How fast can you get comics scanned?

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

It's the most time consuming part of selling and as I am out of school in a week and will be creating a mass of stuff to sell, using turbo lister 2, I'm interested in how to speed this process up.

[Rick Bradford]

Yeah, it's definitely one of the most time-consuming aspects of mail order.

I don't have any great tips but I did figure one thing out a while back. I used to preview the scan, then crop in the scanning software, then final scan. Now I just get my settings where I want them and scan the full area (or just a little larger than what I'm scanning if I'm scanning a bunch of things one size). Then crop the images in Photoshop and save.

It saves me a lot of time and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner..

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

That's exactly, word for word, what I do.

[btdhome]

The other thing of course, is to have your folders ready for the finished product.
I have my regular comic covers folders that I save. All same size and cropped to the edge, etc.
Then I have a folder for auction scans.
Most buyers of pricier or older issues want to see all edges and corners, so I crop a little outside the book itself for those sales.

[rowand]

What DPI do you use on your scanners? I use 300 DPI and let eBay derez it back down to 72 or whatever they store. I find having the extra info on my hard disk means that I don't have to rescan if the buyers want a higher rez scan. Uploads to eBay take longer though.

Don't you guys rotate your comics to vertical some one degree or two?

Do you guys use Photoshop to "Gamma" the image back from what the scan looks like to what the comic really looks like or do I just have a cheap scanner?

[fulltimer56]

I use my Window's Scanner & Camera Wizard for my HP PSC 750xi scanner. My custon settings are always set at 150 DPI for my comics so I just click on next then type in the title and my file format is always set at JPG and I always send them to the same folder. It might take me 1/2 a minute and most of that is use to lay the comic on the glass.

Then I go into photobucket and download them into the folder I have already set up and list from there.

Linda http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/fulltimer56/smiley/ZZZshehulk2.gif

[Hoss]

I scan my comics at 150dpi too. My scanner is compatible with Photoshop, so I can scan a bunch of books at once then I use custom action commands to automate the resizing and saving process on the books. If I really apply myself, I can scan, resize and rename 50-60 books a night. Of course, I usually end up at the corral or somewhere else on the internet, so my production usually is not that high! :lol:

[fulltimer56]

Or like me, start reading the comics again!! :D That is why I have trouble cleaning up my office because I'll get to reading or looking at stuff and don't get my work done!! :oops:

Linda

[Rick Bradford]

I generally scan at 85dpi since that'll give me a decent size scan before it gets knocked down to 72 online.



Don't you guys rotate your comics to vertical some one degree or two?

Why?



Do you guys use Photoshop to "Gamma" the image back from what the scan looks like to what the comic really looks like or do I just have a cheap scanner?

Very rarely do I do that. It's tough to do (for me, anyway) without affecting aspects of the image that I don't want to. Either it'll make it look worse in some way or make it look better than the book actually is (which, of course, is a no-no).

[rowand]

Hey Rick,

I have an affordable (read as cheap) scanner. I can't scan near the edges without loosing some of the reliable scan so most of my scans are rotated enough to make my old-style printer sensitivities tingle unpleasently. I scan into Photoshop to allow for rotating vertical so that the buyer is looking at the comic scan and not the angle it sits at.

Photoshop has a couple of features that allow me to knock down the reflected light from the varnish on the covers and to correct for the scanner's scanned colors being slightly off from the comic's actual coloration. My goal is to make the scan as much like the actual comic as possible. I have automated the process and use the same corrections on every comic.

The only problem so far is that the scan and correction process accents any yellowing or browning somewhat. I am cool with that problem as I don't want anyone misssing any problems with my comics because they didn't read the discription completely!