| Author |
Topic: PT-20 drawings? |
|
Ed B
Advanced Member
|
  
Posted on: Dec 18, 2013 - 6:21pm
|
Dick
I guess if you couldn't get it done, no one can. Too bad. |
Total Posts: 91 | Joined:
Oct 26, 2006 - 5:31am | IP
Logged
|
|
TED WALTHER
TOP BOSS
|
 Posted on: Dec 19, 2013 - 5:05am
|
Dick;
I can understand HQ's reluctance, as this sort of thing has happened before, for instance, the copies that me and Wayne have of Ken Prescotts original Kodachrome color slides of PT 61 at Searlesville May 1943, are the only ones. Ken loaned them to another "person", after I returned them to him(insured, tracking number sign upon receiving,the whole nine yards) and they were never returned. But with your close relationship with HQ and Ed being the one who donated them, that seems very odd.
I recall the original idea for HQ was to copy/convert everything(photos, documents, film, etc.) to DVD disk, was that plan given the deep six?
Take care,
TED
|
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined:
Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am | IP
Logged
|
|
Pat Matthews
Advanced Member
|
Posted on: Dec 19, 2013 - 5:40am
|
Dick-
You've put in enormous work on this- thanks! But it sounds like we just need to move a pro scanner into the museum for a while. Some time ago, I half-jokingly tried to cajole Google to "Scan Our Drawings!", just as they did with books... they actually show up at libraries with their book scanning gear. No response of course...
TIFFs: Should be able to do better on file size. When I was running the print department at work, I installed a large format scanner to capture our old engineering drawings. Also saved as bi-tonal (B&W, or "1 bit" per pixel, as compared to 24-bit full color scans). With TIFF compression, file sizes were in the 300 kB range for large format drawings for 200dpi scans... 300dpi would be 2.25x as big.
The larger file sizes sound like uncompressed BMP (bit map) images. But another factor might be "noise", all the hash on the image... if this can't be edited out, the file will get larger. I was working with fairly clean prints...
Pat M
|
Total Posts: 89 | Joined:
Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm | IP
Logged
|
|
Dick
Moderator
|
Posted on: Dec 19, 2013 - 4:33pm
|
Ed:
Gave it the old college try!
I believe the difference between the sharp, clear quality of your donated microfilm could be accounted for simply by the difference between the the Navy Dept. filming (NARA copy) and the more conscientious Elco filming of their own material. The old adage "Its good enough for government work" holds very true, even to day.
Pat:
Ten to twelve years ago I spent months approaching many companies, including Kodak, Agfa, Ilford, Imation, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Bill Gates Foundation, the Getty Museum and many other high-end scanner companies like Linotype, Hell, and so on. Depending on the company type I would ask for help or inquired about loaning equipment new and/or used. Each contact including many presidents and CEO's failed to raise any interest or desire in helping physically, financially or equipment loan, it was very a defeating experience, having so many doors slammed in your face . . . so I completely understand not hearing back from Google.
I've been doing this type of work for 46 years. For most of the 70's I managed a large Technical Art Department (150-plus illustrators), a Camera Department and a Microfilm Department, microfilming over 10,000 pages a month. In the 80's, I co-owned a printing company with four large Heidelberg Speed Master 6-color printing presses, a large pre-press department and a complete bindery department (50-plus employees total). For the last 35 years I've been running my own design/graphics business.
During scanning I wasn't concerned with file size, only quality. A file size for an image using a black & White monochrome bit is simple math:
1 byte of file data = 8 monochrome bits (8 pixels).
An Elco engineering drawing 42" x 20" at 300 DPI = an image of 75,600,000 square pixels or bits. Divide this by 8 bits (1-byte) and you get 9,450,000 bytes or a 9.45MB image. The file can be LZW compressed down to 2.2MB, not 500KB. The physical drawing size would have to be reduced in resolution or from 42" x 20" original size drawing to a small 20" x 9" image to expect a 500KB file.
Most all of my files have been LZW compressed TIFF's at or about 2.2MB each for storage, but when a compressed file is opened up they revert back to the uncompressed size of 9MB each.
With my NARA microfilm order, I had refused it twice due to quality issue. Not from the originals they were duping, but the quality of their duplication work. The first set received the film was very, very reddish brown, not the expected dense black. It was clearly a chemical issue, with the chemistry in their film developer nearly spent. The developer bath was clearly over used and it was impossible to get a good development. The second set, was suffering from improper fixing of the developer. Strangely, they replaced the developer with a clean charge but forgot to replace the fixing solution which stops the development. The third set came out well, with a very dark dense black image, but unfortunately the originals they were using were in less good condition - in other words bad microfilming to start with.
|
Total Posts: 1417 | Joined:
Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36pm | IP
Logged
|
|
Pat Matthews
Advanced Member
|
Posted on: Dec 19, 2013 - 7:56pm
|
So, here's what I'm building now in CAD, just wishing I could read more detail from my nasty NARA prints. These are simply the main outer surfaces (or the inside surface of the paint!). From here, I design the structure for whatever type of model construction I'll use, and add the details (like ornaments on a tree). This much has been a couple-three day's solid work.
The model build should keep me busy though for a few months...
|
Total Posts: 89 | Joined:
Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm | IP
Logged
|
|
Pat Matthews
Advanced Member
|
Posted on: Dec 20, 2013 - 1:11pm
|
Dick- I just received the two drawing CDs from HQ-- thanks again for all the work you've put into these!
I'm scanning through the 77 footer material now... some is better than my old prints for sure... other prints just make me want to cry! So much info just lost...
Net, I'm ahead here though- thanks!
Pat M
|
Total Posts: 89 | Joined:
Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm | IP
Logged
|
|
|
