Scanning Newspapers

BM
Posted By
Brian_McNeal
Nov 14, 2003
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218
Replies
8
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Closed
I did a search under this topic, but I would like to get as much information as I can. I tend to read a newspaper story, and want to keep the story so I came up with the idea of creating a database (I am working in AppleWorks 6.2.7), in which I would scan the article in question, including information like the newspaper it came from, the date, etc.

What I am trying to do is to have the articles scan as clearly, as legibly, as possible. The scans I have done so far, while not bad, tend to be not only too small (I assume that that has nothing to do with the size of the graphics field that I inserted the jpg into) but not clear enough.

I have not given up on this project, if only because completing it will keep me from being buried in newsprint; if anyone could give me a few clues as to create scans of newspapers that are as clear (and more important: legible) as possible I would appreciate it.
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Jim_Hess
Nov 14, 2003
The center I work at is very heavily federally funded, and the government requires that ALL documentation related to the center be retained for an indefinite period of time. After 25 years of existence, we literally have rooms full of documentation. We looked at a number of commercially available programs for scanning this documentation, but none of them seemed to give us the flexibility that we require. So I designed a database system using Visual Basic that enables my scanning operators to enter information into the database about the document. Then, they just click on a button that starts the scanning process. All of my documents are saved in the TIFF format because it enables us to have multiple pages for each document. Some of our documents are 80 pages long, and we are able to store them as single files. I had to purchase a separate scanning module from a company that provided me with the programming routines. It has worked very well for us now for several years. There are some fairly good programs available commercially that might work for you. One of them that I can think of is Pagis Pro. And there are several others but I cannot think of any of them right off hand. I think what you need to do is look for something that is designed specifically for scanning these types of documents. It is my opinion that the software that comes with many scanners is not optimized for doing the type of thing you are wanting to do.
CF
Catherine_Fenner
Nov 14, 2003
Not sure I can help here. I do the same. My scanner’s scanning program allows me to set it for "text enhanced" which, I presume makes the lettering easier for an OCR application to deal with. The results aren’t steller but I can read and print to satisfaction.
JK
JP Kabala
Nov 14, 2003
Check out these recommendations

http://www.scantips.com/basics04.html (about halfway down page he starts talking about text)
http://www.boroweb.com/psptutorial17.html (yes, it’s PSP, but the same things apply in Elements)
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/7745.asp (this one actually references PE)

HTH
JPK
wrote in message
I did a search under this topic, but I would like to get as much
information as I can. I tend to read a newspaper story, and want to keep the story so I came up with the idea of creating a database (I am working in AppleWorks 6.2.7), in which I would scan the article in question, including information like the newspaper it came from, the date, etc.
What I am trying to do is to have the articles scan as clearly, as
legibly, as possible. The scans I have done so far, while not bad, tend to be not only too small (I assume that that has nothing to do with the size of the graphics field that I inserted the jpg into) but not clear enough.
I have not given up on this project, if only because completing it will
keep me from being buried in newsprint; if anyone could give me a few clues as to create scans of newspapers that are as clear (and more important: legible) as possible I would appreciate it.
JC
Jane_Carter
Nov 14, 2003
I too, like to scan an occasional article(magazine or newspaper) to send to a non-computer friend or relative. I don’t do many, but I scan it in using Color Photo option at 300 resolution.
Then I open it in PSE and do anything to it as needed, it will be crystal clear, readible big and small. Brighten it or whatever you want to it, then print. I know that is a strange way to do it, but I always get a super print.
I have no clue how to use OCR.
Hope this helps.
Jane
BB
Bert_Bigelow
Nov 15, 2003
Brian,
I am not clear on whether you want to save an IMAGE of the newspaper article, or whether you want to use OCR software to convert it to a text file. The other posters above have given you some ideas on how to do both. Maybe you should clarify what you want to do.
Bert
BM
B_McNeal
Nov 16, 2003
I want to scan the articles themselves, as opposed to converting it to text. The things I tend to scan are newsarticles that revolve around politics and political trends, and it matters to me that they appear exactly as they did in whichever paper they are in because I don’t want to create the impression, in my own mind or anyone else’s, that the text was somehow altered.

I understand that one can probably do the same thing with a newspaper (altering the text), but it would be a bit more difficult, and I am more interested in creating an accurate as possible database.
BN
Bob_Norton
Nov 16, 2003
I spent several months scanning in the 1955-1964 run of an out of print sports car racing tabloid: < http://www.vintage-sportscar-photos.com/pubs/motoracing/inde x.html>

I scanned at 150 dpi using an Epson 2450 scanner. I scanned as a black and white photo, and used the unsharp mask on the Epson Twain software.

I had to use B&W photo rather than line art as the paper was too aged to work well at 1 bit/pixel. Using PSE I then increased the brightness and the contrast. I then used the burn and dodge tools to clean up the image of the page. When photos were on a page I used the select tool to increase the brighness & contrast more on the text than on the photo. Since the scanner could only do half of the tabloid page at a time I used PSE to move & rotate each half (as layers) until they lined up, and then flattened the image.

I saved the resulting pages in Adobe Acrobat PDF. Then I used Adobe Acrobat to bring the pages together for each issue.

Quite a project, but very rewarding to help save such a slice of history.
BB
Bert_Bigelow
Nov 16, 2003
Bob,
I’ve only tried scanning newsprint a few times, and I’ve had some of the same problems you describe, so I read your technique with great interest. Thanks for posting it. I’m saving it for future reference.
Bert

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