much more likely to be 8000 DPI. You need really fine optics to image this stuff properly.

Jon

Yes. Not so good but readable:

These were made at 3600 DPI on an Epson flatbed scanner with transparency adapter built in, which I'm told has the better of the two scanner elements (CCD?) but haven't verified. It's readable but not by much.

Dave Hinz

Thanks, Your results at 3600 dpi were not bad at all, so a high end scanner should be able to do it at less than the cost of a reader/printer or dedicated scanner

Probably 300 or 400 bucks would get you there, or you could get this model used on eBay pretty cheaply. I like Epson's scanners and will buy another some day.

What you need is back lighting - through frosted milk glass.

You can get some of that at a glass company. The scanner reflects off the surface with the internal lamp - hope you have a way to turn it off. I do on my HP - I plug in the Slide / film unit and it is a lamp. Turns off the internal reflection lamp.

Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Frankl> Just curious, has anyone tried using a really good photo scanner (lots of

Well, you've just reinvented the transparency scanner. But lighting is only part of it, resolution still isn't quite there. The example I posted at 3600 DPI is mostly readable but hardly clear. Optical resolution is the only thing that'll get you there.

or in TIFF that maintains high res.

That might be the issue - and are you sure it is 3600 in B&W or 3600 in color and you get B&W. You might do a single page at a time. Put the res in the smaller box. You would have to have done that or the file size would be a monster...

Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Dave H> >

True, but that assumes there's data there to begin with, and also assumes I have a few gigabytes of webspace which I don't. The TIFF scans don't look much better, same blur. You're seeing blur there, not .jpg artifact.

would have to have

Oh yes you definatly have to scan these one "page" at a time, not the whole fiche. But the resolution just isn't there, even in the raw scans at 3600 in TIFF.