8 Apr
2002
8 Apr
'02
10:55 a.m.
"Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote:
Well, I scanned the originals as 600dpi line art,
instead of gray scale. Lineart generates bitmap
files, just two bitplanes. I'd assume that it
compresses much more easily since adjacent pixel
runs of white are next to each other and chomp
down nicely...
However... have you checked out the DjVu imaging compression
technology? DjVu is a non-propreitary superset of the iterated
fractal system imaging compression technology I read about in
Byte magazine back in the 1980s. Now that the secret's out of
the bag, everyone can have utilize extremely high-compression
if you can suffer the slight loss of fidelity to the original
(for example, the analysis will find a single ideal letter form
for an 'A', and uses that ideal letterform image when reconstructing
the document, instead of recording every pixel at every location.
For more info on DjVu, just point Google and cut the leash...
-dq
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
Sheet-fed scanner for most stuff, he does use a hand-scanner
for bound stuff. Like Eric, I'm pretty sure he does most pages
as 600dpi line art. I just got doing the same for a section of
a CDC manual that's in hot demand; then used Kodak Imaging
to create a multi-page TIF from the individual TIF pages. Then
print to PDF using Adobe Acrobat 4.05's PDF Writer. Yields a
367kb PDF, whereas multipage TIF was 2.1MB.
Then your TIFFs weren't compressed with the Group 4 2D algorithm, which
is the best around, until we've all got JBIG tools. Either that, or PDF
Writer reduced the resolution during conversion. 
8 Apr
8 Apr
11:17 a.m.
On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote:
However... have you checked out the DjVu imaging
compression
technology? DjVu is a non-propreitary superset of the iterated fractal
system imaging compression technology I read about in Byte magazine
back in the 1980s. Now that the secret's out of the bag, everyone can
have utilize extremely high-compression if you can suffer the slight
loss of fidelity to the original (for example, the analysis will find
a single ideal letter form for an 'A', and uses that ideal letterform
image when reconstructing the document, instead of recording every
pixel at every location.
Sounds like OCR software to me. There any major differences?
-Toth
12:43 p.m.
That's interesting. Are you saying that it basically does OCR, but
does so with the font used in the document, so that is records one
'a' character (for example) and then replaces all future 'a's with
the recorded one? If so, then does it also do OCR? I've been looking
for a cheap/good OCR solution for scanned documents...
--tom
However... have you checked out the DjVu imaging
compression
technology? DjVu is a non-propreitary superset of the iterated
fractal system imaging compression technology I read about in
Byte magazine back in the 1980s. Now that the secret's out of
the bag, everyone can have utilize extremely high-compression
if you can suffer the slight loss of fidelity to the original
(for example, the analysis will find a single ideal letter form
for an 'A', and uses that ideal letterform image when reconstructing
the document, instead of recording every pixel at every location.
For more info on DjVu, just point Google and cut the leash...
-dq
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
11:59 a.m.
Speaking of scanners with sheetfeeders, I picked up an HP Network ScanJet
5 a while ago that I am about to put into service (hopefully, I don't know
if it works yet; also, as an aside, it is labeled as an evaluation unit
from HP).
Does anyone have any experience with these? How do they work? Well?
Poorly? Fast? Slow? Is the OCR any good?
I think I made need to repair the cable that connects from the control
panel to the main unit. It looks like one of the wires may have been
severed.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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2:08 p.m.
On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Speaking of scanners with sheetfeeders, I picked up an
HP Network ScanJet
5 a while ago that I am about to put into service (hopefully, I don't know
if it works yet; also, as an aside, it is labeled as an evaluation unit
from HP).
Dang, it doesn't work. I guess that's why it was free :/
I think I made need to repair the cable that connects
from the control
panel to the main unit. It looks like one of the wires may have been
severed.
When it powers on, it stays in the "Self-Test Initializing..." mode
forever. Also, several of the horizontal raster lines on the LCD display
are out. I'm going to repair the cable and see if this changes anything.
If anyone has a service manual or a half-broken Network ScanJet 5 they'd
like to get rid of then let me know.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
8:53 p.m.
On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Speaking of scanners with sheetfeeders, I picked up an HP Network ScanJet
5 a while ago that I am about to put into service (hopefully, I don't know
if it works yet; also, as an aside, it is labeled as an evaluation unit
from HP).
Does anyone have any experience with these? How do they work? Well?
Poorly? Fast? Slow? Is the OCR any good?
What I'm gonna suggest is tantamount to heresy on this list, but "oh
well."
For production scanning, go spend whetever you can afford on a USB
scanner. I'm running an Epson refurb that cost $40 (I think NIB is like
$80) and scans circles around my old SJ5. It's faster, quieter, clearer
and does much better resolution.
Every ScanJet 5 I've ever seen with more than a couple thousand pages
scanned gets tinted stripes down the image.
If it's an aquisition, that's one thing. But if you want good fast
scans, that's one of the few areas in PC computing that's really, truly
improved.
As far as I can tell, if the contrast is OK and your scanner does 300+
dpi, OCR depends more on the software than on the scanner.
Doc
2:10 p.m.
On Tue, 9 Apr 2002, Doc wrote:
What I'm gonna suggest is tantamount to heresy
on this list, but "oh
well."
For production scanning, go spend whetever you can afford on a USB
scanner. I'm running an Epson refurb that cost $40 (I think NIB is like
$80) and scans circles around my old SJ5. It's faster, quieter, clearer
and does much better resolution.
I want the benefit of an ADF (automatic document feeder). The Network
ScanJet 5 can do up to 50 pages at once. It also supports a fake duplex
mode (you feed the pages in one way, then re-feed them the other). It
seems decent and was free, so I hope I can get this one to work to do
low-volume background scanning.
Every ScanJet 5 I've ever seen with more than a
couple thousand pages
scanned gets tinted stripes down the image.
I saw one on eBay that was advertised as having this problem. It sold for
around $50.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
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days inactive
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6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
dquebbeman＠acm.org -
foo＠siconic.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net -
uban＠ubanproductions.com