Tips for posting raw scans (for non-artists)

[steelwurm]

So I have a few retail covers that can be added to the site, but I'm no artist and wouldn't be able to successfully clean up the covers.  I want to contribute though, so hopefully you guys can give some tips.

I get that 300dpi is the min.  If I'm just uploading the RAW for others to work on, do you prefer 600dpi?

I started cropping them down to the appropriate pixel dimensions, but found that some of my scans were slightly rotated or cropped by the scanner (I used an auto document feeder the 1st time).  Do you artists prefer that I leave a reasonable white space around the scan to allow easier editing?

Other tips for us non-PS users about what to do to make sure editing these Raws is more enjoyable/better/easier?

[Doom]

I just finished making a scanning guide. You might find some stuff you don't know, especially at the bottom where I talk about scanning software. I suppose some breathing room around the cover is good. Don't crop so much you loose part of the cover.

"Raw" scans are how most covers on the site are made. Thus, you should scan covers at a high quality. The minimum quality you should scan a cover is at 300 dots (or more correctly pixels) per inch. (abbreviated to dpi) This is so cover designers (or you) can make high quality covers.


However, if a cover is for an older game (like an NES or N64 game) or has significant rips or tears or other imperfections, most cover designers recommend scanning a cover at 600dpi so proper editing can be done.

.......
Now open up your scanning software. I'm not going to go over every possible setup, but there are a couple important things to remember.
1) 300dpi (or more)
2) Descreen (sometimes called derasterize) if availible
3) Some scanners (like mine) have a way to scan film. This won't work for scanning covers becuase you get a blank space from a different part of the scanner.

[uLuGaBi]

Hello, i started to dump my old pc games for redump.org and since i like great things when i make a release i also scan every artworks (box, case, manual,..). One man from redump.org told me about your site (really good by the way) and so i used the guide made by doom. But my Epson V200 scanner isn't perfect: (i can't put arts in the corner) so i have to edit my scans to crop and rotate and i'm really not an expert.
I uploaded what it looks like today: http://dl.free.fr/rZMR8I6Gh
Tell me if it's ok or if u prefer me to send u my originals scans with blanks around the pictures (i included them in the zip for funtracks) and if u need other infos.
Thx

[Doom]

What is the purpose of redump.org? Surely most of these games have been dumped before. As far as I can see you can't download the dumps, either.

Keep space around the scans and let someone who knows what they're doing crop/rotate it, probably.

[uLuGaBi]

Ok, so i upload eveyrthing with spaces and click on RAW. Is 300 dpi ok considering the state of my boxes (no scratches,...)?

For redump.org the purpose is preservation. To give you just some of the most important points classic programs for back up make mistakes on multiple tracks cds (so lot of pc and PS1 which got audio tracks) where it missed the start of first audio track and the end of the last one. Second important point too is that clone cd (or other appz) will make a different file depend of your computer so not good for db and collecting.
You can compare it to no-intro or good project for carts console system, people redumped carts already released in order to have a full 1:1 copy and not one with some hacked things or mistakes (overdumps,....)
And if ur original cd/dvd is no more readable, u can found the bin files on different private trackers.

[Doom]

300dpi is fine, but if you have the space, do more. 300dpi is more than most sites and people will love you all the same.

[uLuGaBi]

Space isn't a problem for me, but i m including my scans with my releases so i'm not sure people will like to have scan files equal to the bin files
But so just tell me which dpi you would like. What will be cool is if someone can correct them pretty fast so i could joined them to my releases.

After i would like to ask why you choosed jpeg format and not PNG (since jpeg isn't a lossless format)?

[Doom]

I did not choose the format. I am a site admin, but one of about ten. Of one of those, only one has complete control over the site. Presumably to save space, as this is no private tracker where one must give and take. Since it's a one way street, I can understand saving some bandwidth here and there.

Check your PMs at the top of the site. (Hey, ____ you have __ messages)

[Jigsaw]

Generally speaking, the bigger the better. Depending on your computer, resolutions past 600DPI may be a little slow to work with, but really it's common sense that higher quality scanning will lead to higher quality results in the end. Also, there is really no reason to align whatever you're scanning to the edge of the scanner - something will inevitably get cropped, and while a crooked scan can be fixed in 10 seconds, there's no way of regaining cropped parts of an image (short of manually redrawing it).

[uLuGaBi]

I'm not sure higher quality will be better specially speaking of pc games. No matter the size question (75 mo for a manual of 30 pages in 300 dpi) i think most of people who have copied pc games don't write them to cds. so the scans would be used (and for consoles too) in front end, preview,... so if the quality is too high u get a downresolution interpolation ,isn't it?

After that i would ask the questiion about high dpi with a normal scanner (i got a EPSON perection V200 photo); for instance a 5mpixels cellphones: ok you got 5mpixels but the optical part, the size of the cmos capter are so shitty that so u won't get a nice quality compared to a reflex camera with 5mpixels (spcially in dark) so better to take pciutre in 2 mpixels.

I have to scan all my pc games artworks. At this time i'm sure about 300 dpi for manuals but for artworks i'm still not sure 300 or 600 have to choose.

[AppleQueso]

I'm not sure higher quality will be better specially speaking of pc games. No matter the size question (75 mo for a manual of 30 pages in 300 dpi) i think most of people who have copied pc games don't write them to cds. so the scans would be used (and for consoles too) in front end, preview,... so if the quality is too high u get a downresolution interpolation ,isn't it?

Not sure if we're on the same page here, but frontend previews is not this site's main intention. TCP if officailly against all forms of piracy.

[uLuGaBi]

Sorry for the mistake, when i was speaking about "copied" i meant back up their games for preservation or play purpose.
So i was speaking about people who make db of their games and want a picture or people who prefer play their old console games on computers (since u can get savestates and better gfx)