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Scanned Original Cards?

Started by WEBellSystemChristian, December 06, 2017, 06:43:01 PM

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WEBellSystemChristian

I'm getting pretty desperate for high quality copies of original dial cards for my phones. Telephone Archive seems to have very few higher quality scans for Type I and II (all of which I've used), and I get an error message for any of their Type III cards.

Anybody have nice high quality scans of displayable cards to post?
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

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#1
Good question.

I scan cards at 1200 dpi, clean them up, resize them to 300 dpi and then resize them to 1.5" diameter

If someone has uploaded a larger sized dial card to

     http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/we/we_type_two_dialtone.html

it's at 72 dpi. Those can be made to look like the one below by saving the 72 dpi image, opening it up in Photoshop Elements, resize the image to 600 dpi, clean them up (or change the number), resize it to 300 dpi and then resize it at 300 dpi to 1.5" diameter. This is what I did to get this except I did no clean up or color change, etc.

Is this the resolution you are looking for, 1.5" dia at 300 dpi? They could be left at 600 dpi but the human eye only see to about 300.

Second image slightly edited.

WEBellSystemChristian

Jeez, sorry John, I completely forgot about this topic! :-[

Yep, I think 1.5" and 300 dpi is what I would want. I don't know how great our printer is, but I noticed the 72 dpi cards I print out are slightly lower resolution than other documents it prints.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

TelePlay

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on December 09, 2017, 02:11:10 PM
Jeez, sorry John, I completely forgot about this topic! :-[

Yep, I think 1.5" and 300 dpi is what I would want. I don't know how great our printer is, but I noticed the 72 dpi cards I print out are slightly lower resolution than other documents it prints.

That's a function of the image as saved. All laserjet printers sold today are at least 600 dpi and many 1200 dpi or more. What you are doing is printing a 72 dpi image with a 600 dpi printer so the image is a very sharp low resolution 72 dpi image.

The eye sees about 360 and a 300 dpi laser printer (and I still have one for text only) always prints grainy images, even if the computer is sending it to the printer at 600 dpi.

TelePlay

A 1.5" round image is 450 pixels by 450 pixels square or diameter at 300 dpi.

At 72 dpi, the same image is 108 pixels by 108 pixels.

And at 600 dpi, the same image is 450 pixels by 450 pixels.

The 600 would print the best, the 300 next best and the 72 the poorest.

Now, I know I uploaded 300 this dial card at 300 dpi because the file info shown says 450 x 450 pixelsl)



but when just downloaded it to my hard drive, it showed it was saved as 450x450 but at 72 dpi. I think the SMF software in recoding images when they are uploaded change all of them to 72 dpi. As such the 450x450 image at 72 dpi would print out as a 6.25" dial card. I know members have discussed getting images to print right. If the image is 300 dpi (pixels per inch), then a 450 x 450 pixel image would print out as a 1.5" by 1.5" image. The availability of good image editing software (Paint does not allow the user to adjust the dpi, just the pixel size) is key to getting a high resolution image on paper that is the desired size. Photoshop elements is what I use. Others can check their advanced image editing software to tell us what other products can adjust both dpi and pixel size by themselves.

By taking the downloaded 72 dpi image, resizing it to 300 dpi and then resizing it to 450 by 450 pixels, I got back to about the same resolution as the image that I had before it was uploaded. The resized image would then print 1.5" in diameter with good resolution.

The members who know computers better than I may be able to explain this better. If so, please add to this discussion.

My rule of thumb is convert a 72 dpi image from the internet to 300 if large or 600 if small (number card), do the editing and then take it to 300 dpi at 450 pixels diameter so it prints as a 1.5" number card. I also scan old dial cards at 600 dpi, good resolution and easy editing.