datajunkie: Re-Post + Technical Difficulties + Rant/Gripe = Another Day In Paradise!

OK - we may be having technical difficulties withe the .cbz files.... is anyone else having problems with viewing them? Please do advise me, so I can adjust the production process accordingly. Personally, I'm tempted to just go back to doing everything as pdf's - they work well for me, and maybe I should just stick with what I know, and with what seems to work. There are quite a few applications that allow you to gut a pdf file into the component jpg's, if that's what you want. This thing is enough of a time consuming process as is, without me getting hip deep in any duplication of labor.

In other news, I have a small rant/gripe, and that is with the actual quality of some of the scans I'm seeing out there. Some of them are, to put none too fine of a point to it, complete and utter crap. What is the point of scanning a book when the end product looks like shit? It's kind of like buying a $20.00 steak and burning it to a crisp - what's the point of getting the book on the damn scanner if the file you produce is small and the scans are fuzzy, low resolution crap? Seriously dude, just don't bother. When I download a piece of junk like this, I must admit I get more than a little frustrated, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
So, for the dummies out there, let's run though the drill, shall we?
The scan needs to be AT LEAST 1200 pixels wide. Larger is better for magazines (I like 1350). The final product gives you one panel of the six-panel grid filling the screen. Seems like common sense to me.

If you're going to scan at 72 dpi, you should do two things -
a) De-screen. There should be an option in the preferences or pull down menu.
b) Scan at 200% or higher. Larger is always better. If the book is in black and white, scan it in GRAYSCALE for heaven's sake. Yes the yellow pages effect can be good, but it TRIPLES the file size! Seems like a lot of bandwidth for a small return.

Personally, I scan at 300 dpi/100% and then shrink 'em down in Photoshop using the "Save for Web" function (also in the pull down menu). When you've finished, a good simple rule of thumb should be this - one page should be around 1 MB. I've seen scans where the file size is under 200K per page! The artifacting is painful to see. The process is call "Digital Comic Preservation", so I cannot understand for the life of me how some of these jokers don't get the concept of doing it right the first time. Why make a cruddy copy of something fellas? Sooner or later, someone will only have to do it again in the future, you dopes!

End of rant/gripe!

So, in keeping with the previously mentioned concept of sticking with what I know, here's a tasty re-post of some choice Charlton books, as pdf's. OK?