Preparing Content for Digital Philatelic Studies |
The Philatelic Communicator, 2nd Qtr 2008 |
by Fran Adams |
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Preparation of text and images for use in Digital Philatelic References and Studies (DPS) is a must. With prepared text and images as your building blocks, the assembly of your work will go a lot smoother and result in a much more presentable DPS. This article discusses how our text and images can be prepared for use in a DPS by going through some step-by-step instructions. These instructions do not cover operating a computer or installing software. The scope of this article must be limited to only the necessary steps to accomplish specific tasks. Text should be double-checked for spelling or grammar mistakes and saved in the proper format - before being inserted into the study. To ensure the best quality for illustrations, they should be sized appropriately, enhanced for display and in the proper format. We'll begin with steps to prepare text content and then review how to prepare images. TextMost text is put into digital format by typing it into a computer using a word processing program like Microsoft (MS) Word. There are two additional ways to get your text into digital format: scanning typewritten or printed pages and subsequently using optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert the scan into text or by dictation using voice recognition software. We'll stick with a word processing program, 'MS Word' for this exercise, as that's what most people will be using. Three major reasons for using word processors are their spelling, thesaurus and grammar checking functions. Once you have your text entered into your word processor, use these tools to ensure your text is as correct as you can manage. If your word processing program doesn't know a specific word, look it up in a dictionary before pressing the 'add to dictionary' button. Once you've added a misspelled word, it will continue to accept the misspelling until you edit the 'user dictionary' of your program. In addition to spell check, the thesaurus can be a very effective tool in your arsenal of word processing functions. Ever get stuck for just the right word? Enter a word you might use and see what turns up - it's often the word you had on the tip of your tongue but couldn't remember. Grammar checking is another standard function that may prove valuable. Leaving grammar check active during your text input will point out things the computer believes may be wrong word usage. You can ignore it of course, but it often makes suggestions you should think about. Using some of the other word processing tools such as grade level analysis, word count, etc. could be interesting, but in the short term, we'll stick with the big three. Each program uses 'formatting code' embedded in the document to make your text display the way you want it to - that's formatting. The information you enter is not simply text, but rather text with 'invisible code' attached that you normally don't think about. MS Word is notorious for including formatting information when text is cut from a word document and pasted into a document generated by another application such as PowerPoint. The invisible code is to blame. To prevent this aggravation, save the document in a 'Text Only' format (.txt). This action will strip all the invisible formatting code from the text and leave only the words. Cutting and pasting sections of text from a .txt file allows it to be formatted by the other program, PowerPoint in this instance, and introduces no surprises to figure out and frustrate us. Enter all your text, spell and grammar check it, and then save it as a 'Text Only' file. Formatting the text will be a function of the PowerPoint template. ImagesAs we're not going to use prepared images or clip art, we'll also need to get our illustrations into digital format. Methods to digitize your images generally include scanning or using a digital camera. Scanning produces good images in general, but using a digital camera can also produce results, which in some cases, may be superior to scanning due to the quality of the camera's optics and the ability to use its macro features. It depends on your equipment and what your goal is as to how the images are captured. Image manipulation is also part of this effort and a number of good image processing programs are available. My personal favorite is Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 6 as of this writing) as it has most of the features of full-blown Photoshop, but is priced at a fraction (less than $100) of its big brother. The features in Elements continue to expand in number and are more than satisfactory for our needs. We're not sending documents to commercial printers and that's when Photoshop would be required to generate the commercial printer files. FactorsThe most important factors when preparing images for your study are: file format, resolution (clarity), size, focus and color optimization. Making images appear on computer monitors correctly sized, with good color and in focus prevents viewer frustration. This does not mean images should be 'doctored' to no longer be a true representation of the original. Rather, they should be modified to display properly using the least amount of digital manipulation while making the reproduction vibrant and clear. Let's define image terms in plain English. A. FormatFormat of our image files is very important. Photographic images with colors/shades which blend into each other are best displayed in the 'joint photographic experts group'(jpg) format. 'Tagged image file format' (tiff) is good for photographic images as well, but the file sizes are very large and in most cases prohibitive. Illustrations using line art or large single color areas are best displayed in 'graphics interchange format' (gif) format. This format presents the best option for small file sizes for this type of image. B. ResolutionResolution is a measurement of how many dots are contained within a single square inch commonly referred to as dots per inch (dpi). Computer monitors typically display images at 72 or 96 dpi as a standard. If you magnify a standard dpi image on the computer screen, the image tends to become a bit fuzzy. That's the result of the white space between the dots becoming more visible to the human eye. Make the image smaller and the dots squeeze closer together, making the image appear clearer. If an image is prepared at 150 dpi, it will hold its clarity better than the standard dpi image when magnified slightly. The bottom line is: higher dpi levels allow greater levels of magnification while maintaining clarity. This is also a factor in file size as higher dpi images are larger and require more disc storage space than lower dpi images. We'll work with tiff images to produce the best image possible before converting the image to a jpg or gif format to optimize the file size. That means it takes less disc storage space and appears quicker on the viewer's computer monitor. The opposite side of the coin of course is image quality. There is always a trade-off when optimizing file size versus image quality. We'll opt for a slightly larger file size but we'll also get higher quality images that can be magnified slightly and provide the viewer a closer look at image detail. C. SizePhysical size of the image is simple. How many inches wide or high is the image? (This is not file size.) D. FocusFocus is perhaps the most important factor. If the image is not in focus to begin with, the viewer has difficulty determining what you're trying to illustrate and automatically questions the image's accuracy. Image focus is a function of the care taken when obtaining the original image. When using a camera to obtain images, ensure the item is in sharp focus. Scanning images is less problematic in that the item being scanned is on a flat surface and the focus distance is predetermined. However, ensure the item is placed flat against the glass of the scanning table or you may develop focus issues. E. ColorDisplaying color on a computer monitor has become less of an issue as modern monitors display millions of colors. The human eye cannot distinguish the millions of shades modern monitors can display and reducing the number of colors in the image may help to reduce the overall file size of the image. Color may also vary depending on the age and/or calibration of the monitor, scanner or printer; a subject for another article. F. Color OptimizatonCorrectly optimizing the color of an image will provide us with a more vibrant display on a computer screen. The optimization we'll be doing is setting the black and white points of the image - adjusting what's referred to as 'Levels'. Essentially, it's how black is black and how white is white. It's simpler than it sounds and helps to reduce image file size as well as making images more vibrant on computer displays. NOTE: In performing the following image manipulation, we are NOT modifying the digital image such that it no longer represents the original philatelic item being depicted. (No pixels were harmed in the testing and production of these images!)Before beginning to edit anything, text or images, ensure you've saved your files to a source folder on your hard drive. You may move a file from one folder to another. That does not necessarily mean the file was copied into the new folder, it may have simply been moved. Copies of your original files should be the only ones worked on. Back-up the entire folder with all your files to a different media storage device such as a compact disc (CD) or memory stick. Ensure you always have the original files in a safe place that is not easily accessible - prevent the accident before it happens - it's only a matter of time otherwise. Getting it ready to come togetherThere are only a few basic steps involved in preparing images to make them ready for use in your DPS. If you do not follow the sequence as outlined below, image quality may suffer. (We'll look at simple image manipulation within PowerPoint at a later date.) I'll note the menu commands and sequence using Photoshop Elements to perform these functions. Actions are in small san-serif typeface and the arrow symbol (_) denotes a subsequent selection from the menu. These screen shots were made on a Macintosh, however, they should look very similar on a Windows PC.
a. Source Location
b. Capturing a Digital Image (Scanning)
c. Straightening an Image
d. Set Working Image Format
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