Scanning/website design questions

[Mozzie22]

I have decided to start scanning my Ozzie collection but would like advice. I bought a Canonscan 4400 scanner and was curious what settings those of you that have scanned many cards use on your scanners as far as DPI is concerned. I prefer to do my own cropping because the auto crop takes too much off of the sides.

Because I am just starting I'm trying to decide whether I should scan the backs as well. For those that have/have not done that are you glad you did or wished you had? Also, once I get the scanning done (months from now) how would you recommend I get help building a website? I have "designed" my own sites from freewebs in the past but they were very simple and I am going to want a better site than I know how to create. How does one go about finding help doing something like that? Is it expensive?

I have read a few posts in the past about website design sites/templates and have pm'd a few people but they talk way over my head in computer/website lingo I do not understand and they inevitably lose me along the way.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

 

[thelesquad]

I have a lof of my collection scanned front and back. I'm glad I did the backs because some cards differ by what is on the back of the cards, and it would be a good resource for other collectors. As far as designing goes, there are a lot of resources on this site. Instead of gathering too much info at once, get suggestions as you build.

Tai

 

[ChasHawk]

This may sound like too much work, but to me it's worth the effort.

I scan everything at 200 ppi, and then do a rough crop with the scanner software. This gives
me a scan that is approx. 740 x 530 pixels.

When I am done scanning, I then open the images in HP photosmart premier, and do the rest of my
cropping/resizing there. For me, this is much more precise than the scanner software.

After cropping, I resize all regular sized cards to 400 x ~280 pixels (the width can be 1 or 2 pixels off because cards are not 100% consistant in size.)

Depending on how the colors, etc. are picked up during the initial scan, I may also adjust the exposure, brightness, etc. on certain types of cards.

The end result...

 

[Philip J. Fry]

I usually scan at 600dpi, and sometimes scan the backs, depending on the card and if it has a serial # or not.

As for designing, like stated already, don't take too much at once.

 

[sschauer]

I scan at 300 DPI and will only scan the back if it somehow differentiates the card from another similar. Check out my site for how I lay it out and do scans/thumbnails. When you get ready for publishing to the web there are many easy programs that do the hard work for you shot me a pm and can share some secrets and make it less painful.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

i own the same scanner. i LOVE how it scans slabs, like how it scans raw cards. i use 300 dpi and find thats fine for me.

when i was collecting HOF GU Bat Cards, i'd scan both the front and back and it WAS a lot more work.

 

[Mozzie22]

bump

 

[RITM]

When I was building my site I opted not to scan the backs of all of the cards. Of course it's possible that the cards of Cal show the backs but I did not scan every back from the team sets. My suggestion would be to make it your project and have fun in the process. In regards to the web hosting I just renewed with freewebs. Of course I would like a few things different but I appreciate being able to work on my site from anywhere I have internet access.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

I agree. Have fun and just go with the flow. Don't worry about how the site looks as long as it's easy to navigate. Mine isn't the greatest in terms of design but it's really easy to get to the collection and view the cards.

 

[ajw]

Here's a post I wrote a while ago on this very topic. It might be helpful: http://freedomcardboard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28266.