[Coco] Scanned in manual for OS-9 Assembler

[Frank Swygert]

Scanning text in B&W doesn't always produce satisfactory results. If you do use B&W, use as high a resolution as the scanner will support (up to 1200 dpi anyway, but 600 usually produces good results, and some scanners are usable at 300). Scan one at 150 dpi intervals (starting at 150) and you'll see what I mean, and find the best compromise for your scanner. B&W works best on typed sheets of good white paper. Even using a high resolution will still produce a compact document because there's only two color levels instead of 64 (typical grey scale is 64 shades). Color scans are clearer at much lower resolution -- no point in going over 150 dpi though. The differing shades take a lot of storage space though. 100 dpi is usually clear enough for full color and grey-scale. 

The storage format makes the biggest difference! Many older scanners default to TIFF (or TIF) format. Great detail, big files. JPG (or JPEG) isn't quite as detailed but has superior compression. It's pretty much a standard now and is a great compromise. If your scanner doesn't allow saving as a JPG, load the file in your photo/picture editing software and use the "save as" feature to change the file format. I do this all the time with Corel PhotoPaint. The file will be much smaller with little loss of clarity, if any. 

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Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:24:50 +1000
From: "Bob Devries" <devries.bob at gmail.com>

I always scan in Black & White, *unless* the document has colours which do 
not scan properly that way. If necessary, I scan in either colour or 
grayscale, but for just straight text docs, b&w works best.

I think using grayscale does increase the file size significantly.

I have no idea whether Acrobat 6 (which I use) does a better job of 
compression than version 4, or whether the output of the scanner has some 
bearing on that.

What I'll do is print one of those docs from your PDF files, and then 
re-scan that doc, and see if I end up with a significantly smaller doc. I'll 
let you know the result.

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-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
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