[Simh] best way to scan 172 column fanfold 80s printout?

[Zane Healy]

> On Feb 11, 2018, at 6:55 AM, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have several printouts like this,
> the one I was just trying to scan in is labelled "EMPIRE Version 4.0 18-Jan-81"
> with the notice: "Please send bug reports to ELROND::EMPIRE"
> This is a Vax/VMS Fortran conversion from TOPS-10/20 from sources from around fall 1979
> It seems I only have the first 95 pages of this printout
> and it's folded width-wise, making scanning more difficult, old folds are hard to get out.
> 
> I also have Zork (Vax/VMS) and of course several different iterations of Trek7 (Vms)
> somewhere I have a copy of Adventure (Colossal Cave) and the "Castle" game I love so much.
> 
> so I guess question 1: how best to get rid of the folds? my method so far: fold them the other direction and try and fold it out, but so far not much luck
> and 2: how best to scan 100s of wide fanfold printout pages?
> 
> I wish someone in Toronto had converted an old teletype and put a camera on it, that would be brilliant!
> 
> Dan.

The best way might be a piece of glass (to keep the paper flat), a copy stand, and a high-MP DSLR.  Lighting in that situation would be… interesting.  I’m not sure how much a polarizer on the lens would help.  One option might be to put it on a light table, but I think that would create an interesting/unreadable mess.  Actually less light might be better, and simply go with longer exposures.

There are graphic arts scanners that will do large pages, but in the art reproduction world, the method above (normally minus the glass), is more normal.  You’re lucky, you’re looking to copy something that doesn’t need to be 1200dpi or better.  I know you can get up to at least 12x18 range with a scanner.  I’m currently looking for either one of these, or ideally a drum scanner capable of handling 11x14 negatives.  Right now the only way I have to get a digital copy of photo’s taken with my 11x14 camera, is to photograph the prints.

Zane



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/pipermail/simh/attachments/20180211/d5d251ca/attachment.html>