[X] My Assistant

TIFF is uncompressed, so they do tend to be large. But in my experience, only 2x as large or so. It's possible your scanner is saving the file as full color, but it's a grayscale image, and converting to PNG creates a grayscale PNG. That's the only thing I can think of.

Just my input below, working with an Epson V600.

I can't say much regarding Epson's software as I ditched it for Vuescan in less than a month after purchase. What I can say for Vuescan is the difference on output between TIFF file type:16 bit Gray, and TIFF file type: 48 bit RGB output filesizes is enormous.

With a Tiff size reduction factor of 1 (the lowest Vuescan can be set to), 600dpi grayscale scans typically come out around 21MB per page and color scans around 192-205MB per page. After they get converted to PNG, that range differs between 3MB to 80MB depending on color mode/dimensions/simultaneous colors and can be reduced further with PNG compression tools.

If your scanning software doesn't support output as PNG(like mine doesn't), you can use a program like honeyview to batch convert TIFF files to PNG before editing to minimize storage cost.

I'm trying to produce usable raws for the first time and I've reached a certain point following advice found here and elsewhere. I've debound a softcover doujin and scanned the pages as TIFFs at 600dpi (color or grayscale mode as appropriate) with black construction paper as a backer and did some basic cleaning in Photoshop (based on instructions since I don't know much about that program).

What I need now is, firstly, some feedback; have I done a decent job?

I uploaded the TIFFs here: [mega.nz] https://mega.nz/#F!4TxT1KBL!MnGoJg4YByRq-G4PJ5BqNA

Issues I've noticed are some dust in places which must have gotten between the page and the scanner's plate. Is this significant? Is there anything I should do about it? I forgot to use the descreen option for the color scans. How can I correct this in Photoshop or GIMP? Also, what should I do about the jagged edge of the page that came from the spine that can be seen in some scans?

Secondly, I'm not sure what the next step is once everything is fine. Do I shrink the TIFFs down and save them in a different format? How should I got about making them available? For a doujin I can upload to e/e-hentai but I want to scan some other kinds of things later on that won't fit on those sites.

On a related note, how can I deal with the dustjackets many tankobon come with? I tried pressing it with heavy books for a while but it sprang back into folds right away. Is there some way I can flatten it safely to make it easier to scan? Also they're too large for my scanner bed; I'll need to stitch them. Any resources to help with this?

Secondly, I'm not sure what the next step is once everything is fine. Do I shrink the TIFFs down and save them in a different format? How should I got about making them available? For a doujin I can upload to e/e-hentai but I want to scan some other kinds of things later on that won't fit on those sites.

On a related note, how can I deal with the dustjackets many tankobon come with? I tried pressing it with heavy books for a while but it sprang back into folds right away. Is there some way I can flatten it safely to make it easier to scan? Also they're too large for my scanner bed; I'll need to stitch them. Any resources to help with this?

Quick thoughts, you can reduce the scans down if you want or keep them super large. Your call, but if you want to preserve their quality, I would suggest PNG as I don't think TIFF is a usable format on the site.

Dust jacket: Just scan it in pieces. I'd say both sides of the spine as one unit each and use the spine as the anchor point to connect them by overlapping them just a little bit to ensure a "fit" and remove the spine from one layer. Since it's a mostly white book, it'll be much easier. Stitch it together in PS by properly rotating each piece out, add them together and clean up the lines.

For your scanner, you can take it apart. It won't hurt the scanner is the scan bed and scanning parts are separate and clean the dust out. For anything too much on your pages, you can always consider manually touch up cleaning.

G'MIC, which is available as a GIMP plugin, has a descreen option. I don't think there's one built in to GIMP. I've never used it so I don't know how it will compare to the scanner.

PNG is probably the best option for the grayscale pages, JPG for the color pages. full color PNGs are just too massive for my taste. I usually use 95-98 quality on JPG.

I do recommend downscaling the images. Do touchups on the full size image, then downscale. However, the screentone on those grayscale pages looks very dense, so you'll probably end up with moire patterns if you just downscale it.

Is this a flatbed scanner? I've scanned a few dust covers and I don't remember having problems. As Shanko said, you scan it in parts and re-join in. I didn't need to flatten it before hand or anything. I have an old bounty for joining together such a dust cover, if you want to download the linked scans from there: https://e-hentai.org/bounty.php?bid=15999 . Final version: https://e-hentai.org/s/f1fe940513/1044921-1

I do recommend downscaling the images. Do touchups on the full size image, then downscale. However, the screentone on those grayscale pages looks very dense, so you'll probably end up with moire patterns if you just downscale it.

I tried downscaling a page to 2000x2872 just as a test and it does look a little funny, although it's too large for me to upload for example. What can I do about this?

Is this a flatbed scanner?

It is; a Canon Lide 220

For the filesize specifically, try denoising the scans, leveling them, and converting to PNG. Also manually edit them to remove obvious dust/scratches/the page border. On the page I downloaded, the texture of the paper was very obvious. If you can remove that, the filesize will go down as PNG's compression algorithms work better with "flat" colors.

For the screentone, one thing you can try is to just blur out the halftone so it turns into shades of gray instead of dots. This is more-or-less what your eyes do when looking at the physical paper as well.

[pastebin.com] https://pastebin.com/dEvUM8B0 You can try following the instructions here, particularly under (3). This was written for my scans specifically but I think it'll work in general.

If you don't have photoshop (or just don't have topaz denoise), you can use Iain's noise reduction in GMIC. I've had good results with that.

If you don't have photoshop (or just don't have topaz denoise), you can use Iain's noise reduction in GMIC. I've had good results with that.

Not having very good results with this, although I'm don't know well what I'm doing. The moire stays more or less as it is.

What settings are you using? You gotta really crank it up. As in, I normally use 1.62 / 4.00 or so to remove noise. I just quickly tried this and I had my Luma/Chroma at 6.18 / 10.34 to remove it.

I don't know if that'll actually look good but it does the job. The point is to actually blur out and remove the screentone so you just get shades of gray.

[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/YwRrKSc.png

It'd probably look better if I had done more blurring or a stronger denoise, but this is more or less what it ends up looking like

Question: Can paper type effect scan size? I'm a little thrown off here because I did some normal covers that come up to like 20+ MB each, while I did a less glossy book that has each page under 7mb. Same settings, it's just... Mhh.

For the filesize specifically, try denoising the scans, leveling them, and converting to PNG. Also manually edit them to remove obvious dust/scratches/the page border. On the page I downloaded, the texture of the paper was very obvious. If you can remove that, the filesize will go down as PNG's compression algorithms work better with "flat" colors.

Is the order in which I do things important? The scans I uploaded to mega were leveled; there are actually no strong blacks in the book; everything is gray. Looks kinda bad.

I'm sure it does, but I'm not experienced enough with editing to know how much. It's probably best to blur it out before leveling. Or maybe do multiple stages of leveling. I'm really not sure.

Question: Can paper type effect scan size? I'm a little thrown off here because I did some normal covers that come up to like 20+ MB each, while I did a less glossy book that has each page under 7mb. Same settings, it's just... Mhh.

Some paper has more visible texture than others. Or was printed differently. Or just the artwork. A lot of things will influence the compression. In general, the more "stuff" on the page (including random noise from the paper texture or bleedthrough or anything similar), the bigger the filesize.

I'm sure it does, but I'm not experienced enough with editing to know how much. It's probably best to blur it out before leveling. Or maybe do multiple stages of leveling. I'm really not sure.
Some paper has more visible texture than others. Or was printed differently. Or just the artwork. A lot of things will influence the compression. In general, the more "stuff" on the page (including random noise from the paper texture or bleedthrough or anything similar), the bigger the filesize.

Oh don't worry about this, it was my fault for not having the settings redone after I upgraded my HDD. It was just a simple matter of decreasing the compression for max quality so it's normal again. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

What settings are you using? You gotta really crank it up. As in, I normally use 1.62 / 4.00 or so to remove noise. I just quickly tried this and I had my Luma/Chroma at 6.18 / 10.34 to remove it.

I tried it out: [i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/r21am6Z.png

With these setting I'm still getting some moire in the hair in the second and third panels, but if I increase the settings much more (the meaning of which I don't understand well) the screentones in the background of the third panel get really washed-out.

Anyone have experience using a MFC-7860 for scanning doujinshi? I've tried using it( but from looking around everyone seems to use small scanners, so I'm wondering if this is just too big.

If someone else somehow does, do you happen to know how to scan without breaking the spine of the doujinshi/taking it apart? Or that isn't possible

If someone else somehow does, do you happen to know how to scan without breaking the spine of the doujinshi/taking it apart? Or that isn't possible

It's possible but you're not going to get good results. There will be some damage no matter how you do it, but it shouldn't be as bad as "breaking the spine". You'll just get even more gutter shadow.

I can't give good advice for doing this. I always take mine apart. If it's possible, I'd suggest just buying a spare copy and taking that apart.

Is there a good way to prevent streaks of light/dust while scanning? My scanner is producing a few such lines now. They're not too noticeable on grayscale pages, but I don't have a good way to clean them up on full color pages.

I'm pretty sure they're caused by dust, either on the scanner head itself or just throwing off the calibration. But just cleaning the glass/white mat isn't fixing it. The scanner user guide states "under no circumstances should you disassemble the scanner", so I'm pretty sure they aren't going to make disassembly easy, if that's the only solution.

Using an Epson v39 at the moment.

Is there a good way to prevent streaks of light/dust while scanning? My scanner is producing a few such lines now. They're not too noticeable on grayscale pages, but I don't have a good way to clean them up on full color pages.

I'm pretty sure they're caused by dust, either on the scanner head itself or just throwing off the calibration. But just cleaning the glass/white mat isn't fixing it. The scanner user guide states "under no circumstances should you disassemble the scanner", so I'm pretty sure they aren't going to make disassembly easy, if that's the only solution.

Using an Epson v39 at the moment.

Did you change the calibration options? If you are scanning the same doujin. Check whether these lines are actually in the pages themselves.

I'm positive the lines are not part of the doujin, as they're perfectly straight and extend beyond the page being scanned.

I haven't ever found any calibration options for this scanner. Googling it tends to give me options for other models.

It's easy to disassemble a v37 and v39 EPSON scanner since they're flat and have little to no difficulty reassembling back together. It's big-ass scanners like a v550 or v600 where reassembling is near impossible because trying to attach that blue flat-wire cord is a pain in the ass.