Western Electric / Northern Electric Style Dial Cards

[Ktownphoneco]

I've scanned 2 Western Electric / Northern Electric style, Bell System dial number cards for download.       Both are new old stock cards which produced a good quality scan.     They were scanned a high resolution in "tiff" format, then converted to "jpeg".   Both are attached.    They should produce a good quality reproduction dial card.

Jeff Lamb

[unbeldi]

Thanks, Jeff.
Was the background indeed light blue?
I detect a color bias and when I correct against the background, it changes the color quite a bit, but probably toward the real color of these.
Is the Bell card gray or beige?

[Ktownphoneco]

Karl  ....    Your referring to the area surrounding the actual dial card itself I'm assuming.      I'm not good at describing color shades, but my eyes see what I would describe as a medium gray for the card's background, with a medium blue for the ring and bell.       The outer area surrounding the card, but not part of it, is a light blue.
The reason for that, is because when I scanned the card, and test printed a copy, the result wasn't quite as close to the actual card as I wanted to achieve.     So I increased the color saturation slightly, and that brought the final product closer to the actual card.     That action caused that light blue appearance of the card's surrounding background color.      I leave a small amount of background when I scan cards, to improve the contrast between the two, making it a little easier for myself, and other people to detect the edge of the card if they're using scissors to cut the card to size.
For the background of the actual card; it's gray on my monitor, but I haven't calibrated it for a while.     When I print the card, it leans more towards a beige than a gray.

Jeff


 

[unbeldi]

Ah, thanks for the explanation and sorry for being so nosy.
That explains why I could not get the high and low intensities balanced at the same time.

I suspect that new, these cards were actually gray like the cards for the colored 500-series in the 50s.  The age has brought on some yellowing from the remaining acids and atmospheric sources.
They are nevertheless nice scans, thanks.

[Jim Stettler]

Ah, thanks for the explanation and sorry for being so nosy.
That explains why I could not get the high and low intensities balanced at the same time.

I suspect that new, these cards were actually gray like the cards for the colored 500-series in the 50s.  The age has brought on some yellowing from the remaining acids and atmospheric sources.
They are nevertheless nice scans, thanks.

I am pretty sure the cards were a gray background.
JMO,
Jim S.