Toolemera Blog

Chronicles of The Chronicle: 2

Just when you think it's safe, things happen. I sent some sample issues over to the imaging service for trials. The size of the project required scanning on a commercial ADF scanner. Scanning on a flat bed scanner would take too much man-power and way too long. Scanning on a Planetary Scanner was an option, but most bureaus who use these tend to charge big bucks. Once again, the relatively small size of this project excluded us from some of the better local bureaus.

The first sample came in. Problems. Figuring out why there were problems was the first problem. Here is a sample of the cover of one of the issues when full color was introduced. This sample came through very washed out, with quite a bit of moire effect within the reproduction of the painting. I spoke quite a few times to Jennifer as we tried to figure out the how's and why's. The scanning service tried a variety of different settings to no avail.

I thought back to problems I had had with another job. The elements we dealt with here were:

Scanner>Scan Software>PDF software

Each element brought in it's own particular take on the project. The ADF scanner, as with most of it's ilk, would not go above 400 dpi. Some ADF scanners will go to 600 dpi, but there is really no appreciable difference when it comes to PDF production. The Scan Software has it's own mind. Various levels of compression, image conversion and what-not are sifted into the scanned image. Manually tweaking the software is possible, but only to some extent. Why?  Because the scan software is designed to work with a particular ADF scanner and tough luck on us. Then there is the PDF production software. This beast wants to apply further compression, OCR and so on. By the time you get to the final product, all sorts of hardware and software gremlins have had a field day with your beloved Chronicle.

As is my wont, I exported the PDF images as TIFF files and opened them in Photoshop Elements (no, not Photoshop CS. I'm both too cheap and too chicken to tackle that monster). Examining the TIFF files told me something that had not occured to me before, even though it should have. The original color journal cover was a halftone. Duh. Of course it was and what was I thinking?

Scanning halftone images is my bane. Particularly scanning halftone images with an ADF scanner. Briefly, halftone images are measured in lines per inch (LPI). Scanners scan in a linear path. If there is any deviation between the halftone image and the scanner's mechanical and software controlled path... you guessed it, you get moire patterns messing up your image. With flat bed scanners, it's possible to scan at 400 dpi and almost eliminate the patterning. Many halftone images were created with a grid equal to or approaching a 400 dpi image. It's a half-baked trick that can work if all the astrological signs in the heavens are in order.

We couldn't change the scanner or the scan software. I even tried creating a PDF in Acrobat Pro 8 instead of the particular PDF software the bureau used. A little better, but not good enough. Returning to Photoshop Elements, I was able to produce this image. Not bad. The final trick was increasing Contrast first, then Brightness second. I know... in the Photoshop pull down menu, Brightness is always placed before Contrast. When dealing with recalcitrant old photographs and scans of old stuff, adjust Contrast first, then Brightness. Trust me. It works.

Paul Womack will most likely be able to explain this in all kinds of technical detail, but I can't. All I can say is by playing with Contrast and Brightness, you can artificially defeat the moire effect.

The next problem was, how do you handle this adjustment with nearly 4000 pages of material?

You guessed it... you'll have to wait until Chronicles of The Chronicle: 3

Till then
Gary

Home Made Planes and a Mitre Block

Quite a while ago, Paul Womack sent along two great PDF files of articles from the journal Work, 1889, Vol. 1. To my great regret, I've been so caught up in a multitude of stuff that I neglected to get them posted to The Toolemera Press website. With abject apologies to Paul, I am hereby rectifying this most heinous of crimes against woodworkers.

Let's start with this one, A Mitre Block and How To Make It. By David Denning. Over on this side of the Atlantic we call them Miter Jacks. Whatever you choose to call it, it does the job. If you've ever lusted after a Mitre (Miter) Block (Jack) but could not afford one or even find one, here is your chance to exercise your tool making skills and build one. Make it from common fir or make it from Rosewood with Ebony and Pearl inlays. Whatever your choice, these are essential tool holding devices. Plus they look way cool.

Now we go on to what I prefer to call The World's First Forum. Before there was an Internet, before there were Bulletin Boards, Forums, eMail lists, Social Networks and all those new fangled pestilences that beset us with their clamoring for attention... there were Journals such as Work. Someone took the trouble to write an article or a letter extolling the virtues of their particular design or method and like-minded people wrote in to support, to critique, to build upon or to get all tangential in their reasoning. Sounds like a Forum or eMail list, doesn't it? The main difference was the time delay. You had to wait for the next issue to be published to see what people thought of your submission.

Here we have a person going by the nic of J.H. Pretty catchy, eh? J.H. wrote about Home Made Tools, specifically an Iron Trying Plane. E.P.W responded with a short piece on a Pattern of Plane for Casting. A Foreman Patternmaker responded to E.P.W. response with a further discussion of foundry work and plane casting. Bert wrote a short piece about Home Made Planes. J.H. jumped back in and wrote, yet again, about Home Made Tools. This time J.H. wrote about an Iron Smoothing Plane and a Chariot Plane. Lastly, A Foreman Patternmaker trumped everyone by writing up A Block Plane and Plane With Lever Adjustment, followed by A Rebate Plane. Clearly, A Foreman Patternmaker was not to let anyone outdo him in the tool making department.

Both PDF files can be found, where else, but at The Toolemera Press website under Books and Booklets > How To Make Things. I know, Work is neither a book nor a booklet. Such are the trials and tribulations of life.

Just to add spice to my life, I added two new features to the website. You can now avail yourself of subscribing to The Toolemera Press updates through either an RSS feed or through eMail feeds. Both come through Feedburner. The choice is yours.

Till next
Gary

Chronicles of The Chronicle: 1

Getting The Chronicle of The Early American Industries Association from print to digital is becoming a story unto itself. I first announced this project back here. Or at least I announced it on my blog after reading in Shavings, the newsletter of the EAIA of the official proclamation of the soon-to-be availability of the journal on DVD. While waiting for the first batch of scanned images to arrive, I find myself reviewing how we got to where we are now.

The first problem was assembling a complete set of The Chronicle. In particular, a complete set of issues of sufficient quality for scanning. I had an almost complete set, but many where not up to snuff. Damp stains, pencil and pen marks, trimmed edges and even three hole punch marks made many issues unusable. Toby Hall (Director of the Association), through fore-thought, had been acquiring back issues over the years. Patty McLeish, the editor of the Chronicle (and now Shavings) had recent issues already in PDF format, along with a bound copy of the first volume. From these three sources, we where able to compile a complete set of workable issues.

Next came, how to go about digitizing the entire run? The possibilities where: 1) do it ourselves, 2) hire a document imaging service. My experience in this process had been all corporate stuff. Hundreds of thousands of pages are the norm in that realm. This project topped out at around 4000 pages, plus the material was irreplaceable. I made a short list of document imaging services who might handle a small job such as this one. Included in the list was the service we had used to create the Digital Dictionary of American Toolmakers. Although, in that case, we provided the PDF ready to go, just needing DVD duplication and cover printing services. As it turned out, and luckily so, this same vendor could handle original ...

Appreciations

Part two of A New Old Website...

A long, long time ago, in a town far, far away, I had this idea of selling books and ephemera to old tools fanatics. Online. Through an email list and through posts to the Oldtools eMail list. The fledgling idea took shape as The Toolemera Press. Email was easy, posting on Flea Market Monday was easier (for the uninitiated, FMM was the first Monday of each month). Jump ahead a bunch of years and the fledgling Toolemera Press website. Version 1.0 was a fairly basic, straightforward content driven site with few bells and whistles. Let's say my web site development skills were less then rudimentary.

Periodically I became dissatisfied with the layout of the website and re-worked it. That became a yearly ritual as I learned a few new things and as the software advanced. Along the way people responded to the Toolemera Press site with words of support and thanks for making the material available. Based upon responses, I tried to steer the site towards what people wanted most, along with my own attempts to educate as well as introduce people to new stuff. Opening the site to contributors (aka: people how have something they'ld like to see shared online but who don't have a site of their own) furthered the goal of the site as public resource. Plus it brought in material that I didn't own... of which there really is quite a bit. So far.

Looking back, some of my education and work in libraries rubbed off on the site. Information Management, Content Management, Knowledge Management or whatever yesterdays buzzword is, the goal always was to organize material in such a way that people can both find what they want and be introduced to stuff they didn't know they wanted.

Then came blogs. At first, I really dis-liked blogs. They seemed to be mostly hollow words thrown out for all to read. Any Harry or Harriet could set up a blog and trumpet their opinions. Then blogs became a standard in the corporate world for disseminating information. I checked out a few options and settled tried Blogger... but scratched that in favor of Typepad (Blogger just didn't have some features I desired). A light bulb went off in my head... very belatedly after the world had already turned to blogs. Blogs could be a real nice way to reach people in ways the classic web site didn't. So I tried it out as the Toolemera Blog and found the pundits to be right. Blogs do work.

Where is the appreciation in all this blabber? If it wasn't for the people (yes, that means You, the reader) who check and read the Toolemera Blog and The Toolemera Press website, neither would exist today. It's one thing to toss a website or blog up on the Net. It's another thing to garner an appreciative audience for what is, shall we say, a topic of very narrow focus.

My thanks to all who read the Toolemera Blog and visit The Toolemera Press website. My thanks to all those who contribute material, leave comments, send emails in lieu of comments and who monitor my musings through RSS readers. Developing the two services has been a gas, and will continue to be one.

With much appreciation,
Gary Roberts

New Old Toolemera Site

Possibly because I have so much time to spare, I rebuilt The Toolemera Press website. Changes in color combinations, some changes in navigation aids and a lot of background stuff that may not be apparent but makes my life easier. The site has a lot of individual pages and a whole lot more display items. I knew that at some point I would have to split the site into sub-domains... and that time came.

This design is the first step in sub-domaining the entire web site. I use Freeway Pro, a Macintosh only WYSIWYG site developer which is great, but has it a few peculiar limitations that I needed to work around. So, goodbye left side vertical navigation bar, hello all purpose horizontal navigation bar. For those of my readers (woohoo doesn't that sound impressive, 'my readers') who are worried about bookmarks or links, the vast majority will stay the same. PDF files must still be downloaded from the site, and not from hot links (sorry but some people got carried away and linked directly to a whole lotta PDF files, thus 'borrowing' bandwidth without taking full responsibility for their actions. Life is too cruel.).

Back to The Toolemera Press version umpteen. I really felt the interface was getting too cluttered with graphics and stuff, so I opted for more text in the side bar. In time I'll be playing around with the layout, adding and subtracting, largely because a static site is too boring. At least it is for me. My tolerance for sameness runs out roughly every 12 months.

As niche sites go (internet buzzword for a site interesting to only the iconoclastic, idiosyncratic few of focused obsessions) the web site pulls around 5500 visits per month and approximately 5 Gb of bandwidth. A number of those visitors are the ubiquitous search bots, but a fair number are real live people. Although, on the internet it may be questionable who is a real live person and who is an avatar of some sort. But I digress. As usual. The Blog pulls around 3000 visits per month. Those are direct visits. There is no way to count people who read from afar through RSS links. Please RSS people, don't just read the excerpt, come visit and let me know my pontificating is both eloquent and oft quoted.

Over at the website, I plan on working in some focused advertising space and finally, yes, finally, getting the eStore running. After my Father-In-Law passed away last fall, things became quite busy around here. Lots of chores and planned work had to be put aside for a number of months. Things are slowing down enough to allow time to get the virtual side of life back in order.

The blog will remain pretty much as it is, with the occasional change in color schemes, layout, content, etc. Which, I guess, is saying that constant change is remaining pretty much what it is.  I have grand plans of bringing the blog and the website into sync with each other such that they will blend into One Great Empire! Sorry, got carried away there for a moment. For now,  please do let me know of your comments, critiques, suggestions and such regarding The Toolemera Press site redesign.

Till next
Gary