[QuadList] Quad Manuals Scanned/Digitized In A Swap

[Don Norwood]

Bob:

I join you in saluting the work that David has done.  However, I'll add an 
observation for those that may be considering the scanning of quad (or any 
other) manuals.  Having looked at many of the scans on his site, I can't 
help but notice the lack of resolution in the images.  I don't know whether 
he has reduced these files from original hi-res scans or if these are the 
actual scan resolutions that he is using.  If the original scans are hi-res 
and he maintains the originals, then that's great, and the lo-res scans 
certainly help with file size/bandwidth requirements on-line.  However, if 
the original scans are the lo-res files that he has available on-line, then 
they aren't really the quality that we would want for archival purposes.  To 
some extent, text is text, but drawings and photographs really need to be 
scanned with adequate resolution and with attention to grey scale values for 
images.  Even text is much more easily read at higher resolutions and can 
also be scanned with OCR software if the quality is sufficient.

Please understand that I don't mean to diminish the value of what he has 
done, it's really great to have the material available on-line.  However, if 
manuals are going to be preserved in digital form, I feel strongly that the 
quality of the scan is extremely important.  My goal would be to produce a 
PDF that could be printed if desired, and would yield a result very nearly 
equal to the original.  As others have pointed out, the large fold-out 
schematics will likely need to be done on a large-format scanner, and then 
those pages inserted into the document.  That takes a lot more time, 
especially when virtually all quad manuals are printed that way, but the 
results of either lo-res or reduced size scans are often not readable, and 
that defeats the whole purpose.

I guess my bottom line is that manuals are a different category from 
catalogs or magazines.  I'm in favor of hi-res scans for all materials, but 
it's a more critical issue for manuals than for many other documents.

Don Norwood
Digitrak Communications, Inc.
www.digitrakcom.com