tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569441147408582132024-03-13T05:53:03.041+01:00dia scanHow to scan dia slides and negatives, correct colors, organize digital pictures archive, share pictures with friends and have fun doing it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-43821979080310343202015-11-19T15:40:00.000+01:002015-11-19T15:40:02.361+01:00The last postI have not posted for a long time and this is probably my last post on this blog.<br />
Here is the reason ... <br />
<br />
I have started my own IT company, which has my complete attention at the moment.<br />
If you are from Slovenia, please visit <a href="http://www.rsmm.si/" target="_blank">Računalniške storitve, Miro Maher</a>.<br />
Well, you can of course visit from anywhere, but you will probably not understand because<br />
it is in my Slovenian language.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-2108259396348879502014-01-01T18:49:00.004+01:002014-01-01T18:49:45.727+01:00Happy New Year 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I wish everyone everywhere that 2014 will be better then 2013 and worse then 2015 !</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrzX6ZWS5aPKszPpMAlqmOCmnLdeG9LgJ06Y0wLzP13doF35W9QVHqJie-j9dQiMIw73UpDllpzBuo_HbhPFhryAco87bfvzXqFuVICePohvtxBFkTsyw46g7afQiYpkeVGGlf5S0LiSW/s640/new-year.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><span id="goog_1065553384"></span><span id="goog_1065553385"></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-41288555813240146812013-12-09T18:47:00.001+01:002013-12-09T18:47:22.816+01:00The machine, final evaluation and some statistics<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:RelyOnVML/>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After extremely prolonged vacation (my last post was <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html" target="_blank">How tocompile DigiKam 3.2 on Ubuntu</a> in June), it is high time for a new post. And since after 18 months the 6
members of <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html" target="_blank">dia scan consortium</a>
using the <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000</a> machine managed to scan almost everything and more, it is a good time for some statistics and
final evaluation.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s1600/reflecta5000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s320/reflecta5000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should first explain "everything and more".
Original plan was, that each dia scan consortium member scans his own slides. After
several months and several rounds of using the scanner two of us independently
tested scanning of negatives. Of course this required some preparation like
cutting the film and inserting it into frames, but it was worth the trouble
because the results were really good. We told others and soon everybody was
doing it too. Originally we estimated the number of slides we will scan to
about 5000 each. The negatives further increased this number, but that was just
the beginning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
At various family meetings we showed some freshly scanned
pictures and boasted a little about the great machine we have. The not so
unexpected result was, that other family members asked us to scan their slides
too, which doubled the required work. But it was fun. In my case, my father did
a search of <span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">drawers
and</span></span><span class="shorttext"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></span><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">cabinets
in</span></span><span lang="EN"> </span><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">our family house and found several youth pictures
of my mother and himself I have never seen before. And my father in law had several
thousand pictures which I scanned. Some were taken a couple of years before I
was even born. And there were hundreds of his family including my loving wife
from her birth to the time we have met twenty plus something years later. Many
times as I was checking the scans I started to laugh and when my girls (wife
and daughter) checked what I was looking at they could only join the fun. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The
consortium members have made a rough statistics which showed that together we have
scanned a little more then 60 thousand pictures. Except twice during summer
holidays the scanner was operating almost every day for a year and a half. Once
it was gently lubricated (sewing machine oil was used) to reduce moving
friction of the tray and changing arm, but that was all maintenance it got. And
it is still working flawlessly. Yes, from time to time it jams, but the reason
is always a bad slide or a bad tray. After I accumulated some experience and
with trays and slides of good quality, I have managed to scan without a single
jam for a whole week. <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=imho" target="_blank">IMHO</a> this machine has exceptional mechanics.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">I
am also perfectly satisfied with the quality of the scans. Naturally it
primarily depends on the quality of original, which can vary significantly. Colors
fade with age, but how the slides were stored has an even bigger impact. Do not
expect spectacular colors, if your old slides are stored at conditions more
suitable for wine bottles. And the biggest difference is the original quality
of the film and how and where it was processed. I have scanned a wide variety
of film brands. Scans of slides from Fuji and Kodak films which were processed
in Germany or Austria are very good, even though some were taken more then 40
years ago. On the other hand slides from several film brands originating in
former eastern Europe and processed in deceased Yugoslavia are almost unusable
(read this as impossible to digitally correct colors) although they were taken
more recently. Of course now it's too late to correct mistakes from the past, this
is just to let you know what to expect.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
So how much does it cost do digitize old dia slides? In my
initial market research 2 years ago, I found several professional services in
my area charging around 0,3 EUR per slide and the best offer (not the one I
would thrust with my precious pictures) was 0,1 EUR per slide. We purchased the
Reflecta scanner for 1200 EUR and we scanned 60000 slides. So the cost per
slide for consortium members was 0,02 EUR or 2 euro cents. Yes I know, we
worked for free. But it only takes 5 minutes every 3 or 4 hours to change the
tray and that is not too much for your own family pictures. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
So, if you have thousands of slides you want to digitize,
here are some final thoughts regarding the required scanner. I can most highly
recommend the Reflecta DigitDia 5000. I have not tried it's his successor
DigitDia 6000, but as far as I understand, it has the same mechanics and higher
resolution (5000 instead of 3600 DPI), so everything I have written for older
model should be valid for the new one too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
If you are considering scanning your slides, but you find
such new machine too costly, you can probably find a used one for about half
the price or try to share the cost (or both). Our dia-scan-consortium was considering
the option of buying a used machine, but finally decided against it. Today,
when the wok is mostly done, based on good experience with the machine I would not
hesitate to vote for it. And last but not least, sharing the cost is good, but
sharing experience and ideas with friends having the same interest is even
better. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The sad truth is, that scanning is only the initial part of
the job. You will probably want to check and digitally correct the pictures,
which takes more time, a lot more. I have written about my experience with that
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">here</a>.
And my final plan is to tag all the pictures I have (including the ones taken
with digital cameras) and write about it in future posts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-35170177059901186202013-06-10T23:24:00.000+02:002013-06-13T17:12:05.531+02:00How to compile DigiKam 3.2 on Ubuntu<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-compile-digikam-31-on-ubuntu-1204.html" target="_blank">How to compile DigiKam 3.1 on Ubuntu 12.04</a> was this blog's most visited post by far, with the sad <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/05/tribute-to-nord.html" target="_blank">Tribute to Nord</a> about our Labrador dog, who is not with us anymore, coming second by a close margin in front of <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">digiKam installation and configuration - Part 1</a>. All in all it looks like there is quite some interest about digiKam on Ubuntu or maybe other instructions available online are a bit outdated. Anyway, <a href="http://download.kde.org/stable/digikam/" target="_blank">since 13-May-2013 digikam 3.2 is available</a> and although you can guess how to compile it from comments to <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-compile-digikam-31-on-ubuntu-1204.html" target="_blank">this</a> post, it deserves step by step instructions.<br />
<br />
update: I successfully tested steps below on Ubuntu versions 12.04, 12.10 and 13.04<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkizTJ6aDD73YWKxwzsTAqqVB26w1sq5YOukG3EGsmLE2DNe_FyD0m-wMtHc9kO2y1d9vvC4A8ttnQdQDBjJA2ryPvMbaXM3jc3QP9V05eOoFZyCA0CSPKzVCCwtQ9IDl82JjaceMbtwH/s1600/digikam32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkizTJ6aDD73YWKxwzsTAqqVB26w1sq5YOukG3EGsmLE2DNe_FyD0m-wMtHc9kO2y1d9vvC4A8ttnQdQDBjJA2ryPvMbaXM3jc3QP9V05eOoFZyCA0CSPKzVCCwtQ9IDl82JjaceMbtwH/s1600/digikam32.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I suppose you already know how to open Terminal window in Ubuntu, if you don't you can look <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-3.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
First of all, if you have any older version of digikam installed, remove it. To check what you have and to remove it use commands:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
dpkg -l *digikam*<br />
sudo apt-get remove digikam</div>
</div>
Replace digikam in second command with the name displayed by first one. It is also a good idea to first update your Ubuntu installation with the latest patches by:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get update<br />
sudo apt-get upgrade</div>
</div>
As already pointed out by <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-compile-digikam-31-on-ubuntu-1204.html?showComment=1370282562746#c6313930349842094405" target="_blank">anonymous comment</a> (please tell us your name, so I can give you deserved credit) digikam 3.2 requires new libs which are only available in kubuntu backports, so we must add the required repository:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports<br />
sudo apt-get update</div>
</div>
Then install all required tools and libs:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get install gcc cpp make cmake checkinstall<br />
sudo apt-get install kdelibs5</div>
</div>
Next download and extract digikam source and prepare working folder:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
cd Downloads<br />
wget http://download.kde.org/stable/digikam/digikam-3.2.0.tar.bz2<br />
tar jxvf digikam-3.2.0.tar.bz2<br />
cd digikam-3.2.0/<br />
mkdir build<br />
cd build</div>
</div>
Install digikam's dependencies:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get install libgpod4-nogtk <br />
sudo apt-get build-dep digikam kipi-plugins</div>
</div>
Check if all requirements for compile are available:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..</div>
</div>
Compile it:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=digiKam3.2 --install=no make install</div>
</div>
And install it (use the resulting .deb name from above command):<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite digikam3.2_yyyymmdd-1_i386.deb</div>
</div>
That is all, it should work. At least it did in my test environment. Write a comment if it worked for you.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-58232609769891096982013-05-06T22:34:00.000+02:002013-05-08T17:45:56.487+02:00Tribute to Nord<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDzgHKr5wgoQ1wLYPdPR6mZZn_k6GchZXz6WHZOtStM9IUFH6J7WcgXR2IqkjHcyJgSpAPsor-MDzX5UfWF7elv7Rqi0oN-H2vyCrHwL9dfpIgEcndRxkEqU2wK8OdoP5N13UfhiUc7EVi/s1600/A1-glava.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDzgHKr5wgoQ1wLYPdPR6mZZn_k6GchZXz6WHZOtStM9IUFH6J7WcgXR2IqkjHcyJgSpAPsor-MDzX5UfWF7elv7Rqi0oN-H2vyCrHwL9dfpIgEcndRxkEqU2wK8OdoP5N13UfhiUc7EVi/s400/A1-glava.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Nord was the name of our Labrador dog. I briefly mentioned him in this blog several months ago, when I was describing how loud is the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000 scanner</a> that finally arrived to Slovenia after a <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dhl-drama.html" target="_blank">long travel</a> through Germany</span>.<br />
<br />
I have to use past tense, because after being a family member for eleven and half years Nord is no longer with us. He is not barking at the vacuum cleaner anymore, he is not waiting behind the door and waging his tail when I come home from the job anymore, he is not helping my wife to cook and by the way trying to get some snack anymore, he is not waiting for my daughter to stop studying and take him for a walk anymore and he is not lying at our feet requiring that we stroke him when watching TV in the evening anymore. It is almost one month since Nord is gone and we are slowly recovering from the emptiness we felt in the first days but past moments with our dog are still reappearing in our minds everywhere we go and everywhere we look.<br />
<br />
Of course our dog stars on numerous family pictures which are the main topic of this blog. If the pictures were already tagged with <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">digiKam</a>, it would have been much easier for me to find some to publish. Although several megabytes of his pictures in this blog post are only a microscopic piece of several <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exabyte" target="_blank">exabytes</a> of <a href="http://www.google.com/#q=how%20many%20terabytes%20of%20data%20are%20on%20the%20internet" target="_blank">data available on the internet today</a> our Nord will now remain a small part of world history for foreseeable future.<br />
<br />
Goodbye Nord !<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWMLp-HerXDtyMlWz-r4Q-_yFKJKMk9Iq9dcHjV5cjKYQ51mZ8zH3uF3oEnQBSY27jWmpwFMDNfijVGwWf_mfcs3nI9hMWhaDRAfFdR5UmfnyKEArSVsKoIW7cMSp4YFdVxXc4qOE650D/s1600/T2-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWMLp-HerXDtyMlWz-r4Q-_yFKJKMk9Iq9dcHjV5cjKYQ51mZ8zH3uF3oEnQBSY27jWmpwFMDNfijVGwWf_mfcs3nI9hMWhaDRAfFdR5UmfnyKEArSVsKoIW7cMSp4YFdVxXc4qOE650D/s640/T2-23.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT186DCkczaKVSHoaJrlerDGRv1afR7EYo7AwsiXJSELT9Gd2MJGBAGFSe9ZV3u7t2tWhyqk7Cz_JYQGRSkswTtrciS7IE4HvBwej42oz18cx2H3H18zleSBY1KT_UKtq441Oujns4Ucu/s1600/T2-58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="411" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT186DCkczaKVSHoaJrlerDGRv1afR7EYo7AwsiXJSELT9Gd2MJGBAGFSe9ZV3u7t2tWhyqk7Cz_JYQGRSkswTtrciS7IE4HvBwej42oz18cx2H3H18zleSBY1KT_UKtq441Oujns4Ucu/s640/T2-58.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpplec8FpORcgkb8IRIOQchpaj8ARxBsjp4_cm72yQcRxwQIwQMN5HVcaEy6FRD565PqiujrVWP0smP2Mii3KQ4IIb_vc4uYtbd2nd7Q006s7ni8GJMa820tVrItA5P37ZvzDZhJUvxoP/s1600/U1-31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpplec8FpORcgkb8IRIOQchpaj8ARxBsjp4_cm72yQcRxwQIwQMN5HVcaEy6FRD565PqiujrVWP0smP2Mii3KQ4IIb_vc4uYtbd2nd7Q006s7ni8GJMa820tVrItA5P37ZvzDZhJUvxoP/s640/U1-31.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3W3jzOt9a3iHN0DZ3dVtpqmpXWRnfQNGYmhy8FmHnQMTUvXk_w6BrZ3ym9nr_erVpsUM4ReIua9KoKXMIGMWnk5peW8xrlb5rU3BK38H4HYYz-El9pxVNfYrDhDQJrRNTzna939wrBarT/s1600/U1-45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3W3jzOt9a3iHN0DZ3dVtpqmpXWRnfQNGYmhy8FmHnQMTUvXk_w6BrZ3ym9nr_erVpsUM4ReIua9KoKXMIGMWnk5peW8xrlb5rU3BK38H4HYYz-El9pxVNfYrDhDQJrRNTzna939wrBarT/s640/U1-45.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjllEW5Cly9XEWsFXJKKPIIlDj_cAD3AGBBbUNRBO_VT4cSUyV77eO66Cv_coG9XOx6bLdXYkSm4GkRDZ_4qJArii_STGbfGaK52BbDHnOY9TecRPMAAPMeINbnjNkqAIe1CEO9e3SgViUN/s1600/U1-48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="449" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjllEW5Cly9XEWsFXJKKPIIlDj_cAD3AGBBbUNRBO_VT4cSUyV77eO66Cv_coG9XOx6bLdXYkSm4GkRDZ_4qJArii_STGbfGaK52BbDHnOY9TecRPMAAPMeINbnjNkqAIe1CEO9e3SgViUN/s640/U1-48.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-2hQ7Gz8hYVqHbnUzYlVTCs-_CgxJBf7eu4uWLZC3frOdz6FWEly1bnq0-W0GVfuJq2coHI-gEH25RGXlILrNeBFUGa0fzXxfJuH_DyLqRlPzCbFplrMwJSbQLYFJREA8HvOyCsyzowl/s1600/U1-57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-2hQ7Gz8hYVqHbnUzYlVTCs-_CgxJBf7eu4uWLZC3frOdz6FWEly1bnq0-W0GVfuJq2coHI-gEH25RGXlILrNeBFUGa0fzXxfJuH_DyLqRlPzCbFplrMwJSbQLYFJREA8HvOyCsyzowl/s640/U1-57.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDD1kPC5e2ePqsRerlROXzdjkWGbY3GcJGCwgTXIbWahg5NhUQX7XK2M-a9lCmwIBC8XsFaOesBX1ITCFSt8bLdB9VuFY9srewpgFmhwoSHa5ym2SY7EAPh5s9amRhNwBh3_e7H3inkdO/s1600/V2-25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDD1kPC5e2ePqsRerlROXzdjkWGbY3GcJGCwgTXIbWahg5NhUQX7XK2M-a9lCmwIBC8XsFaOesBX1ITCFSt8bLdB9VuFY9srewpgFmhwoSHa5ym2SY7EAPh5s9amRhNwBh3_e7H3inkdO/s640/V2-25.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pL5F0-VLhaGxE6sz493qjNdroijS1zg0vlF1ERp9LzZ06lt50ViEewO8WSK1Gm6tga1Gpm3n9442COZa2w1zr9Ra4_a0zNylBJl7Bm7_9QzVSuZ0g978XScfX_dYtJhkc1dBYYGdAl0I/s1600/Z2-01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pL5F0-VLhaGxE6sz493qjNdroijS1zg0vlF1ERp9LzZ06lt50ViEewO8WSK1Gm6tga1Gpm3n9442COZa2w1zr9Ra4_a0zNylBJl7Bm7_9QzVSuZ0g978XScfX_dYtJhkc1dBYYGdAl0I/s640/Z2-01.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-862135932003569332013-03-25T17:29:00.003+01:002013-12-20T17:27:12.579+01:00How to compile DigiKam 3.1 on Ubuntu 12.04Title of my previous post <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-install-latest-digikam-version.html" target="_blank">How to install the latest digiKam version on Ubuntu</a> was a little misleading, because the instructions were for digiKam version 2.9 (which was in fact the latest when I started to investigate how to compile it on my Ubuntu) but in the meantime versions 3.0 and soon after 3.1 were officially published by developers. Therefore my post was outdated as soon as it was published. Because of that I promised “I will also try to compile new version and post instructions as soon as possible”. Promise is a promise, so here are instructions how to compile <a href="http://www.digikam.org/node/688" target="_blank">digiKam 3.1</a> on <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-desktop-long-term-support" target="_blank">Ubuntu 12.04</a>.<br />
<br />
update: If you want to <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-compile-digikam-32-on-ubuntu-1204.html">compile digiKam 3.2 on Ubuntu</a>, I have a new post with instructions <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-compile-digikam-32-on-ubuntu-1204.html">here</a>.<br />
update: If you are scanning old dia slides, please check my evaluation of <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-machine-final-evaluation.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000</a>. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0ssKXwzrZNTtcDtB2W0PM3PMotxgWC8uTJTAy0-k83m25eHHR9dHRNdxfzYN2nx5oLg6ZQP-p1iQ2a83jd78eCjKtVKwj377ix15zaeR_S_IRnN9mXqhT7hGi-33-o7SWxU7qpd4YUs8/s1600/digikam31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0ssKXwzrZNTtcDtB2W0PM3PMotxgWC8uTJTAy0-k83m25eHHR9dHRNdxfzYN2nx5oLg6ZQP-p1iQ2a83jd78eCjKtVKwj377ix15zaeR_S_IRnN9mXqhT7hGi-33-o7SWxU7qpd4YUs8/s1600/digikam31.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Commands should be typed or copy/pasted in the Terminal, if you do not know how, see my <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-install-latest-digikam-version.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>. As already mentioned if you have already installed an older version of digiKam you must remove it first with:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get remove digikam
</div>
</div>
or if you followed my instructions how to compile version 2.9 (you can also use "dpkg –l | grep digi" to check the name to remove):<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get remove digikam2.9
</div>
</div>
Commands are basically the same as described in <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-install-latest-digikam-version.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, therefore I will only list them without
long explanations:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get autoremove<br />
sudo apt-get autoclean<br />
sudo apt-get update<br />
sudo apt-get upgrade<br />
cd Downloads</div>
</div>
Next comand all in one line:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
wget http://download.kde.org/stable/digikam/digikam-3.1.0.tar.bz2</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
tar jxvf digikam-3.1.0.tar.bz2<br />
cd digikam-3.1.0/<br />
mkdir build<br />
cd build<br />
sudo apt-get install gcc cpp make cmake checkinstall<br />
sudo apt-get install kdelibs5</div>
</div>
Update: this line was missing:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get install libgpod4-nogtk</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo apt-get build-dep digikam kipi-plugins</div>
</div>
Next comand all in one line:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..</div>
</div>
Next comand all in one line:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=digiKam3.1 --install=no make install</div>
</div>
Check result of previous command to find your <deb-name> for next command:<br />
<div style="background-color: #303030; border-color: #0066FF; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; color: #f0f0f0; font-family: Courier,monospace; margin: 8px; overflow-x: scroll; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 8px; width: 620px;">
<div style="width: 300%;">
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite <deb-name></div>
</div>
That's all, start digiKam from Dash Home and enjoy!<br />
<br />
I somehow expected the same steps could be used to compile digiKam on Ubuntu 12.10 and on Debian distributions. Well, as captain Alberto Bertorelli from Allo' Allo' would have said "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6CDYxMQ_dM" target="_blank">what a mistaka to maka</a>". I installed both distrubutions and tried, but I had errors. If I solve the puzzle (read, find out how to compile without errors) I will publish it, but this time I am not making any promises. <br />
<br />
After all I've had enough of installing Linux and compiling digiKam, it is time to start using digiKam on my scanned dia-slides.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-49724226868148871862013-03-24T11:15:00.001+01:002013-03-24T11:59:09.778+01:00How to install the latest digiKam version on UbuntuIn DigiKam installation and configuration
(in 4 parts) I suggested it is better to <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">install VMware Player and virtual UbuntuLinux</a> then to use the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/digikam/files/digikam/2.9.0/digiKam-installer-2.9.0-win32.exe/download" target="_blank">native digiKam Windows installation</a>.
The advantage is clear, you get a stable solution, but as usually there is also
a disadvantage, you don’t get the latest version. What you get is the version
that was packaged for your Ubuntu version.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht6njUa8D8u5_goXdNgXUmS4TGiCggmGMewz72CAccxp5AiQjYnNJAM1iFYMirj-NsI1-lbR5AV9dA-W6hPRcf0pdSOwJlUOalvtME3g_J8F_fRwNS3iwbJgDn0O1seZlzlCyf5yDm-H-d/s1600/digikam29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht6njUa8D8u5_goXdNgXUmS4TGiCggmGMewz72CAccxp5AiQjYnNJAM1iFYMirj-NsI1-lbR5AV9dA-W6hPRcf0pdSOwJlUOalvtME3g_J8F_fRwNS3iwbJgDn0O1seZlzlCyf5yDm-H-d/s1600/digikam29.jpg" /></a></div>
You can get the <a href="http://www.digikam.org/about?q=about/features" target="_blank">latest features</a> of
the latest version if you download source code and compile it. Theoretically
that is not a problem, all instructions are available. But there are many
dependencies which must be solved for successful compilation and more often than
not something goes wrong and you get a bunch of errors you have no idea what
they mean unless you are a Linux guru. But even if you are not a Linux guru you
can succeed, read on … <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Here are instructions how to compile
digiKam 2.9.0 (when writing this post that was the latest version) on Ubuntu
12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin (that is the version we installed in <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">digiKaminstallation and configuration – part 1</a>). I tested the steps several times so you should succeed without errors. Same
instructions should also be valid for latest Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal and
for newer Debian distributions. If you followed them and succeeded please
comment and write what Linux distribution you have. If you followed them and
failed comment too, maybe we can solve it together.<br />
<br />
You will need to type several commands in the Terminal (WARNING, be carefull about
uppercase and lowercase letters, because Linux distinguishes them; of course you can copy/paste commands from this post).
If you do not know how to open the Terminal look <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-3.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
But if you have followed these <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-2.html" target="_blank">instructions to install digiKam</a>,
you must first remove it, because you can’t compile the latest version, if you
have a previous one on the system. Use following commands in the Terminal:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo apt-get remove digikam <br />
sudo apt-get autoremove <br />
sudo apt-get autoclean <br />
</span><br />
It is also a good idea to first update the system, use commands:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">sudo apt-get update <br />
sudo apt-get upgrade <br />
</span><br />
Now we are ready to start. If you did not mess
around the terminal’s working folder should be your home. You should see the
prompt “<username>@ubuntu:~$” (mentally replace <username> with your own
username). If it is something else close the terminal and open it again or type
the command cd /home/<username>. First change working folder to Downloads:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
cd Downloads <br />
</span><br />
Now download digiKam source with command (all in one line):<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/digikam/digikam/2.9.0/digikam-2.9.0.tar.bz2 <br />
</span><br />
Wait a minute or two, when download is finished you can check that you have a new file with:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
ls –l <br />
</span><br />
You should see the file digikam-2.9.0.tar.bz2 which must be uncompressed with:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
tar jxvf digikam-2.9.0.tar.bz2 <br />
</span><br />
Check again with:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
ls –l <br />
</span><br />
Now you should also see a folder digikam-2.9.0. Next commands:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
cd digikam-2.9.0 <br />
mkdir build <br />
cd build <br />
</span><br />
With them you created a folder where you
will compile digiKam and changed working folder to it. Now install the tools
required in following steps. Probably some of them are already installed, but
apt-get is clever enough to install only what is missing. Use command:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo apt-get install gcc cpp make cmake checkinstall <br />
</span><br />
The sudo is required to elevate privileges,
enter your own password when asked for it. For all other questions just select
default answer with Enter key. Next install KDE libraries required for digiKam:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo apt-get install kdelibs5 <br />
</span><br />
Unless you waited too long after previous command you will not be asked for password again
because sudo remembers it for several minutes. For all other questions select default with Enter key as
before. Now get and build dependencies required for compilation:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo apt-get build-dep digikam kipi-plugins <br />
</span><br />
Again you will be asked several questions
including (three times) a pop-up window asking to define mySql password, as
before choose default answers to everything with Enter key.<br />
<br />
Next command (be
careful, all apostrophes and dots are required) will check if all dependencies
are installed on your machine and prepare the compilation script (all in one line):<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` .. <br />
</span><br />
Scroll up the terminal window and check the
results. You should see several lines with results of kipi-plugins and digiKam
dependencies tests without any errors. The most important is the line claiming
“digiKam can be compiled … YES” which means you have everything required to continue
with next command. If you don't get this result check error messages which must be solved first.
Usually some required library is missing and hopefully you can understand error
message and install it with sudo apt-get install command. Then repeat (you can
do it several times without bad effects) the above cmake command to check
dependencies again until you succeed without errors. If errors persist you can
write a comment and maybe we can solve it together or try to find help of more
Linux experienced friend.<br />
<br />
All above commands were only preparation
for this one, which will compile and build the digiKam program (all in one line):<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=digikam2.9 --install=no make install <br />
</span><br />
Again you will get several questions which
can be answered with Enter key then the compilation will start executing. This
is a long process and unless your machine is extremely fast you can expect it
to run for at least one hour. Just before it finishes, it will ask some more
questions. As before use Enter key to choose default answers. The final result should
look similar to:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
*************************************************************<br />
Done. The new package has been saved to<br />
/home/mirc/Downloads/digikam-2.9.0/build/digikam2.9_20130311-1_i386.deb<br />
You can install it in your system anytime using: <br />
dpkg -i digikam2.9_20130311-1_i386.deb<br />
*************************************************************<br />
</span><br />
Almost finished, only the last step remains, that is to install the program:<br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier,monospace;">
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite <deb-file><br />
</span><br />
In above command replace <deb-file> with the name of your deb file, which was displayed when previous command completed
(see above, in my case digikam2.9_20130311-1_i386.deb). And that is all, now you can <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-2.html" target="_blank">start digiKam from the Dash Home</a> and <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-4.html" target="_blank">configure it.</a><br />
<br />
Note: Information at <a href="http://www.digikam.org/node/621" target="_blank">Building Digikam for Dummies on Ubuntu</a> helped me a lot to to succesfully compile digiKam, unfortunatelly they are already outdated.<br />
<br />
Update: After I wrote this post I found
out, that new digiKam version 3.1 is already available. I will try to compile
it too and post instructions as soon as possible.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-26488912545256749362013-02-17T17:00:00.000+01:002013-02-17T17:00:03.345+01:00Digitized picture correction with digiKam – Part 4In
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
post we have decided to use digiKam and in
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">DigiKam installation and configuration</a>
(in 4 parts) we have installed and configured digiKam, so we are ready to do some real work. Please keep in mind this is not a manual (you can find that
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/docs" target="_blank">here</a>).
It is simply a selection of commands that work great for me with detailed explanation and some theoretical background.<br />
<br />
Again I managed to write too much for a single post so I had to split it into several parts:
<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part1.html">Part 1</a> I talk about digiKam Image Editor and picture
orientation and sizing commands.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part2.html">Part 2</a> I present some color and histograms theory.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part3.html">Part 3</a> I go into details of color and brightness
correction with "Levels Adjust" command.</li>
<li>In <b>this part</b> I describe how to achieve good pictures quality without
using unreasonable amounts of time.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
The workflow </h3>
I have thousands of pictures to check. It takes a lot of
time (which I do not have in unlimited amounts), but I also want pictures to look
good. I have developed a typical workflow which is a compromise between time
and quality. The result is pictures that are good enough (although probably not
perfect) and I work fast enough to see the finish line.<br />
<br />
In my workflow I first correct picture orientation and
sizing. This is fast, it only takes some seconds.<br />
<br />
Then I carefully adjust the colors for one picture in the
sequence of similar ones. This can be the first picture in the sequence, but
sometimes I choose the most typical or the most beautiful one. I start with the <span style="background-color: orange;">Adjust all Levels Automatically</span> button or with the <span style="background-color: orange;">Select white area</span> button.
I usually find the result too aggressive therefore I continue with check of each
channel (first 3 colors then luminosity) separately.
While checking resulting picture and both histograms
I try to slightly decrease the low margin and slightly increase the high margin
for input intensity. It can take several minutes, but I do not continue until I
am completely satisfied with color balance.<br />
<br />
Final step is to adjust brightness gamma input. I decrease it if the
picture looks too bright or increase it if the picture looks too dark. While
changing gamma I concentrate on correct brightness of the most important areas
of the picture, which are typically the faces of the people. Gamma can be
entered with precision of 0.01 but the difference is so small, that I can’t see
any difference on the picture, therefore I increment or decrement gamma in
steps of 0.10 by clicking on the middle bar to the left or right side of the
marker. It is very fast and can be done is seconds. Then I apply the settings,
save the picture and select next one.<br />
<br />
For other pictures in the sequence I only correct
orientation and sizing and try to increment or decrement gamma, both are done
in seconds. Other color correction settings, which were remembered from
previous pictures I leave unchanged.<br />
<br />
I will repeat the steps again with keyboard commands used:<br />
<ul>
<li>Picture orientation (if required): Shift-Ctrl-left or Shift-Ctrl-right to rotate 90
degrees left or right and Ctrl-H to mirror</li>
<li>Correct vertical lines (if required): Ctrl-R for free rotation</li>
<li>Crop (if required): select the rectangle with the mouse and Ctrl-X</li>
<li>Adjust colors (for 1 picture in the sequence): Ctrl-L to
open Levels Adjust and set input levels for 3 colors and luminosity</li>
<li>Adjust brightness (try for each picture): Levels Adjust is
already opened, set gamma and apply changes.</li>
<li>Save and advance to next picture: Ctrl-S and PageDown</li>
</ul>
The bottom line is that using described workflow
I am able to correct one tray (80 pictures) in a little more than half an hour
or as I calculate it, approximately half a minute per picture. I take some time
every 5 or 10 pictures to correctly adjust colors then I process following
several pictures very quickly. I am using keyboard key combinations as much as
possible, but I keep mouse close by for tasks (like cropping) that are more
effective by clicking and dragging.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-35498979781663357912013-02-17T16:58:00.002+01:002013-02-17T16:58:26.460+01:00Digitized picture correction with digiKam – Part 3In
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
post we have decided to use digiKam and in
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">DigiKam installation and configuration</a>
(in 4 parts) we have installed and configured digiKam, so we are ready to do some real work. Please keep in mind this is not a manual (you can find that
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/docs" target="_blank">here</a>).
It is simply a selection of commands that work great for me with detailed explanation and some theoretical background.<br />
<br />
Again I managed to write too much for a single post so I had to split it into several parts:
<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part1.html">Part 1</a> I talk about digiKam Image Editor and picture
orientation and sizing commands.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part2.html">Part 2</a> I present some color and histograms theory.</li>
<li>In <b>this part</b> I go into details of color and brightness
correction with "Levels Adjust" command.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part4.html">Part 4</a> I describe how to achieve good pictures quality without
using unreasonable amounts of time.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
Using “Levels Adjust” command for color and brightness correction</h3>
<br />
When the command is started it opens an Adjust Levels area at
the right side of the picture with two histograms and several controls. The
lower histogram represents the picture before and the upper histogram
represents the picture after the changes. With the control Channel you choose between
luminosity, one of the colors or all 3 colors together (you can ignore alpha)
to be displayed in both histograms and at the same time to be corrected by
other controls. With 2 buttons in the top right corner you can choose linear or
logarithmic histograms; I strongly suggest the first one. The controls below
histograms (sliders, value selectors and buttons) allow adjustments of input, output
and gamma levels for entity selected by Channel control. It also includes a
button to “Adjust all Levels Automatically”, 3 buttons to select black, gray or
white area in the picture and adjust colors to that and also “reset to Default”
button for each level control. The settings can be saved (with a name) to be
reloaded later. And (this is my favorite) the last applied settings are saved automatically
and loaded when command is used again for next picture.<br />
<br />
There are several possibilities to preview the effect of
current correction settings on the picture which can be chosen by buttons under
the picture. The most useful I find the possibilities to divide the picture
vertically or horizontally to before and after sections or the “Mouse-over mode”
which means when the mouse pointer is in picture area in the middle you see
picture before and when mouse pointer is in the Adjust Levels area on the right
you see the picture after current settings applied.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqxn_jF0qaGR0gnB1qzA1CKTl17F4bsK1UmnbTbqK1Xcr9mp-y11nOZ-UUJzzCD8F-jTsS4QrIQLNDJHxvXscu791TnBWVihctKoi-IKAlxQbE26VQ1WWVEss3xA_RseDafd8UlgfJDeIp/s1600/10-3-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqxn_jF0qaGR0gnB1qzA1CKTl17F4bsK1UmnbTbqK1Xcr9mp-y11nOZ-UUJzzCD8F-jTsS4QrIQLNDJHxvXscu791TnBWVihctKoi-IKAlxQbE26VQ1WWVEss3xA_RseDafd8UlgfJDeIp/s1600/10-3-1.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
So what are input, output and gamma levels? Remember, that
each of them acts on selected channel; that is on luminosity, red, green or
blue. Let us explain them one at a time. I will use an artificial picture with
only 4 colors and its histograms to better illustrate the effects of different
settings and I have artificially merged luminosity and colors histograms, so you can see all at the same time (it is not what you see in digiKam). <br />
<br />
Input levels (it can be controlled by moving the two marks
on the top slider or by directly choosing the two values) allow us to choose
lower and higher limit of selected channel that will be used in resulting picture.
In other words we can cut off some of the histogram on the left (dark) and some
of it on the right (bright) side. The resulting effect is that the remaining
middle part of the histogram is linearly expanded over the complete range of
the histogram. If we cut off the left (first example below), the selected channel looks darker, if we
cut off on the right (second example below), it looks brighter and if we cut off on both sides (third example below), it
looks sharper. Most of the time we want to achieve a sharp image with vivid
colors and this is how to do it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGh32zfE9GQvBGomUXS6hLMwt4BFzIk1LBdJyCPOlNXUQlVNr8G7fMnXqqvGvWs3cisaoyJEbWCrKTyer0u_MhwNz7v7SxhwdTSLXoLP1_31eQPs1M8jtlGarhm0SXMS91ZAgT3ualE_a8/s1600/10-3-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGh32zfE9GQvBGomUXS6hLMwt4BFzIk1LBdJyCPOlNXUQlVNr8G7fMnXqqvGvWs3cisaoyJEbWCrKTyer0u_MhwNz7v7SxhwdTSLXoLP1_31eQPs1M8jtlGarhm0SXMS91ZAgT3ualE_a8/s1600/10-3-2.jpg" height="249" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwnNOI7dl5OrmWnYMLiOOm019PHelvctw7eITAHzGbQRNEzx0x960QM43HYaCeWHgXQu1pur1KeceFDp97XeyyQAQrIIYW_56IcEFWLpA6LbZaOe0MYWdrdgNim7qJGMo7hNTmeKvsHvn/s1600/10-3-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwnNOI7dl5OrmWnYMLiOOm019PHelvctw7eITAHzGbQRNEzx0x960QM43HYaCeWHgXQu1pur1KeceFDp97XeyyQAQrIIYW_56IcEFWLpA6LbZaOe0MYWdrdgNim7qJGMo7hNTmeKvsHvn/s1600/10-3-3.jpg" height="250" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NJnLvO8PTGuwEMkWqK11c-TsrYkNHfJ3h9xLwzmJCNxaz01mC7BFcCATEFaA0WTDQEf8bgGee22AkxQneh_08ER6cQIYu4hPj47ilCT5UHhxUpXVguJXAl5y0cPKeadR4os-BzOBt4mY/s1600/10-3-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6NJnLvO8PTGuwEMkWqK11c-TsrYkNHfJ3h9xLwzmJCNxaz01mC7BFcCATEFaA0WTDQEf8bgGee22AkxQneh_08ER6cQIYu4hPj47ilCT5UHhxUpXVguJXAl5y0cPKeadR4os-BzOBt4mY/s1600/10-3-4.jpg" height="250" width="640" /></a>
<br />
Using output levels (it can be controlled by moving the two
marks on the bottom slider or by directly choosing the two values) is almost
exactly the opposite of using input levels. It cuts off some of the available
output spectrum; left, right or both. Input histogram is linearly compressed
into output histogram, which becomes zero in the cut off borders.
If we cut off the left, the selected channel
looks brighter, if we cut off on the right, it looks darker and if we cut off
on both sides (like in example below), it looks softer. Most of the time this is not exactly what we
want, but sometimes this is a way to achieve soft artistic picture.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XNrzmelRijHvQwOSslJyde9YPcidQ1-oo3w1DIhB295xmTD5c6jFePcf8oyoSFuQMj-NOVrN7yDD6ZUrj46Fp94sh4ax8d3AShqii46JxDKZ2iUa617kQlMQq5qwKWYIyb1p2qT6o2T4/s1600/10-3-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XNrzmelRijHvQwOSslJyde9YPcidQ1-oo3w1DIhB295xmTD5c6jFePcf8oyoSFuQMj-NOVrN7yDD6ZUrj46Fp94sh4ax8d3AShqii46JxDKZ2iUa617kQlMQq5qwKWYIyb1p2qT6o2T4/s1600/10-3-5.jpg" height="250" width="640" /></a>
<br />
Gamma level (it can be controlled by moving the only mark on
the middle slider or by directly choosing the value) acts strongly in the
middle of selected channels histogram, but exactly contrary to input levels it
has minimal effect in the left and right borders. Default value is 1 meaning
picture remains unchanged. Values smaller than 1 push histogram to the left by
compressing left side and expanding right side of the histogram making the
picture darker. Values bigger than 1 push histogram to the right compressing
right side and expanding left side of the histogram making the picture brighter.
Mathematically it is a more complicated formula (not a linear operation used by
input or output levels), but such details are not really important. An underexposed picture can be made brighter by correcting it with positive gamma value (first example below) and an overexposed picture can be made darker with negative gamma value (second example below). Even a picture, that is extremely under or
overexposed can be corrected to quite viewable (although far from perfect) by
using more radical gamma values over 1.6 or under 0.6.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-z9tnoG8QGko_GjYMGuKR7i_DxOrAS_vTUFxYvYRVS2PXbZyDKqojoYSYODqZoGow9ToeZ0vL8cFVjQnRPBxqHXDnHOb8ULwgLiCtZ8XhV2gg_3MybCKVicZce1kSe0eqN1LI0-F7RWj/s1600/10-3-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-z9tnoG8QGko_GjYMGuKR7i_DxOrAS_vTUFxYvYRVS2PXbZyDKqojoYSYODqZoGow9ToeZ0vL8cFVjQnRPBxqHXDnHOb8ULwgLiCtZ8XhV2gg_3MybCKVicZce1kSe0eqN1LI0-F7RWj/s1600/10-3-6.jpg" height="250" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqC9D55gCoFZRM-PjWMSlva_U1mZ8DjI2BdDfxfIUSNwwrTv58Jv9v2GyfRs6RJylp_jvUessY_M1qzKhzrj_qLbMEc_5rzmG6KpYypQUfEHYZzUHLJVraP18XAS4qjbHRcfGezz1JsdF/s1600/10-3-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqC9D55gCoFZRM-PjWMSlva_U1mZ8DjI2BdDfxfIUSNwwrTv58Jv9v2GyfRs6RJylp_jvUessY_M1qzKhzrj_qLbMEc_5rzmG6KpYypQUfEHYZzUHLJVraP18XAS4qjbHRcfGezz1JsdF/s1600/10-3-7.jpg" height="250" width="640" /></a>
<br />
The button Adjust all Levels Automatically is quite
interesting. It automatically adjusts input levels for all channels (that is all 3
colors and luminosity) to use all available spectrum, in other words it finds
and cuts off the left and right zero edge of the histogram for each channel. As I have already mentioned I usually find this too agressive, but it is a good way to start (example below is another another Legoland picture where I tried this command).<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh35DYf5DU5aO0lnVq4YC9A34uniBNQePIdboqdeL42ZKnJLoMPXrmYIV-vonyLDkygLlp8MMXCVyQtCIt8n17_4bybkgfApRrCfLkBj_sglY0At7OkhBMm9VaZO3JLZ9J9GJhhm3lzyRej/s1600/10-3-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh35DYf5DU5aO0lnVq4YC9A34uniBNQePIdboqdeL42ZKnJLoMPXrmYIV-vonyLDkygLlp8MMXCVyQtCIt8n17_4bybkgfApRrCfLkBj_sglY0At7OkhBMm9VaZO3JLZ9J9GJhhm3lzyRej/s1600/10-3-8.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
The buttons to select white, gray or black in
the picture also adjust input levels, but with an important difference. You
point to the area on the picture that you know should be white or black (but it
is not because the slide faded before it was scanned) then each color input
levels are calculated accordingly to get the desired result. I do not use them much, but sometimes they are worth a try.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-45173580861372405812013-02-17T16:57:00.000+01:002013-02-17T16:57:19.935+01:00Digitized picture correction with digiKam – Part 2In
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
post we have decided to use digiKam and in
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">DigiKam installation and configuration</a>
(in 4 parts) we have installed and configured digiKam, so we are ready to do some real work. Please keep in mind this is not a manual (you can find that
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/docs" target="_blank">here</a>).
It is simply a selection of commands that work great for me with detailed explanation and some theoretical background.<br />
<br />
Again I managed to write too much for a single post so I had to split it into several parts:
<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part1.html">Part 1</a> I talk about digiKam Image Editor and picture
orientation and sizing commands.</li>
<li>In <b>this part</b> I present some color and histograms theory.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part3.html">Part 3</a> I go into details of color and brightness
correction with "Levels Adjust" command.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part4.html">Part 4</a> I describe how to achieve good pictures quality without
using unreasonable amounts of time.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
About color presentation and histograms</h3>
<br />
What happens when we use different color correcting
commands? The answer is the program we use is executing different mathematical
operations on RGB color values of each pixel in the image. Most readers
probably already know all this, but for those that don’t here is a short
explanation. RGB is an acronym for 3 basic colors (red, green and blue) which
can compose any other color. In JPG picture each pixel has a value from 0 to
255 for each color, 0 meaning the color is not present at all and 255 meaning
the strongest possible color presentation in the pixel. That gives approximately
16 million (exactly 256*256*256) possible colors for each pixel. Here are some basic
color examples and their RGB values:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21Cs2Kaw-VmNN1MMK7zVEnJQBbbxGVc2QdeaKFmJiYybdqpdKuFAT9H3iC0XS4vn2-NZzfds2bgams_-YMvNI-vtrqbNaP_fwWQuir36Ic8Im6Hlp_Xs45aIZy6kExPZdysS5RjZlJa7U/s1600/01-RGB-colors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21Cs2Kaw-VmNN1MMK7zVEnJQBbbxGVc2QdeaKFmJiYybdqpdKuFAT9H3iC0XS4vn2-NZzfds2bgams_-YMvNI-vtrqbNaP_fwWQuir36Ic8Im6Hlp_Xs45aIZy6kExPZdysS5RjZlJa7U/s1600/01-RGB-colors.jpg" /></a>
<br />
And what is the histogram? It is the graphical presentation
of frequency of each value for a color (or of luminosity, but more about it
later) in a picture. Sounds complicated, but it is not. Remember a normal
picture has millions of pixels, most of them are different, but if we look at only
one color and draw a graph where horizontal axis has values from 0 to 255 and
vertical axis is the count of pixels that have exactly that value for a color
we get a histogram. The histogram of a theoretical picture containing all
possible 16 million colors each used by exactly one pixel would be a horizontal
line. Here is an example color gradient picture and its red color histogram.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3QS0HptZLejc99yY7E-rr3kLbTZrGNnTGqoubCstMAjY9FTVv0r69hXwsujmCtchYdjAlkoZjHBXsX3SCvaX40qlGZ_wFpWOw_IIk900sRGR4oyQ9THFxOc5a6RolnAdJ_NYeo6o0Maj/s1600/02-gradient.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3QS0HptZLejc99yY7E-rr3kLbTZrGNnTGqoubCstMAjY9FTVv0r69hXwsujmCtchYdjAlkoZjHBXsX3SCvaX40qlGZ_wFpWOw_IIk900sRGR4oyQ9THFxOc5a6RolnAdJ_NYeo6o0Maj/s1600/02-gradient.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<br />
It is not a horizontal line, because it is not a perfect color
gradient, but I hope you get the idea. Of course real life pictures do not have
histograms that are horizontal lines, but curves going up and down over color
spectrum. But in most normal pictures each color should use the whole spectrum
and it should be balanced evenly. If it is not, that indicates a possible error,
which could be corrected. Let me repeat it because it is important, an uneven
histogram may suggest an error, but you know what is in the picture (the
program has no idea) and you should decide if it really needs correction. If
you have a picture of night sky with moon and stars its histogram will be very
unbalanced (very high on the far left and almost zero everywhere else), but
that is not an error, it is expected for such a motive. Here is an example of a
normal picture and its red color histogram.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJHSdHR4IlpBR3NV2hEIC6FCv9omMk-5WnBLhVj2I6Qf7vTjBQOuzjtOe1SvUM7mrpoVwY3pH-SEklLYM0hcKS4kKkwvFs0TEfQ__7TCmMh7nQoPlzLVr5x8NvUsNHfFTrJlxnmVMpemk9/s1600/03-example-normal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJHSdHR4IlpBR3NV2hEIC6FCv9omMk-5WnBLhVj2I6Qf7vTjBQOuzjtOe1SvUM7mrpoVwY3pH-SEklLYM0hcKS4kKkwvFs0TEfQ__7TCmMh7nQoPlzLVr5x8NvUsNHfFTrJlxnmVMpemk9/s1600/03-example-normal.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<br />
Red color spectrum is not fully used (on the left and even
more on the right edge it is zero) which suggests colors could be improved (and
picture author agrees, because he knows it was taken in Legoland).<br />
<br />
Now let us
investigate the luminosity, which represents the L of the alternative HSL color
model. We can also think about it as brightness of each pixel if the picture
were converted to grayscale (this is not exactly true, but close enough and
helps keep this explanation short and simple). An unbalanced luminosity
histogram almost always suggests the picture is underexposed (meaning too dark)
if shifted to the left or overexposed (meaning too bright) if shifted to the
right. Here are exaggerated histogram examples of under and overexposed
versions of already known Legoland picture.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqH64M2_2OC04NRiyYWTbAYRfSzoItHfUmHgrp2Efw73RkeDN5bCB-pRxw8N2xpbIDC2OMmkNhoPJ_5umtfY0z5sUbO7Hatp8sa_d2c3T_RIrsDf5BBsfbK6m5HuD5D4kLNPH56Xi0Ig8/s1600/04-example-dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqH64M2_2OC04NRiyYWTbAYRfSzoItHfUmHgrp2Efw73RkeDN5bCB-pRxw8N2xpbIDC2OMmkNhoPJ_5umtfY0z5sUbO7Hatp8sa_d2c3T_RIrsDf5BBsfbK6m5HuD5D4kLNPH56Xi0Ig8/s1600/04-example-dark.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDvGswtm0Tf2dGsVmcUon_j38Tm_k5rB9BhIdVYuMdPillF5GHPP7-p_LCWenNHAU82ax4jT9Rv-Cxo83sbHpUOWdYANmnTSLTfCuYDfh8l5zcWxNU7hKsljGpJ-sZ3jp8nazgMb4L445/s1600/05-example-bright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDvGswtm0Tf2dGsVmcUon_j38Tm_k5rB9BhIdVYuMdPillF5GHPP7-p_LCWenNHAU82ax4jT9Rv-Cxo83sbHpUOWdYANmnTSLTfCuYDfh8l5zcWxNU7hKsljGpJ-sZ3jp8nazgMb4L445/s1600/05-example-bright.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a>
<br />
Above I have mentioned the importance of correct vertical
lines. Another possible picture defect which is also easily noticed is the
white balance. When we know that something (like paper or snow) is usually
white we immediately notice if it is bluish or reddish. Unfortunately that is
exactly what happens when film fades with years, but luckily it can be corrected.<br />
<br />
Color adjusting is the most complicated and time consuming part of digital picture correction. It is also what I do (or at least try to do) on each picture. DigiKam has several commands that can be used for brightness and color correction and I have tried them all. But most of the time I use only the command “Levels Adjust” (shortcut Ctrl-L) which allows for all picture correction adjustments I need.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-87944461044531814642013-02-04T18:32:00.000+01:002013-02-17T16:56:57.383+01:00Digitized picture correction with digiKam – Part 1In
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
post we have decided to use digiKam and in
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html" target="_blank">DigiKam installation and configuration</a>
(in 4 parts) we have installed and configured digiKam, so we are ready to do some real work. Please keep in mind this is not a manual (you can find that
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/docs" target="_blank">here</a>).
It is simply a selection of commands that work great for me with detailed explanation and some theoretical background.<br />
<br />
Again I managed to write too much for a single post so I had to split it into several parts:
<br />
<ul>
<li>In <b>this part</b> I talk about digiKam Image Editor and picture
orientation and sizing commands.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part2.html">Part 2</a> I present some color and histograms theory.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part3.html">Part 3</a> I go into details of color and brightness
correction with "Levels Adjust" command.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/02/digitized-picture-correction-with-digiKam-part4.html">Part 4</a> I describe how to achieve good pictures quality without
using unreasonable amounts of time.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a>My digitized pictures are saved in two main folders, each with
subfolders with the same names as I used for original slide trays. The first is
named "dia-scan-original", where I save unchanged results of scanning. The
second one is named "dia-scan-corrected", where I save (what a surprise)
corrected and tagged pictures. I copy one tray subfolder at a time from
"dia-scan-original" to the "/home/mirc/Pictures" folder on the Linux virtual machine.
After I have made the corrections and tagging I copy the subfolder to "dia-scan-corrected".
This way I always have a recovery copy in case I totally screw-up something in digiKam
and it does not take too much time or disk space anyway.<br />
<br />
When you start digiKam you see your picture collection
(probably folder /home/userid/Pictures) on the left and thumbnails of pictures
in selected folder on the right. You can also choose to have only one line of
thumbnails and preview of selected picture under it. Now click the button Image
Editor and you get a column (with resizable width) of thumbnails on the left
and selected picture on the rest of the screen. It can be zoomed in or out and
panned as desired, to have a good look at some important detail, but that is
expected of any picture editor. What I like is the natural way to select next
or previous picture with <span style="background-color: orange;">Page Down</span> or <span style="background-color: orange;">Page Up</span> keyboard buttons.<br />
<br />
(as in my previous posts all <span style="background-color: orange;">button</span>, <span style="background-color: orange;">command</span> or <span style="background-color: orange;">keyboard key</span> names
in the following text are marked <span style="background-color: orange;">like this</span>)<br />
<br />
<h3>
Picture orientation and sizing</h3>
<br />
Theoretically there are 8 possibilities how to orientate a
slide (it can be rotated 90 degrees 4 times multiplied by 2 front side
possibilities) and exactly one is correct. Normally, all the slides in a tray
should be oriented correctly, but if they were ever taken out and returned I
bet
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html" target="_blank">another</a>
6 pack of
<a href="http://kd59.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/lasko-zlatorog/" target="_blank">Laško beer</a>
that at least one was not returned correctly. I also remember how I once
managed to drop the tray including 50 slides to the table. And when I am
scanning negatives (not slides) I first cut and frame them so I can use our
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000</a> scanner,
but I do not care for orientation when I insert them into the tray, because it
is faster to rotate them later on computer.<br />
<br />
There are three digiKam commands I use to correct above
mistakes: <span style="background-color: orange;">Rotate Left</span> (shortcut <span style="background-color: orange;">Shift-Ctrl-left</span>) and <span style="background-color: orange;">Rotate Right</span> (shortcut
<span style="background-color: orange;">Shift-Ctrl-right</span>) which both rotate 90 degrees and <span style="background-color: orange;">Flip Horizontally</span>
(shortcut <span style="background-color: orange;">Ctrl-H</span>) which I think of as mirror.<br />
<br />
As you probably know from the theory of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_%28graphical%29" target="_blank">perspective</a>
the natural verticals should remain vertical in the picture. But I sometimes
forget this and hold the camera slightly left or right. Now if the main motive
is a ball it does not really matter, but if picture contains objects we subconsciously
know should be vertical (like traffic signs or building edges) it is very
disturbing. This can be corrected with command <span style="background-color: orange;">Free Rotation</span> (shortcut
<span style="background-color: orange;">Ctrl-R</span>) at the cost of some cropped picture edges. Here is an example:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ScsvYnZYDLTetiiL9EV8M3Uv3Vjr4ZhOu0CcKN7zDMw/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
As a member of the
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html" target="_blank">dia-scan-consortium</a>
I am using the Reflecta DigitDia 5000 scanner. The included
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/11/cyberview-settings.html" target="_blank">CyberView software</a>
manages to correctly crop the slides most of the time. But sometimes (mostly
when pictures are extremely dark) it fails and the resulting JPG has a black
border. Even more frequent is the case, when I decide that a smaller frame of
the picture (a sort of digital zoom) presents a better motive.<br />
<br />
The command to correct above mistake is <span style="background-color: orange;">Crop to Selection</span>
(shortcut <span style="background-color: orange;">Ctrl-X</span>). Of course you should first use the mouse to select the
remaining part of the picture. When selecting I am not overly sensitive to get
the correct (4:3) aspect ratio, I find it more important to get a good motive,
even if the results is a perfect square. Another example:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vh9DfGrs5nBZ3ipvEpvHGvkVAS1Czd7njQnGA9hSwfM/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
Now we have a picture with people correctly standing on their feet, with left to right inscriptions (or
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-left" target="_blank">right to left</a>
if the picture was taken in Egypt), with traffic signs being vertical and
without black borders. After your fingers remember the required commands, it
literally takes a second or two to correct picture orientation and sizing.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-43468361919590858302013-01-04T18:24:00.000+01:002013-01-07T16:56:26.982+01:00digiKam installation and configuration - Part 4In the post
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
we have made a decision to use
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/" target="_blank">digiKam </a>
to correct thousands of scanned pictures as effectively as possible. But before we can start using digiKam,
we need to install it and configure some settings. Since we have quite some work to do I have split it into several parts:<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html">Part 1</a> we talk about digiKam installation, then we install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows and configure Ubuntu regional settings.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-2.html">Part 2</a> we install digiKam and talk some more about VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-3.html">Part 3</a> we copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM and exercise some Ubuntu desktop tweaking.</li>
<li>In <b>this post</b> we configure some of digiKam's settings and picture editor keyboard shortcuts.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><h3>
DigiKam configuration</h3>
OK digiKam is installed, but before we start editing scanned
pictures there are several settings to configure. Start digiKam (if it is not
already running) and in the menus open <span style="background-color: orange;">Settings / Configure DigiKam</span>. There are
hundreds of configurations options available organized in several categories
you can select on the left. You can leave most of them at default setting, but
I suggest taking a look at the following categories:<br />
<br />
First select category <span style="background-color: orange;">Collections</span>. These are the folders
where digiKam is looking for the pictures to work on. It was already configured
in <span style="background-color: orange;">first run assistant</span> (in my case <span style="background-color: orange;">Col.0</span> points to <span style="background-color: orange;">/home/mirc/Pictures</span>),
but if you do not agree, you can delete existing collection (it will only
delete the pointer, not the pictures) and select another folder.<br />
<br />
Then select category <span style="background-color: orange;">Editing Images</span>. Here I unselected<span style="background-color: orange;"> Enable Non-Destructive Editing and Versioning</span>, because I want the corrected pictures
to be saved in the same file. If this option is left selected, DigiKam creates
a new file each time you save a picture. I have also chosen<span style="background-color: orange;"> Save files as JPEG</span> , because that is the format of my scans and I do not want to change it.
And I have selected <span style="background-color: orange;">When closing the editor: Always ask to save changes</span>, because
I want to be able to abort editing without saving, if I am not satisfied with
the result. I have deselected all remaining options.<br />
<br />
Finally select category <span style="background-color: orange;">Saving Images</span>. Here you decide on the balance between file
size and quality when saving pictures. Since I am using only JPEG I ignored all
other picture formats. I experimented with quality 90, 95 or 100
(highest) and subsampling High, Medium or None (best), that is with all 9
possible combinations. For my scanned pictures I could not see any real
difference in quality between those values. But the sizes of the saved file were
radically different. For a picture, where original file size was approximately
4MB, using different combinations resulted in file sizes from less than 3MB to
more than 11MB. I have decided to use <span style="background-color: orange;">JPEG quality: 95</span> and <span style="background-color: orange;"> Chroma subsampling: Medium</span>. The resulting file size was slightly bigger then
original, so I consider this a safe combination for not losing information
without unnecessary using disk space.<br />
<br />
<h3>
DigiKam picture editor and keyboard shortcuts</h3>
I want to have keyboard shortcuts for all commands I
regularly use in digiKam’s <span style="background-color: orange;">Picture Editor</span>. To configure them you must first open
the <span style="background-color: orange;">Picture Editor</span> and to do that, a folder with pictures must be selected in
navigator on the left. Then open <span style="background-color: orange;">Settings / Configure Shortcuts</span> in menus. Most
of commands have keyboard shortcuts by default. I only changed shortcut for command <span style="background-color: orange;">Flip Horizontally</span> (I used <span style="background-color: orange;">Ctrl-H</span>) and added it for command<span style="background-color: orange;"> Free Rotation</span> (I used <span style="background-color: orange;">Ctrl-R</span>).<br />
<br />
To change an existing keyboard shortcut or to add a new one
is basically the same thing. First click on command to select it, click <span style="background-color: orange;">Custom</span>
(it is already selected if you configured this command before), click the entry
field next to it and use keyboard to define desired shortcut by typing it. If
desired shortcut is already used for another command digiKam warns you and you
can decide to <span style="background-color: orange;">Reassign</span> it or to <span style="background-color: orange;">Cancel</span>.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=1_-p9dmlkYXVnL3ekAt42R0VLZLXhGO21XCOTIgc4uk8&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<i>screen by screen guide to digiKam configuration and keyboard shortcuts</i><br />
<br />
So finally everything is ready to start the real work: correcting
scanned pictures. But this post is already far too long therefore I will describe
my preferred optimized picture correction workflow next time.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-27052989919064262472013-01-04T18:23:00.003+01:002013-01-07T16:49:13.382+01:00digiKam installation and configuration - Part 3In the post
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
we have made a decision to use
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/" target="_blank">digiKam </a>
to correct thousands of scanned pictures as effectively as possible. But before we can start using digiKam,
we need to install it and configure some settings. Since we have quite some work to do I have split it into several parts:<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html">Part 1</a> we talk about digiKam installation, then we install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows and configure Ubuntu regional settings.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-2.html">Part 2</a> we install digiKam and talk some more about VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux.</li>
<li>In <b>this post</b> we copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM and exercise some Ubuntu desktop tweaking.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-4.html">Part 4</a> we configure some of digiKam's settings and picture editor keyboard shortcuts.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><h3>
How to copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM</h3>
OK, now we have a working Ubuntu VM with digiKam, but the
pictures are still on Windows’ disk not where we need them on VM’s disk. Don’t
worry we will get them where we need them soon.<br />
<br />
First open your <span style="background-color: orange;">Home Folder</span> (second icon in the <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span>)
and open subfolder <span style="background-color: orange;">Pictures</span>. You will see there are already two digiKam’s files
there. I suggest creating another subfolder here. Right click on empty space,
choose <span style="background-color: orange;">Create New Folder</span> and give it a meaningful name like <span style="background-color: orange;">work</span>. Now right
click on this folder and choose <span style="background-color: orange;">Sharing Options</span>. Mark options <span style="background-color: orange;"> Share this folder</span> and <span style="background-color: orange;">Allow others to create and delete files in this folder</span> and click button <span style="background-color: orange;">Create Share</span>. Probably another window will appear asking if you allow
Nautilus to add some permissions; allow it by clicking <span style="background-color: orange;">Add the permissions automatically</span>.<br />
<br />
Now we must allow Windows users to access the share we have created. There is no <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface" target="_blank">GUI</a>
way to do it (Linux gurus correct me in comments if I am wrong) so we must type the required command.
Open <span style="background-color: orange;">Dash Home</span>, type "term" in the search field and click on <span style="background-color: orange;">Terminal</span> icon
which should appear in a second. Now we are in a Linux equivalent of Windows Command Prompt. You see
your username followed by "@", VM’s computer name and some additional strange
characters (in my case it is <span style="background-color: orange;">mirc@ubuntu:~$</span>) and finally a cursor sign, where
you can type. If you press keyboard key <span style="background-color: orange;">Enter</span> several times you get several
more equal lines. Type (or copy/paste) the command<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: orange;">sudo smbpasswd -a <username></span>
<br />
<br />
replacing <username> with your own (I had to type <span style="background-color: orange;">sudo smbpasswd –a mirc</span>)
and press key <span style="background-color: orange;">Enter</span>. Now you must blindly type your
password three times always submitting it by key <span style="background-color: orange;">Enter</span>. If you get an error
message try again, if not close the <span style="background-color: orange;">terminal</span>. This is all that must be done on Ubuntu VM.<br />
<br />
Now go to Windows and open <span style="background-color: orange;">Windows Explorer</span>. If menus are hidden press the <span style="background-color: orange;">Alt</span>
key to display them then open <span style="background-color: orange;">Tools</span> / <span style="background-color: orange;">Map network drive</span>. Choose an unoccupied
"Drive:" (maybe <span style="background-color: orange;">U:</span> as Ubuntu), in field “Folder:” type <span style="background-color: orange;">\\ubuntu\work</span> (or whatever you
have used above as meaningful name instead of <span style="background-color: orange;">work</span>), place a mark to select
both <span style="background-color: orange;">Reconnect at logon</span> and <span style="background-color: orange;">Connect using different credentials</span> and
click button <span style="background-color: orange;">Finish</span>. A window will appear where you must enter username and password
used in Ubuntu VM. I also suggest placing a mark to select <span style="background-color: orange;">Remember my credentials</span>
(unless you prefer to enter them each time you map the VM’s drive).<br />
<br />
If you typed everything without mistakes a new window should
open showing empty drive <span style="background-color: orange;">U:</span> which is mapped to folder <span style="background-color: orange;">/Home/Pictures/work</span> on
Ubuntu VM’s disk. Use normal Windows <span style="background-color: orange;">copy/paste</span> or <span style="background-color: orange;">mouse drag</span> to copy
some pictures (jpg files) to drive U: (you should know how to copy files and folders in Windows).
Then go to Ubuntu VM and check subfolder <span style="background-color: orange;">work</span>, copied pictures should be there.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=18FfZmOlqyMoDZxkJ_J4U-ZqTjjOFlrNKmX8Tp44LQ9o&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<i>screen by screen guide how to copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM</i><br />
<br />
<h3>
Some Ubuntu desktop tweaking</h3>
My own first reaction to Unity was extremely negative, but I
followed my own advice and gave it a fair try. After some time I am getting
used to it, except for two things: the "global menus" (the top bar displays the
menu for current program when mouse is over it) and "overlay scrollbars"
(hidden vertical scrollbars that only show when mouse is over it). Both are
easy to change to behave normally. Just open the Terminal and type (or
copy/paste) following two commands<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: orange;">sudo apt-get remove appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt indicator-appmenu</span><br />
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br />sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0</span><br />
<br />
You must Log Out and Login to have the changes applied.<br />
<br />
But maybe you have decided to join the "Unity sucks" community. OK
your choice, but this can’t be an excuse to give up using digiKam on Linux. It
is easy to replace Unity with a different desktop. In fact there are several
possibilities, but I suggest trying <a href="http://lxde.org/" target="_blank">LXDE</a>,
which is supposed to be faster than Unity and looks almost like Windows.
Open <span style="background-color: orange;">Ubuntu Software Center</span>, search for "LXDE" and install it,
you already know the procedure. Then <span style="background-color: orange;">Log Out</span>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As a side note, <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/IMHO" target="_blank">IMHO</a> this
is a better way to install Ubuntu Linux with LXDE desktop than to create the VM from
<a href="http://lubuntu.net/" target="_blank">Lubuntu</a> iso; if using
VMware Player anyway. The final result looks the same, but VMware Tools are
installed automatically (they are not, if installing VM from Lubuntu iso) and
VM window resizing works correctly, that means automatically adjusting the resolution (it
does not, if installing VM from Lubuntu iso).</blockquote>
After login screen appears first click the <span style="background-color: orange;">icon at the right
of you login name</span> and select <span style="background-color: orange;">LXDE</span> (BTW, if you select <span style="background-color: orange;">Ubuntu</span>
you get <span style="background-color: orange;">Unity</span>) type your password and login. Does it looks
familiar and almost like Windows? OK, the <span style="background-color: orange;">Start Menu</span> icon in the lower left
corner looks different and the button to begin <span style="background-color: orange;">Shutdown</span>, <span style="background-color: orange;">Logout</span> and other
similar actions is in the lower right corner. But right next to the <span style="background-color: orange;">Start Menu</span><i><b> </b></i>
there are shortcut icons for <span style="background-color: orange;">File Manager</span> and <span style="background-color: orange;">Web Browser</span>. If you
open <span style="background-color: orange;">File Manager</span> (it is also available in <span style="background-color: orange;">Accessories</span> menu) everything
seems to be in the expected place. You can start <span style="background-color: orange;">digiKam</span> from the <span style="background-color: orange;">Graphics</span> menu and
since you will probably start is every time<b>,</b> I suggest adding its shortcut next
to <span style="background-color: orange;">File Manager</span>. Right click on <span style="background-color: orange;">File Manager</span> icon and choose<span style="background-color: orange;"> Application Launch Bar Settings</span> <i><b>.</b></i> On the right side windows expand <span style="background-color: orange;"> Graphics</span>, click on digiKam to select it and use button <span style="background-color: orange;">Add</span>.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=1CQZUDDN1uZtw1su_op77fPwhz9Si5LpNjxh0o5u1EmM&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<i>screen by screen guide to some Ubuntu desktop tweaking</i><br />
<br />
But that is enough talking about Linux, let us continue with digiKam.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-84547190544392933612013-01-04T18:23:00.002+01:002013-02-03T21:06:46.744+01:00digiKam installation and configuration - Part 2In the post
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
we have made a decision to use
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/" target="_blank">digiKam </a>
to correct thousands of scanned pictures as effectively as possible. But before we can start using digiKam,
we need to install it and configure some settings. Since we have quite some work to do I have split it into several parts:<br />
<ul>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-1.html">Part 1</a> we talk about digiKam installation, then we install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows and configure Ubuntu regional settings.</li>
<li>In <b>this post</b> we install digiKam and talk some more about VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-3.html">Part 3</a> we copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM and exercise some Ubuntu desktop tweaking.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-4.html">Part 4</a> we configure some of digiKam's settings and picture editor keyboard shortcuts.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><h3>
DigiKam installation </h3>
Now we are ready to install digiKam. Open <span style="background-color: orange;">Ubuntu Software Center</span>
(it should be somewhere in the middle of the <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span> icons) and write
digiKam to the search field (top right). In seconds it will appear on the top
of the list. Click on it to select it and click on <span style="background-color: orange;">Install</span> button that will
appear. You will be asked for your password (that is standard in Ubuntu when
installing software) and after you <span style="background-color: orange;">Authenticate</span> the installation will start.
You will only see a bar slowly moving to the right, but in the background digiKam and
all required libraries will be downloaded and installed (it will take 5-10 minutes). You will know it is
finished, when the <span style="background-color: orange;">Install</span> button changes to <span style="background-color: orange;">Remove</span>. Close the <span style="background-color: orange;"> Ubuntu Software Center</span>; the <span style="background-color: orange;">X button</span> is in the top left corner,
not in the top right where people used to Windows expect it.<br />
<br />
DigiKam's icon will be shown in the <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span> (if you accidentaly closed it,
open <span style="background-color: orange;">Dash Home</span>; the top icon in <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span>; type digiKam in the
search field on the top and the shortcut to it will appear below), click it and digiKam will
welcome you with "first run assistant". Just click <span style="background-color: orange;">Next</span> (several times)
and <span style="background-color: orange;">Finish</span>; all the options you confirm by that are good choices and all can be
corrected later if required. <span style="background-color: orange;">Close</span> <b>"</b>tip of the day" and I suggest
to remove mark at <span style="background-color: orange;">Show tips on startup</span>.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=1-EZWLU5rnhBNK11UQ6UK1Z6Ol0xo5T5iT6KATx9RMhQ&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<i>screen by screen guide how to install digiKam on Ubuntu 12.04</i><br />
<i> </i>
<br />
<h3>
More about VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux</h3>
That’s it; two downloads and a lot of <span style="background-color: orange;">Next</span> clicks, it has not
taken you a lot more than half an hour, didn’t it? And by the way, this is also
a good moment to allow <span style="background-color: orange;">Update Manager</span> to do its job. Click it in the
<span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span>, click <span style="background-color: orange;">Install Updates</span>, enter your password and take another rest.
After update is finished, you will need to <span style="background-color: orange;">Restart Now</span> to complete it.<br />
<br />
I suppose a final explanation is required for those not
familiar with virtualization. The Ubuntu VM we have created is like another complete
virtual Linux computer running inside your existing physical Windows computer.
You have already seen how to <span style="background-color: orange;">Login</span> into it. You can also <span style="background-color: orange;">Log Out</span> of it by
clicking on the <span style="background-color: orange;">toothed wheel button</span> in the top right corner of VM. And like on a physical computer you must use <span style="background-color: orange;">Shut Down</span> (again starting on the <span style="background-color: orange;"> toothed wheel button</span>) when not used anymore, which will also close the VMware Player.
If you try to close the outside VMware Player’s window of the running VM using
standard Windows <span style="background-color: orange;">X button</span>, VMware Player gives you a choice to <span style="background-color: orange;"> Suspend</span> or <span style="background-color: orange;">Power Off</span> the VM. I strongly advise against choosing
to <span style="background-color: orange;">Power Off</span> a running VM, it is like plugging a physical computer out of electric power
when it is working which can cause very bad things to the integrity of the disk drive. The
only eligible reason to use <span style="background-color: orange;">Power Off </span>is if the VM hangs. On the other side
it is perfectly safe and useful to <span style="background-color: orange;">Suspend</span> a running VM, which freezes its
current state including all running programs. When you later restart a
suspended VM you find yourself exactly where you have left only the clock is
updated to present time.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=1pFtqrO83TvQ_izY1BgfaYKBX9tmrEaI609veNSMk3E0&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<i>screen by screen guide how update Ubuntu and Shut Down or Suspend the VM</i>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-69619208676416525762013-01-04T18:23:00.000+01:002013-01-07T16:51:26.290+01:00digiKam installation and configuration - Part 1In the post
<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/12/about-picture-correction-and-work.html" target="_blank">About picture correction and work optimization</a>
we have made a decision to use
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/" target="_blank">digiKam </a>
to correct thousands of scanned pictures as effectively as possible. But before we can start using digiKam,
we need to install it and configure some settings. Since we have quite some work to do I have split it into several parts:<br />
<ul>
<li>In <b>this post</b> we talk about digiKam installation, then we install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows and configure Ubuntu regional settings.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-2.html">Part 2</a> we install digiKam and talk some more about VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-3.html">Part 3</a> we copy pictures from Windows to Ubuntu VM and exercise some Ubuntu desktop tweaking.</li>
<li>In <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2013/01/digikam-installation-and-configuration-4.html">Part 4</a> we configure some of digiKam's settings and picture editor keyboard shortcuts.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><h3>
About digiKam installation</h3>
DigiKam is written for Linux and most of the time it is best
to use any program in its natural environment. If you are already using Linux, you are lucky, because
<a href="http://www.digikam.org/download/binary" target="_blank">installation packages</a>
are available for all major distributions. And as usual in Linux world source code
is also available to download and compile, if you want the latest version and
if you are brave enough.<br />
<br />
Mac users are advised to use <a href="http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=digikam" target="_blank">MacPorts project</a>,
but I can’t comment on that, because I have not tried it. Windows installer is
also available, but “Be careful as digiKam is not as stable under Windows as
under Linux because of some bugs in the underlying KDE SC libraries that
digiKam depends on” (quote from digiKam’s site). I have tried it and I can
confirm it crashes from time to time without any obvious reason, which is
disturbing.<br />
<br />
Therefore I strongly suggest Windows users to use native Linux
digiKam in virtualized Linux on their Windows. It is not as complicated as it
sounds. Here are step by step instructions
(all <span style="background-color: orange;">button</span>, <span style="background-color: orange;">command</span> or <span style="background-color: orange;">keyboard key</span> names
in the following text are marked <span style="background-color: orange;">this way</span>).<br />
<br />
<h3>
How to install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows</h3>
Download the free VMware Player from
<a href="https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0" target="_blank">here</a>,
choose the first file (at the time of this writing “VMware-player-5.0.1-894247.exe”) and install it using all default options.<br />
<br />
Download the free Ubuntu 12.04 LTS iso image from
<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?release=lts&bits=32&distro=desktop&status=zeroc" target="_blank">here</a>
(if download does not start automatically click “download now” at the top of
the page). The file (at the time of this writing “ubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-i386.iso”)
has size a little over 700 MB so it might take several minutes to download.<br />
<br />
Now start the VMware Player. Click button <span style="background-color: orange;">Create a New Virtual Machine</span>
on the starting page, select <span style="background-color: orange;">Installer disk image (iso)</span>, browse to
the folder where you saved the iso image file and open it. Click <span style="background-color: orange;">Next</span> and choose
your new login credentials: display name, username and password. Write it down
or remember it, because you will need it all the time to login into the new virtual
machine. Click <span style="background-color: orange;">Next</span> several more times leaving all other options unchanged;
default values are OK and they can all be changed later if necessary. After
installation starts you have enough time to go and prepare yourself a cup of
coffee or a mug of tee or open a can of beer or pour a glass of wine; whatever
suits you best, in that matter I am extremely democratic :)<br />
<br />
After 10 or 15 minutes your brand new Linux virtual machine (from
now on, I will call it VM) should be ready including the automatic installation
of VMware Tools. If you do not know why you need VMware Tools do not bother, just
believe me it is a must have in a VMware virtual machine and it is not trivial
to install manually. Login screen is waiting for you, so go ahead and enter the
password. The screen will be probably too small, but you can resize the windows as any
other Windows program or change it to Windows full screen. You can also use the
VMware Player’s <span style="background-color: orange;">full screen mode</span> button in the top bar to completely hide the
underlying Windows screen. In that case I also advise to unpin VMware Player’s
top bar, because it possibly gets in the way of menus inside the VM.<br />
<br />
On the left side inside the VM you will see the <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span> (a vertical
toolbar of program icons) which belongs to the new Ubuntu’s Unity “it looks almost
like a Mac” user interface. One of the icons is the <span style="background-color: orange;">Update Manager</span> probably
asking you to install the updates, just ignore that for now. Many Linux users think
that <a href="http://www.google.com/#tbo=d&q=Unity+sucks" target="_blank">Unity sucks</a>,
but many others <a href="http://www.google.com/#tbo=d&q=I+like+Unity" target="_blank">like it</a>.
I suggest you give it a try, look
<a href="http://complete-concrete-concise.com/ubuntu-2/ubuntu-12-04/ubuntu-12-04-basic-unity-interface-desktop-tutorial" target="_blank">here</a>
for a good startup tutorial. We will only need it to install and start digiKam anyway
and it is more than good enough for that. But if you decide you want to join
the “Unity sucks” community, see “Ubuntu desktop tweaking” in Part 3 before giving up.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=1QL8eT7Hk17mfArEMyvsd-mIJcL3SbFAOLPzvgMKqap0&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<i>screen by screen guide how to install VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux on Windows</i><br />
<br />
<h3>
Ubuntu regional setttings </h3>
If you are satisfied with English/US keyboard and regional
settings and the clock shows correct time (meaning you<i><b> </b></i>probably live in Los Angeles or near by)
you can skip the rest of this
paragraph. If you live in the rest of the world like me open <span style="background-color: orange;">System Settings</span>
(it should be more at the bottom of <span style="background-color: orange;">Launcher</span> icons). First click <span style="background-color: orange;">Time&Date</span>,
select the correct time zone and click <span style="background-color: orange;">All Settings</span> to return; clock
in the top right corner should now display the correct time. Next click <span style="background-color: orange;">Language Support</span>,
click <span style="background-color: orange;">Install / Remove Languages</span> and add your language; you will be asked for password,
type it and <span style="background-color: orange;">Authenticate</span>.
Now you could change the <span style="background-color: orange;">Language for menus and windows</span>, although I prefer to
keep that in English. But you should choose <span style="background-color: orange;">Regional Formats</span> tab and select
your language to have numbers, dates and currency displayed in the format you
are used to. To see examples, you will have to close and reopen <span style="background-color: orange;">Language Support</span>
tool. Finally click <span style="background-color: orange;">Keyboard Layout</span>, click the <span style="background-color: orange;">+ button</span> in the
lower left corner and add your language. Then select English (US) and click the <span style="background-color: orange;">v button</span> to push
it down; your language should be on the top.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="509" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=10XOq2I6jao5CbIz9sJOBwu1L_P4LogIfWdfMBYZ_v7U&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<i>screen by screen guide how to configure regional settings on Ubuntu 12.04</i>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-43754857985651753242012-12-24T21:36:00.003+01:002013-01-03T17:35:23.598+01:00Merry Christmas and Happy New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtu2n0yXpxEi7OlTB6rHgEHl6VrvvoRJiQ8cNXR8ef495voSXnr4ZMns83XfgkgACZMydXMewyrAcoXZDqBnPneUVHJVq3O3JkprZjh_zI71b62d7t1aDEXCVELdDlI8_UFoeTfkFCQGG/s1600/darila.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtu2n0yXpxEi7OlTB6rHgEHl6VrvvoRJiQ8cNXR8ef495voSXnr4ZMns83XfgkgACZMydXMewyrAcoXZDqBnPneUVHJVq3O3JkprZjh_zI71b62d7t1aDEXCVELdDlI8_UFoeTfkFCQGG/s1600/darila.jpg" height="640" width="572" /></a></div>
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It
is time for presents. I wish all my readers at least as many presents as in
this picture and that one of the boxes contains your dream new photo camera. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Merry
Christmas and all the best in 2013,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mirc M</span></span><br />
<br />
<i><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">update:</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXZ8fy7eVgUcj46R55USGU8o4I34Odi3kWZaqcdRANdf_FLEUpj_iceOXIB1otCVtrEBr74c3NRvP0G0EpNQYsWZJ-6j4oGyKYyWcSYOSN_dm8w_mS1Jtz_BNMmNk0i75b2aQ6XfY7sV-/s1600/bozic-zenja-darilo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXZ8fy7eVgUcj46R55USGU8o4I34Odi3kWZaqcdRANdf_FLEUpj_iceOXIB1otCVtrEBr74c3NRvP0G0EpNQYsWZJ-6j4oGyKYyWcSYOSN_dm8w_mS1Jtz_BNMmNk0i75b2aQ6XfY7sV-/s1600/bozic-zenja-darilo.JPG" height="113" width="640" /></a></div>
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">This was inside the smallest package in above picture, my daughter's present to me :)</span></span><br />
<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Do not worry, you do not need to retype, here it is ...</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/e3GY4rF9-4k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-65817045546181225442012-12-16T13:39:00.001+01:002013-01-04T17:55:21.603+01:00About picture correction and work optimization<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I have written in my post <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/11/cyberview-settings.html" target="_blank">CyberView Settings</a>, scanning is only the beginning. It is completed for me now (I
have freed a lot of space in one of the closets by moving the boxes with slides
to the cellar) and I am concentrating on next two phases: correction and
tagging.<br />
<br />
It is time to make a confession; this is the first post that
is not “historical memory”. When I am writing this I have already scanned all
my slides and negatives; all together almost 6000 pictures. All the posts so
far (with exception of “<a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/11/view-pictures-on-tv-set.html" target="_blank">View pictures on TV set</a>”) were about events that happened several months ago, now I am
setting myself to present time.</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>My first idea was, to do the correction and tagging at the
same time with the same program, but soon I changed my mind and decided to do
it separately. The reason is simple: I am lazy. Or, to say the same thing in
better sounding words: it takes a lot of time to do the work on thousands of
pictures so it should be optimized and automated as much as possible. But
correction and tagging are very different tasks and each of them has different
optimization possibilities.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Most programs have some kind of “automatic color correction
tool”, but for my taste they are too aggressive and the resulting colors look
unnatural, therefore I prefer to do it manually. But typically pictures come in
sequences that were taken on the same film and in similar conditions (10
pictures of the indoors birthday party, then 6 outside skiing, etc.) and most
of the time require the same color correction. The idea is to set the required
correction values (color histogram is very helpful at this exercise, but more
about it later) once on the first or on the most important picture in the
sequence, save them and reuse them on all other pictures in the same sequence. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Tagging is a completely different task, it involves writing
labels which tell the event or the place where the picture was taken (for
example: “skiing”, “Italy”, “Corvara”), the names of people on the picture (for
example: “Daša”, “Ženja”), etc. Tagging can be optimized by selecting pictures
which need the same labels and applying the labels by selecting them from a
pre-prepared list. But I will write about tagging in future posts. Now let’s
continue with color correction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
So what is the best program to use for correction? I never
especially liked Windows picture editor and I never even considered paying for
one of commercial (Adobe, Corel, etc.) programs. My favorite and one of the
first programs I always install on any system I use, was the freeware IrfanView.
Although it started as a simple picture viewer, the functionality was later significantly
extended and current version is quite a powerful picture editor which includes
all basic tools (even more tools are available as plugins, including the IPTC
tags editor). But I decided it is worth to invest some time to research first. As
always I goggled around, downloaded several freeware picture editors and tested
them.</div>
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The typical tasks to correct errors on scanned digital
pictures include:</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li>Crop: Sometimes the scanner
failed to find border and the picture contains black edge. Sometimes the
photographer (for each such case I was surprised how I could have zoomed so
stupidly) could have better selected the motive. In such cases the solution is
to select a smaller rectangle and crop.</li>
<li>Rotate: Sometimes the film was a
bit sideways in the frame. Sometimes the photographer (for each such case I was
surprised how I could have turned the camera so stupidly) forgot that vertical
lines (like edges of buildings) must remain vertical on the pictures too. In such
cases the solution is to slightly rotate the picture for a degree or two.</li>
<li>Correction (in some programs it
is divided to several tools like Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Color balance,
etc.): Older films are faded, each of the 3 basic colors differently. Sometimes
the photographer (for each such case I was surprised how I could have …) or the
automatic exposure of the camera under or over exposed the picture. In such
cases the solution is to adjust colors.</li>
<li>Mirror and rotate 90 degrees: It
is easy to have a slide in the tray oriented incorrectly; in fact only one
possibility out of eight is correct. If the people are standing on the head or
the inscription is right to left, the solution is to mirror or rotate the
picture.</li>
</ol>
For testing I selected several digitized pictures which
contained at least one of above errors and tried to correct them with different
downloaded programs. I took it as a sporting competition; each program was
given 10 minutes to convince me it is the one I am looking for to do the tasks
at hand. There were three programs that made it to the final: <a href="http://www.irfanview.com/" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">IrfanView</b></a>, <a href="http://www.gimp.org/" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Gimp</b></a> and <a href="http://www.digikam.org/" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">DigiKam</b></a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZUTMiHpZ45NXHJteO6xug5QHKN6BObO8YH8FhqZhJ2aNF6HKbBgKWJJySr2u0FuEFC-mKrNrl0ELRNDr4QDU2CktuaFnVodjzvHb-m3Ks7kPtvPXLaMEQ23gbSo0Sk3wUK23SEfv2EwD/s1600/3progs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZUTMiHpZ45NXHJteO6xug5QHKN6BObO8YH8FhqZhJ2aNF6HKbBgKWJJySr2u0FuEFC-mKrNrl0ELRNDr4QDU2CktuaFnVodjzvHb-m3Ks7kPtvPXLaMEQ23gbSo0Sk3wUK23SEfv2EwD/s1600/3progs.jpg" height="110" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I have already mentioned IrfanView. I already knew it and I like it, but to use it on 1000’s of pictures I had doubts. It is a program developed for Windows and no other operating system. On the other side both Gimp and DigiKam are programs developed for Linux, but both are also ported to Windows. Gimp is known as the unofficial free replacement for Photoshop with countless features and possibilities to correct pictures, but (this is strictly my personal opinion, which might be completely wrong) it is an incredible tool, if the task is to correct several pictures to perfection, but not if the task is to correct 1000’s of pictures as quickly as possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the header of web site DigiKam claims “Manage you
photographs like a professional with the power of Open source” and it is not an
exaggeration. Although the main focus of DigiKam is tagging of pictures (isn’t
that nice, maybe I can use the same program for tagging and correction) it is
also a very capable picture editor. As you probably already guessed, this program
was my winner. I could easily use it for the 4 tasks above, that I have chosen
for the test.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The question “<a href="http://www.google.com/#q=is+keyboard+faster+than+mouse" target="_blank">is keyboard faster than mouse</a>” is more than decade old and a lot
of very smart people strongly disagree on the answer. I my humble opinion the
correct answer is “it depends”. Personally I prefer working with keyboard in
programs I know and for tasks I use a lot. I feel more comfortable to put
fingers on the keyboard and keep them there then to haunt around for the mouse.
In DigiKam most commands are available with keyboard key combinations and additionally
it is possible to configure any command to any key combination. Next feature
that convinced me is that last used settings of each correction command are automatically
remembered. And another one I liked was the editing screen layout with size
adjustable icons of pictures in current folder on the left, selected picture
displayed in the middle and settings for currently applied tool on the right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I am deeply thankful to DigiKam authors; obviously they value
optimization highly; which is not a surprising fact in Linux world. It makes it
possible for me to correct a sequence of pictures with several keystrokes and
to typically process all 80 digitized pictures from 1 tray (now in 1 folder) in
time under one hour. By process I mean using at least one, but possibly all of the
4 typical correcting tasks (see above). I will describe my preferred workflow
and the commands I use in details in my next post.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-22770722525774114512012-11-18T20:58:00.003+01:002012-12-09T16:11:02.541+01:00CyberView settings<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:RelyOnVML/>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->Scanning of slides is only the first step (which should be
followed by color correction processing and tagging of pictures) in the process
leading to organized digital pictures archive. As I have already stated in my <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html">previous</a> post, I am perfectly satisfied with included CyberView software. This
post is not CyberView manual, you can find a better one <a href="http://www.jostark.de/Files/CyberviewInstructions.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. I will only
describe the settings that I have used and why I have chosen each of them. But
before we come there, I want to describe some basic principles I have followed.<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Basic principles</b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scanning itself is the most time consuming step in
process. It takes several minutes for each slide, so I do not want to repeat it
because of a bad decision on some setting. Any required software only
processing can be easily and much faster applied later (and if required
repeated several times). But the initial data capture should be the best
possible, since you can’t correct it later; or if I may borrow from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fidelity" target="_blank">Hi Fi</a> vocabulary: rubbish in rubbish out (probably already forgotten in the
era of digital players of all kinds, but that is a completely different subject
that does not belong to this blog).</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Folders and naming</b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An important decision to make is how to organize the
digitized copies of slides, that is how to name folders and files. Everybody I
know is using some type of system to tag the boxes with slides. My advice is:
follow your system of tagging physical boxes as much as possible when naming
folders and pictures. You will probably not waste the slides when scanned and
if in the future you for whatever reason decide you need to find a specific
slide, it will be much easier if the name of the file and folder points to the correct
box.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My system is to name the boxes by alphabet. Each box contains
two trays and each tray holds 80 slides. The trays are labeled as A1, A2, B1,
B2, etc. and I have even written a very short description with year and event
or location where the slides were taken. Unfortunately the alphabet is too
short (but I didn’t know that when I started) and after I used all of it, I
decided to use 2 letters instead of 1, so the labels are Y1, Y2, ZA1, ZA2, ZB1,
ZB2, etc. (luckily I started to use digital camera before second alphabet ran
out, otherwise I would have to use ZZA1, ZZA2).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have decided to create folder “dia-scan-original” (with
idea to keep original scans unchanged forever and later save software processed
pictures in another folder) in Pictures Library of my Windows 7. In this folder
I created subfolders A, B, C, … Y, ZA, ZB, ZC, etc. The pictures in each are
named with folder name, followed by 1 or 2 for tray, followed by character “-“,
followed by 2 digits meaning the slide position in the tray. If you can’t
follow, an example will clarify everything: in subfolder A there are files
named A1-01, A1-02 … A1-80, A2-01, A2-02 … A2-80; in subfolder ZB there are
files named ZB1-01, ZB1-02 … ZB2-80.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In practice (meaning in CyberView) you select Multi-Scan to
File and enter the number of slides you want to scan. Obviously this is the
size of the tray, although I soon decided to enter tray size + 1 (in my case
81). Normally the machine stops when the last slide is scanned with the slide
inside the machine. Because I required one more, it stopped with empty arm
inside the machine and the tray ready to be pulled out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjonGB8fyDvxcs5pvAn4pJYMQplPD4xxhvEOZTd7jFdqqfyYXybm4uM2GD-Y2e2Y2XqjFW4F1Pz41rae9eu6Zw6ZT3Vj9naFlQeZrpwQMgu31bHPsftK9MhcAVZbdEp_0zry7I6QtEFDZD/s1600/cw-slikca1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjonGB8fyDvxcs5pvAn4pJYMQplPD4xxhvEOZTd7jFdqqfyYXybm4uM2GD-Y2e2Y2XqjFW4F1Pz41rae9eu6Zw6ZT3Vj9naFlQeZrpwQMgu31bHPsftK9MhcAVZbdEp_0zry7I6QtEFDZD/s320/cw-slikca1.jpg" height="151" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After you click OK next window is displayed. I will discuss
File Type and JPEG Quality later, at the moment let’s concentrate on naming
options.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hpE82hjBalxKh705mUMD6yvcxeCX_pYua4oW2vP__eETcXcpL6ps-4kq-Z8NKrR6s50wy2fPNdrMw0S8s9x5to0NgdCjrBepd8cJZKPEuTmikJbNg3T2yBFX3ew1GmXvBicvMN8hxkNX/s1600/cw-slikca2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hpE82hjBalxKh705mUMD6yvcxeCX_pYua4oW2vP__eETcXcpL6ps-4kq-Z8NKrR6s50wy2fPNdrMw0S8s9x5to0NgdCjrBepd8cJZKPEuTmikJbNg3T2yBFX3ew1GmXvBicvMN8hxkNX/s320/cw-slikca2.jpg" height="171" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Click Browse and select the output folder. In my case this
was full path to box subfolder, for example “Libraries\Pictures\dia-scan-original\ZB”.
The program remembers the last folder used, so for next trays you do not need
to Browse, you can simply overwrite the last letter in field Directory. Next
enter Base File Name, in my example this was “ZB1-“ or “ZB2-“. Select 2 for
Digits and 1 for User Defined Start Number. After you click OK, the machine
starts working and you have several hours to rest until next tray.</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JPEG or TIFF and JPEG
quality</b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CyberView can save pictures in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG" target="_blank">JPEG</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_Image_File_Format" target="_blank">TIFF</a> format. Everybody knows that TIFF is better than JPEG, because JPEG compression
method is lossy. But at least in my experience the difference in quality is negligible.
On the other size, the difference in file size is enormous, TIFF format is at
least 10 times, but possibly more than 20 times bigger than JPEG format of the
same picture. This was the only choice, where I opted for lower then maximum quality,
I have chosen JPEG.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CyberView offers 3 options for Define JPEG quality
parameter: Good, Better or Best. File size increases with the quality, but not
dramatically (approximately 20% difference between options). After some testing
my estimate is, that Best approximately corresponds to quality factor Q=95 (see
JPEG link above for the meaning of Q). My decision was to use Best.</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scan Setting</b></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUIUqCwvJ2grisWDoajXqJAGPfJLAk5anXZmu5-d7-1Y7D1z5mJQ-UvCr92JbpNOz-y4iB4x1Yy6Ej1RMdPeSct1fqh5SRzktMKN0VvT_bscaeqs3occ94Z4eKAzFnpmpm9v9QgedK6Vjo/s1600/cw-set1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUIUqCwvJ2grisWDoajXqJAGPfJLAk5anXZmu5-d7-1Y7D1z5mJQ-UvCr92JbpNOz-y4iB4x1Yy6Ej1RMdPeSct1fqh5SRzktMKN0VvT_bscaeqs3occ94Z4eKAzFnpmpm9v9QgedK6Vjo/s320/cw-set1.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
DigitDia 5000 has maximum scanning resolution of 3600 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch" target="_blank">DPI</a>. It is possible to choose a lower value (for example 2400 or 1800) but
I can see no good reason to do it. Scanning time is not much faster, quality is
visibly lower and most of all you can always resize/resample an image to lower
resolution later. Therefore I have used 3600 default scan resolution (Prescan
Resolution is not important), Color Depth 16 bit and Scan Mode Quality.</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Advanced Setting</b></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4n4BPMPHza3hxj0JK4Kp3WePS8xsg_NW8e-QPeqW4BDsWj95wW7xtU2U6wWKB8KcEbJxE5TnCjN_OeGOgL7lu-JymsBAwZBmh9WmlrPYAK-xb3-aLnlBhLisYw09wdgrWpsaz1-6E0LW/s1600/cw-set2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4n4BPMPHza3hxj0JK4Kp3WePS8xsg_NW8e-QPeqW4BDsWj95wW7xtU2U6wWKB8KcEbJxE5TnCjN_OeGOgL7lu-JymsBAwZBmh9WmlrPYAK-xb3-aLnlBhLisYw09wdgrWpsaz1-6E0LW/s320/cw-set2.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I have chosen to enable Auto Exposure. Sometimes it actually
improves the image and I don’t believe it can spoil it. But I have disabled
Auto Gamma and Digital Noise Reduction, because according to my own “Basic
principles” it can always be applied later and I do not believe it will never
actually spoil the image.<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Default Scanning Area</b></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjEq9StYjcqw7lODcmnRvY6sksI6Bg35pY17GTLQFQyyiCNbk_OrQsVmwE9A5P3cN9qrSNJ_NvUOwDdUODyiYiFfu1PsUNkTFz_vwFt6p1DtOhZApXEggxoPXDYNcKouDbCNZgiZSC5HD/s1600/cw-set3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjEq9StYjcqw7lODcmnRvY6sksI6Bg35pY17GTLQFQyyiCNbk_OrQsVmwE9A5P3cN9qrSNJ_NvUOwDdUODyiYiFfu1PsUNkTFz_vwFt6p1DtOhZApXEggxoPXDYNcKouDbCNZgiZSC5HD/s320/cw-set3.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do not Enable user setting for auto-crop, in other words
allow CyberView to do it because most of the time it works perfectly. Sometimes
(if picture is very dark or if it is spun sideways) the selected area is too
big, but with 1000s of scanned slides it never cropped too much. This is OK; I
can always manually crop later.</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ICE / ROC / GEM</b></h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudWL9VM7U2583kWGYRPrXwxV9mB00tmXrCcCYzAKZFDEnbX1s_ajRLsHAV9pfbBZDT4RpH9h2rUhBXTbW6j2-fbdVCljDLR-SS1FJ-JRvtZ0aHLSPstTCX5K0ryz4rY7BxhdCRhaq2rtm/s1600/cw-set4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudWL9VM7U2583kWGYRPrXwxV9mB00tmXrCcCYzAKZFDEnbX1s_ajRLsHAV9pfbBZDT4RpH9h2rUhBXTbW6j2-fbdVCljDLR-SS1FJ-JRvtZ0aHLSPstTCX5K0ryz4rY7BxhdCRhaq2rtm/s320/cw-set4.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
ICE stands for Image Correction and Enhancement, which is
actually a bad description for hardware assisted dust and scratch removal. The
slide is scanned twice, first in infra-red to detect scratches and dust, then second
time normally and finally the software calculates the color of detected bad
pixels by interpolating adjacent good pixels. It is a very important feature of
DigitDia 5000, it really improves scratched slides and it does not spoil good
slides. Although I have read on the net about problems people had with ICE (when
using older firmware), I have never experienced bad scans because of this
option. I always keep ICE enabled. There is one exception though (discovered
the hard way by one <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html">dia-scan-consortium</a> member), disable ICE when
scanning black and white film.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
ROC means Restoration of Colors. It is software only
solution which (if I understand correctly) tries to automatically correct
colors by adapting/expanding each of 3 colors to available range. Sometimes it
succeeds, sometimes it completely fails. But according to my own “Basic
principles” it can always be applied later (I will write a separate post about
software color correction later) therefore I keep it disabled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GEM means Grain Equalization Management; it should
automatically remove film grain which costs some decrease in sharpness.
Therefore I keep it disabled.</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Standard scanning procedure</b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I already stated in “Basic principles” the scanning takes
time, a lot of it, so it is in my best interest to have the <a href="https://reflecta.de/en/products/detail/~id.19/reflecta-DigitDia-5000.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000</a> scanner
working as much as possible when my turn comes to use it for a week. In fact it
became an unofficial competition of <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html">dia-scan-consortium</a> members titled:
“how many slides can you scan in one week”. Average slide scanning time is
somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes, but let’s take 4 for easier calculation. This
gives 15 slides per hour, 360 slides per day or 2520 slides per week; at least
theoretically. In reality my 80 slides trays take approximately 4 and a half hours,
but I have to go to work and I have to sleep, so on a perfect working day I
sometimes managed to scan 4 trays (or 240 slides) and on a weekend day (if the
weather was bad) I could scan 5 trays (or 320 slides); but only if everything
went smoothly. My record is something over 1800 slider per week, but that was
only once in a perfect week, all other weeks I only managed to scan from 1500
to 1600 slides. And the <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html">dia-scan-consortium</a> record is something over
2100 slides per week, but that member cheated and instead of going to lunch
during work he went home and changed the tray.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point I am trying to make is: you do not want to
experiment with CyberView settings while scanning. OK you always do that at the
beginning. But you only choose a couple of slides to make some tests, then
decide what works best for you and keep it that way. You try to minimize interruptions
(particularly jams, if you haven’t already read <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html">this</a> for some hints); you
try to achieve, as Germans would say, the <a href="http://translate.google.si/?hl=sl&tab=wT#de/en/glattlauf" target="_blank">glattlauf</a>.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-20062287642113570582012-11-01T10:31:00.001+01:002012-12-09T15:10:53.180+01:00View pictures on TV setThis post is partially out of sync with others. It is about how to convert digitized pictures for best viewing experience on TV screen. I hope at least some readers will find it useful.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The problem</h3>
Several days ago my daughter celebrated her 20th birthday. According to family tradition this means we invited everybody (grandparents, aunts and uncles and their families) to dinner. Since I had just finished scanning my slides, including those of my daughter from her birth until I started to use digital camera, I have decided to prepare a short “historical overview of her life”. It took me almost 2 hours to select approximately 100 pictures out of several 1000, but that is not the theme of this post.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Since computer screen is too small to show pictures to more than three people, I decided it would be better to use TV screen. But our TV set is an older Samsung; it has several input connection possibilities, including USB port. Theoretically, it can show JPG pictures from USB stick, but its software is so stupid, that it does not keep the aspect ratio, but always shows them full screen. Landscape orientation pictures are changed from 4:3 to 16:9 making everybody on them appear so fat, that I do not dare to show it; and you can imagine, what happens to portrait pictures. <br />
<br />
My first idea was, to create a film (of course the Samsung has no problem showing films in correct aspect ratio, otherwise nobody would buy it). I have a friend, who is creating such film presentations from old pictures all the time, including the music and image transformation effects; I thought, if he can, so can I. So I searched the net, downloaded several programs that were supposed to be able to do it and tried them. I expected to be able to do something like: select a folder with JPGs (pictures), select transition effect, select how long to see each picture and let it create the AVI (film). After an hour I had nothing usable, either I was not able to guess how to do it or the result was a disaster. OK, I confess, I did not <a href="http://www.readthefuckingmanual.com/" target="_blank">RTFM</a> of any program I tried.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The solution</h3>
While seriously considering reading some instructions I have got a better idea. I could resize all the pictures to 16:9 by adding some black border, so the Samsung won’t spoil the aspect ratio. With any of the programs I use on Windows or Linux to edit pictures it is an easy task to manually resize a picture. But I had 100 pictures and I am lazy, at least when such boring repetitive work is required. Most programs also support some kind of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batch_processing" target="_blank">batch processing</a>. On Windows my favourite for basic image editing is <a href="http://www.irfanview.com/" target="_blank">IrfanView</a>. It is fast, small and free, and you can do batch processing. If you do not have it yet, download and install it immediately! I mean it, do it now, before you continue to read! <br />
<br />
I was 99% certain (only because in computer sciences 100% certainty simply does not exist as something can always go wrong) that with IrfanView I can resize all the pictures with one batch. But before we continue to how, let’s first exactly define what the target is. As everybody probably knows, the HDTV (or 1080p) standard supported by all modern TV sets has the width of 1920 and height of 1080 pixels. My sources (the scanned pictures) were approximately 4900 * 3200 pixels if landscape or vice versa if portrait orientation. I have decided to create a downsized HDTV copy of all pictures (ignoring the orientation) using next 2 steps:<br />
<ul>
<li>resize the height to 1080 while keeping the aspect ratio. </li>
<li>add black border on the left and right sides to get the width of 1920 pixels.</li>
</ul>
This transformation results in big information loss (approximately only every tenth pixel is retained), but the TV set can’t display more anyway. So it is only the choice of what software to thrust to calculate the downsized picture, IrfanView or TV set. As already explained my old Samsung TV’s software is not a good choice, but even relatively new Sony TV that my parents own (it keeps aspect ratio correctly) needs several seconds calculating downsized picture, before it displays it.<br />
<br />
So here is what you came here for: the detailed instructions how to use IrfanView to batch process a lot of pictures for best viewing on HDTV. First using Windows Explorer create a source folder containing all the original pictures you want to transform and an empty target folder, where converted pictures will be saved. Go to source folder and open the first picture in IrfanView (if IrfanView is chosen as default picture program just double click the first picture).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwapniQNqIcoRTivFbGyCKXNyP5dE_ufQXMVIED-zzMN4QLK9Mwz2DIAoM5VNl4V_EbL9DrOo1a841kKIqW_9UV-rsvvuSEY3jgByVCBy9cYGiFeXre25e4LzXUDBToE1C5uEpAHgaG9L/s1600/irfan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwapniQNqIcoRTivFbGyCKXNyP5dE_ufQXMVIED-zzMN4QLK9Mwz2DIAoM5VNl4V_EbL9DrOo1a841kKIqW_9UV-rsvvuSEY3jgByVCBy9cYGiFeXre25e4LzXUDBToE1C5uEpAHgaG9L/s1600/irfan1.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A) In menus select File / Batch Conversion Rename (or simply press B on the keyboard)</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2WT2LstapP5olc_yoG6OFB_72aRNLHAcu4K2xIAKEovPk1LaMl5525OqMNKw_KHiZyamXYnGdQxVZwUwigqSux_IumkGUeAEZ1c4qIQzBLi781wBiLFCSt7RPm-GtaORW9VFDBJU8nzn7/s1600/irfan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2WT2LstapP5olc_yoG6OFB_72aRNLHAcu4K2xIAKEovPk1LaMl5525OqMNKw_KHiZyamXYnGdQxVZwUwigqSux_IumkGUeAEZ1c4qIQzBLi781wBiLFCSt7RPm-GtaORW9VFDBJU8nzn7/s1600/irfan2.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
B) Under “Work as” select Batch conversion<br />
C) Under output format select JPG and click button [Options]</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBWIDXdRFtqqbW9pvaVmTLAjdLrDX6pswnkK8jpCft9u1FvjDwuF90vOyZLRk85rQklYYJVbyAqPw9_HpXcOOUck89QSu1Gxurgeh2WwkriR-KAiesNsBZT2G4zmwjk_abSpjhfgG0WBF/s1600/irfan7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBWIDXdRFtqqbW9pvaVmTLAjdLrDX6pswnkK8jpCft9u1FvjDwuF90vOyZLRk85rQklYYJVbyAqPw9_HpXcOOUck89QSu1Gxurgeh2WwkriR-KAiesNsBZT2G4zmwjk_abSpjhfgG0WBF/s1600/irfan7.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
D) Slide quality to 100 and click [OK]<br />
E) Select Use advanced options and click button [Advanced]</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5nLvNEDQiKu81Z1fd9S-AxLPlwRNNEylOfgmatOru4bo2LSVKfdWahA81TemSk-u3s36Q6eZl5Xnmc80ZktDe5GmDv6ww2X57p6ZTAt5RYYSOrOtisw1i_3TFYIgT9yCEEkAydA8WRlW/s1600/irfan3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5nLvNEDQiKu81Z1fd9S-AxLPlwRNNEylOfgmatOru4bo2LSVKfdWahA81TemSk-u3s36Q6eZl5Xnmc80ZktDe5GmDv6ww2X57p6ZTAt5RYYSOrOtisw1i_3TFYIgT9yCEEkAydA8WRlW/s640/irfan3.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
F) Select RESIZE, Set new size, Width: (empty), Height: 1080 pixels<br />
G) Select Preserve aspect ratio and Use Resample function<br />
H) Select Canvas size and click button [Settings]</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4a8KRSYhLNv30Q548ZF3sX3fFAkRQKW1u-GH7mmcRa7TBzcyotFzPXzeCLmGFZGE9pA5-wGClf1iRwrT22ZpgxCAdo1D69gtPDGowJniEY_HKFM_U8OuTUqnpsEecV9257xLGV0WC7f8/s1600/irfan4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4a8KRSYhLNv30Q548ZF3sX3fFAkRQKW1u-GH7mmcRa7TBzcyotFzPXzeCLmGFZGE9pA5-wGClf1iRwrT22ZpgxCAdo1D69gtPDGowJniEY_HKFM_U8OuTUqnpsEecV9257xLGV0WC7f8/s1600/irfan4.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I) Select Method 2, enter Width 1920 and Height 1080<br />
J) Select Center and click [OK]<br />
K) Another [OK]</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBynCPYfvDlMHZogvwv-klt4SbIC3bZxUOnYWgh0uXEQXn5_b3ms3xFiKJXd-IX6Y1T8pFuZ6HXcYnMX0SHF9B2H6zeCPLYczjPp5Rds4NsH53lBWTTn2Z9LCjqCGLaAYPr6LhPGQN7ueI/s1600/irfan5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBynCPYfvDlMHZogvwv-klt4SbIC3bZxUOnYWgh0uXEQXn5_b3ms3xFiKJXd-IX6Y1T8pFuZ6HXcYnMX0SHF9B2H6zeCPLYczjPp5Rds4NsH53lBWTTn2Z9LCjqCGLaAYPr6LhPGQN7ueI/s640/irfan5.jpg" height="329" width="640" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
L) Under output directory click Browse and select created target folder<br />
M) Click button [Add All] (or use other buttons) to select pictures for batch processing<br />
N) Click button [Start Batch]</blockquote>
<br />
In a minute or two, hundreds of JPGs are converted to a perfect HDTV size. Use Windows Explorer to copy JPGs from target folder to USB stick and show them to friends or family. Besides having correct aspect ratio on any TV set there is an additional bonus. Because TV set does not need to recalculate the picture size, they are displayed instantly. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-12641117941335990812012-10-27T22:10:00.004+02:002012-12-09T15:09:06.108+01:00Welcome to the machine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s1600/reflecta5000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s1600/reflecta5000.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">First impression of the machine</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It was Friday evening 2 weeks after <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dhl-drama.html">DHL delivery drama</a>. The <a href="https://reflecta.de/en/products/detail/~id.19/reflecta-DigitDia-5000.html" target="_blank">Reflecta DigitDia 5000</a> scanner was delivered to Ljubljana without further surprises and it was standing on the table besides my Mac in all the beauty; therefore <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foCzlvXKWTA" target="_blank">Welcome to the machine</a> from legendary Pink Floyd seems a proper greeting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />I installed the CyberView software, connected USB and power cables and powered it on. When switched on, the tray moves forward and backward and the changing arm moves in and out several times, obviously testing and calibrating the mechanics. But beware, this device is loud. Our Labrador dog, who does not especially like loud home appliances (besides cats and a small white neighbor’s dog, his biggest enemy is the vacuum cleaner) approached carefully, barked several times, decided it is safer to leave the beast alone and went away to the most distant corner of our apartment. Seconds later my wife and my daughter together declared: you are not going to use this thing here while I am at home! After some negotiation I was allowed to use it until Sunday evening, when the first consortium member (my name starts with M, which assigned me 5th position in the member’s queue) will start using it.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />For first test I did not much bother with different CyberView settings, I only configured output folder, inserted one of my trays, let it run and every several minutes another JPG appeared in my computer. I must say, that I am perfectly satisfied with the quality of the scans, but if you want a detailed description of what this scanner is capable of, I suggest you read <a href="http://www.filmscanner.info/en/ReflectaDigitDia5000.html" target="_blank">this</a>. In my opinion the quality of the scans depends on the quality of the source significantly more, then on the scanner itself. If the slide is sharp with good colors, so is the scanned JPG; but if the slide is </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">totally </span>faded or scratched, you can’t expect miracles (not on this scanner and probably not on any other), although with any good image editing program, you can usually correct it enough to make it viewable.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Connecting it to the computer</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">You can use any computer you want, I really mean this. OK, the computer needs a USB port, but these days it is impossible to find one without it. So it is only the question of operating system and scanning software. The included CyberView is officially supported on </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and on </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, so that covers majority of systems. But the scanner can also be used on Linux host, if installed inside Windows virtual machine with redirected USB port, it is confirmed to work by one consortium member ( he is using <a href="http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/" target="_blank">Ubuntu 10.04</a> host and Windows XP in <a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/" target="_blank">VirtualBox</a> ).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />As mentioned before, I was forbidden to use the scanner in the living room. I use a home server (running VMware <a href="http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_esxi41_u3_rel_notes.html" target="_blank">ESX 4.1i</a>), which is located outside of living and sleeping parts of our apartment. I connected the scanner to USB port on the server and I installed CyberView on virtual machine (VM) running Windows 7. I configured a redirected USB port and the scanner was recognized. It might be a unique configuration in the world, but it works flawlessly and my family members do not complain, because they (almost) can’t hear the scanner. This means, that I have to walk to another room to change trays, but it is only 4 or 5 times a day (if scanning runs without jams). For any work on the Windows 7 VM I just connect to it remotely from the Mac in the living room.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />I have not mentioned it yet, but on my Mac I have installed Windows 7 (Mac believers, please excuse me and do not stop reading!). I did it after months of fighting with Apple’s OS X which I just could not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok" target="_blank">grok</a>, which prevented me from using the system the way I wanted. I consider myself an IT pro, but after I had to search the net to find out how to burn ISO image to CD on the Mac (of course the natural right click on the file does not work), I had enough. I installed Windows 7 (I had to fiddle around a little with audio drivers to have the sound) and now I have a perfect machine: it is fast, beautiful and usable :)</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The speed</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Reflecta web site <a href="https://reflecta.de/en/products/detail/~id.19/reflecta-DigitDia-5000.html" target="_blank">claims</a> “The Reflecta DigitDia 5000 has a scanning speed of only 90 seconds by full resolution of 3600 dpi”. I have no idea, how they managed to get this result, but do not believe it! At 3600 dpi and ICE enabled (and you want ICE, don’t you, otherwise you do not buy a scanner with this option) you can expect an average scanning time between 3 and 4 minutes per slide. Fastest times I have observed were under 3 minutes per side; slowest were over 7 minutes per slide. It seems to depend on the quality; good quality slides are scanned faster, bad quality take more time. I have no idea why, but that is a fact. When scanning my LKM 80 trays, I have usually set the alarm clock to 4 and half hours after start of scanning to remind me to change trays.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The mechanics</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">From my point of view, the most important ability of this scanner is that you can put in a tray and leave it to work for several hours without requiring any interventions. I have seen some <a href="http://www.amazon.de/product-reviews/B000LSHBJ4/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0" target="_blank">highly critical</a> comments on amazon.de, that “it cannot scan 3 slides without jamming”, which is simply not true. With good quality trays and decent slide frames it scans hundreds of slides without a single jam, at least it did so with <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarahmen#Leica-Kindermann-Magazin" target="_blank">LKM trays</a> and <a href="http://www.hama.de/00001072/hama-slide-mounts-dsr-+c-5-x-5-24-x-36" target="_blank">Hama DSR frames</a> I have luckily decided to use, when I started to take pictures and using diafilm.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStBTouZbPZuxU2XBvDDXYydpwDUglRHFNmW1NPo-Qfyrs-VDSVqv7rnDiyOX7I7iO7uOXxckCGACRWwychmpz9TJ6QsCy7uxVRsU9KEgkzXVN8zUbNKn0oAOzTcq_noFzHJziiYTW4xDG/s1600/hama-dsr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStBTouZbPZuxU2XBvDDXYydpwDUglRHFNmW1NPo-Qfyrs-VDSVqv7rnDiyOX7I7iO7uOXxckCGACRWwychmpz9TJ6QsCy7uxVRsU9KEgkzXVN8zUbNKn0oAOzTcq_noFzHJziiYTW4xDG/s1600/hama-dsr.jpg" height="107" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">My own experience was, after successfully scanning maybe 20 trays without jamming, the next tray started to jam at every 5 or 10 slides. I could not understand it until I noticed two details. The jamming tray was LKM standard, but it looked a little different (there was no Leica Kindermann Magazin mark at the side and the numbers were not white on black, but almost invisible) and I had to use significantly more force to move the tray forward and backward in the scanner. The rule, which was later confirmed with other tray models, seemed to be: if the tray moves smoothly, you have a very good chance that it will not jam. I had only two boxes of such fake trays, so after this discovery, I emptied some good trays, moved in the slides from fake trays and scanned them without jamming. My suggestion is: several minutes used moving slides to a good tray are a good investment in time resulting in hours of scanning without jams.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEida5GUe4q84Tesg6PrZpv2TyHxPehMUsZJZgyCSuBUHpPy1snmkV1rGD6sYFNUdYjwVfiXmEhOpKF40yBj6f5gcYs9bBFKt1O7oCIkSozLqrxY9KWLGCyg0KMuf5vA3syK2BlYpcl0UaUc/s1600/orange-slider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEida5GUe4q84Tesg6PrZpv2TyHxPehMUsZJZgyCSuBUHpPy1snmkV1rGD6sYFNUdYjwVfiXmEhOpKF40yBj6f5gcYs9bBFKt1O7oCIkSozLqrxY9KWLGCyg0KMuf5vA3syK2BlYpcl0UaUc/s1600/orange-slider.jpg" height="113" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Next possible cause for jams is forgetting to position the orange slider on the changing arm correctly. It is mentioned somewhere in the manual, but it is easy to overlook. In my opinion this should have been written in big red bold letters, which is not. When using Universal trays the orange slider must be at the end of the arm (see left picture above), regardless of the type or thickness of slides in the tray. When using any other type (LKM, CS or Paximat) of tray for thin slides, it should be in the “pushed out” position (right picture). I bet a six pack of beer (I prefer <a href="http://kd59.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/lasko-zlatorog/" target="_blank">Laško</a>), that the comment claiming “it cannot scan 3 slides without jamming” was the result of using Universal tray with thin slides and orange slider in the outside position.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />It is not the best idea to use Universal trays with thin slides anyway, because it means losing time. But if you decide against moving thin slides from several Universal 50 tray to fewer more compact trays, here is the hint (discovered by one of <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html" target="_blank">consortium</a> members, you know who you are) how to decrease the probability of jamming. Position the scanner slightly leaned forward (in the direction of the tray movement) the back should be approximately one and a half centimeter higher (in my case two rectangular marker pens worked perfectly). This causes all slides to lean forward too, aligns them perfectly and decreases the chance of jamming.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzR57f7Bp5G82EKASWNYig1k2QQ7QJDMAgUfihIBpFY6mcKr3Vwa6GMhKe0nbdTvDZYrZf9UrTYjxLl2AIcEiyYGeLd_K9bb_4bYsNXIptks8wgUtlEUZEsEG09naqsBW2o0ASUSu2dK1/s1600/kodak-paper-frames.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzR57f7Bp5G82EKASWNYig1k2QQ7QJDMAgUfihIBpFY6mcKr3Vwa6GMhKe0nbdTvDZYrZf9UrTYjxLl2AIcEiyYGeLd_K9bb_4bYsNXIptks8wgUtlEUZEsEG09naqsBW2o0ASUSu2dK1/s1600/kodak-paper-frames.jpg" height="156" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As more experienced (read: old enough) readers probably remember, there were three possibilities to choose from when buying a Kodak of Fuji diafilms: without processing, with processing included in the price or with processing and framing included in the price. The last one was quite popular, after sending recorded film to one of available addresses and nervously waiting about two weeks the reply came in the form of a small box containing 36 (maybe even 37) pictures in paper frames. I collected several hundred of pictures framed in paper before deciding, that it does not take so much time (and it is cheaper) to frame them myself using Hama DSR frames with appropriate film cutter.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkwv4tSa1eV36TwpbtIy5QQQ1L8axzeSy2Ojj8Eru2GlYx-K10OvUeW0_1Pk_HYGSJ6S4h9SldBYzT41FFE_R32uyBaTUkTS-SeNBawbZfVu6IZQ9C2YmCEWStso1XjsfWF9u_AfNRguD/s1600/hama-dsr-cutter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkwv4tSa1eV36TwpbtIy5QQQ1L8axzeSy2Ojj8Eru2GlYx-K10OvUeW0_1Pk_HYGSJ6S4h9SldBYzT41FFE_R32uyBaTUkTS-SeNBawbZfVu6IZQ9C2YmCEWStso1XjsfWF9u_AfNRguD/s1600/hama-dsr-cutter.jpg" height="162" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Back to present time. Contrary to plastic frames, the paper frames are less rigid and their corners are very sharp. Both properties make them more probable to jam. But here is another hint (discovered by the same member as above): use scissors and cut approximately 5 millimeters of the top inside corner of each paper frame. If you are not convinced please reread the sentence about investing in time; maybe several times.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The software</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The basic Reflecta DigitDia package includes CyberView scanning software (SilverFast software is available for additional several 100 EUR). I have read some very negative CyberView criticism, which I (as expected) completely disagree with. From my point of view CyberView fulfills all the basic requirements, it has all the options I need and I do not want another hundred options which I never use. Well, it also has two strange quirks I must comment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />The first one is, it requires a system with at least 24 bit color depth display or it refuses to start; the point is, it only refuses to START, but if already started, it runs on any display. For most users this is probably a no issue, but it really bothered me, because when connecting to the virtual machine with RDP for whatever reason the color depth is not recognized correctly so I had to use VMware’s vClient (to start it). But why the hell is it important how many display colors are available on display? I am completely certain, that display colors are not relevant to read pixels from the scanner and save them to the jpg file! The scanning program (or any other program for that matter) should just use the display colors available, it does not matter if that is black & white or 16 colors or billions of colors; if the user is not satisfied with the picture and he can afford it, he can decide to buy a better monitor and video card.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />The second one (also mentioned in several reviews) is that if left running for a long time it hangs. There is no error, just the scanning stops at random picture. After CyberView is closed and started again scanning continues for next several hundred pictures. Hanging is as annoying as when the scanner jams, but the solution is simple: after a tray is completed just close and start the program before starting next tray. It never hanged again, after I started to strictly use this procedure.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The sad fact is, that Instruction Manual, that comes with the scanner has much space for improvement. Maybe this is also the reason why CyberView received many (IMHO undeserved) bad reviews. Unofficial <a href="http://www.jostark.de/Files/CyberviewInstructions.pdf" target="_blank">manual</a>s (a lot better than the booklet that comes with the scanner) can be found on the net. In the next post, I will explain how I have configured </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CyberView </span>settings and why I have chosen them.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-26656166831691156612012-10-21T21:03:00.000+02:002012-12-09T15:03:35.706+01:00DHL delivery dramaA fair warning first, this post is a rant, if you are only interested in scanning, you may safely ignore it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
amazon.de</h3>
Yes, we have ordered our scanner at amazon.de, or to be more precise, we tried to order it at amazon.de. I suppose everybody knows, that most of the goods sold on Amazon web sites are actually sold by other providers and Amazon is only a proxy. If you live in Germany and you are buying on amazon.de, you are probably not interested in such details. But if you live in another country, a small country (like Slovenia) which does not deserve to have a local Amazon site, this is a very important fact. When an item is marked with “Verkauf und Versand durch Amazon.de”, like all the books, films and music are, you know, that it can be delivered to anywhere in Europe. But when it is sold by another company, you do not know if they will deliver it to your home address until the penultimate step of the ordering process.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Our chosen Reflecta scanner was offered by several companies, but as could be expected by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law" target="_blank">Murphy’s laws</a>, the one with the best price did not offer delivery to Slovenia. In fact only one of the companies would allow it, but their price was almost 100 EUR higher. Not something, that would stop us, but even better, if it could be avoided and we did have a solution.<br />
<br />
The daughter of one of consortium members was a student in Berlin and had planned to visit home for the weekend. I was trying to order the scanner on Monday, so we had enough time to have it delivered to her address in Berlin and she could easily take it with her on the train. After a fast agreement was reached by consortium members and eternal gratitude was promised to the student girl, I ordered the scanner with different delivery address to her in Berlin and paid with my MasterCard.<br />
<br />
<h3>
DHL</h3>
I received order confirmation email, which included DHL package tracking number. So we were able to follow our package travelling through Germany and on Thursday morning it’s status changed to something like (I do not remember exact words) “it was picked up in DHL Berlin center and will be delivered to final address”. Our student girl was following the status too, so she was as home the whole day waiting. But the delivery never came. Only in the evening the status changed to (again I do not remember exact words) “unknown delivery address, being returned to the sender”. Of course the delivery address was perfectly valid, during her stay in Berlin she received several packages from home and none was lost. I am only guessing here, but I seriously suspect that the final DHL delivery man could not to distinguish (if he could read German at all) between billing and delivery addresses on the package and was looking for my name on her apartments building.<br />
<br />
Now the hell started. DHL has a nice package tracking web site and it is very easy to <a href="http://www.dhl.de/de/paket/kundenservice/kontakt.html" target="_blank">find contact</a>. But that is all that is easy. During several phone calls the otherwise very friendly helpdesk ladies refused any possibility to send our package from Berlin DHL center to delivery address next day again, because in their system it had status “being returned to the sender”. The student girl even managed to talk to the boss of DHL user helpdesk, who was also very friendly, but also refused to actually do anything. Although DHL helpdesk is there for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all they can actually do is tell us what we already know, that is the status of our package.<br />
<br />
Since this blog is not marked as adult I can’t repeat the words that consortium members used when talking about DHL and their business process practices that evening (a hint, if translated to English a lot of them start with “f”) and following day, when we were able to follow our package travelling through Germany again, only in the opposite direction. I wrote an email to DHL and complained. They replied, that the delivery cost will be recovered and that we can send the package to Berlin again AFTER it is returned to the sender. In other words, they have exactly two possibilities in their delivery process, either a package is delivered or it is returned to the sender, their system supports no way of interrupting this process when running. But our opportunity windows was gone, the student was already with her parents so I replied that I want them to deliver the package to Ljubljana, which they refused. I replied with my last not very friendly (although without any “f” words) email explaining my thoughts about DHL’s delivery process. This helped my ego feel somewhat better, but did not help with delivery of the scanner to Ljubljana at all.<br />
<br />
<h3>
M & M Discount GmbH</h3>
It was time to contact the sender and after this, the events started to turn positively. The company that was selling our scanner (for the best price in Germany) is <a href="http://www.mundmdiscount.de/mmshop/index.php" target="_blank">M & M Discount GmbH</a>. My first contact was by phone and after explaining what happened and the person I talked to could actually remember they have sent such a scanner to Berlin the first impression of them was immediately a good one. They have agreed to send the scanner to Ljubljana (using normal Deutsche Post services). Unfortunately we had to wait until it was returned to them by DHL and I had to cancel the amazon.de order which they confirmed and returned the amount of my payment to my MasterCard account. They even discounted the price some more, so that the total cost (the scanner plus the postage) remained unchanged for delivery to Ljubljana, the same as it was before, when delivery was to Berlin. Well, the distance is also almost the same:)<br />
<br />
Thanks to <a href="http://www.ecb.int/paym/sepa/html/index.en.html" target="_blank">SEPA</a> and e-banking service of my bank I could issue money transfer directly to their bank account and after two weeks the scanner was delivered to Ljubljana. For first impression about the machine and our recommendations about scanning read <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/welcome-to-machine.html">next</a> posts.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-90938874834710851542012-10-18T22:29:00.000+02:002012-12-09T15:02:11.615+01:00Dia scan consortium<h3>
The constitutional meeting</h3>
So here we are, five people (yes, not everybody came to the first meeting) with a common goal (to scan 1000's of our dia-slides) and many different ideas of how to do it. <br />
<br />
Over two rounds of beer we agreed to constitute a dia-scan-consortium (if you came here by accident and don't quite follow what this is all about, please read <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/introduction.html" target="">introduction </a>first) and on more precise definition of our future actions: <br />
<ul>
<li>we will investigate the market for the best value for money scanner </li>
<li>we will share the costs of buying it </li>
<li>we will rotate the usage of the device </li>
<li>we will invite other friends to join </li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a>The same night I created a Google group, invited everybody in and discussion continued for days about following questions:<br />
<br />
<h3>
How many is the right number?</h3>
More members, lower costs for each, but more time to wait for next round. We speculated about scanning from 200 to 300 slides per day (now we all know that was very optimistic) and everybody was eager to proceed quickly, not to go on for years. The final agreement was: we take a maximum of 10 members.<br />
<br />
<h3>
How long should be the exchange cycle?</h3>
One month is too long; nobody wants to wait half a year or even longer for next round of scanning. One day or two is too short; you need some time to setup before the work can start. Basically it became the choice between 1 or 2 weeks and the final agreement was: one week per member. Now we know that it was a very good decision. It allows enough time to do some work, but after a week of changing trays at every possible hour (including setting up a clock to wake up at the middle of the night) you need several days to recover and you do not want to go on for another week.<br />
<br />
<h3>
New or old device?</h3>
We received an offer for a used second hand scanner (same model that was the most probable next question winner) for half the price. We decided against it, the reasoning was: if we buy new, we have 1 year warranty and in this time we can all complete the scanning task without worrying, if the device will break while we need it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
What scanner model?</h3>
Without doubt, the most important question, but before we proceed to the answer, let's first more accurately investigate the requirements: <br />
<ul>
<li>We definitely want a scanner that allows batch scanning with trays and supports all possible <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarahmen" target="_blank">tray standards</a> (Universal or DIN 108, LKM, CS and Paximat). </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We want <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_ICE" target="_blank">ICE </a>(dust and scratch correction solution; not frozen water!). While other image corrections (like color correction or minimize grain) are software only solutions, which can always be applied later using any of available image editing programs; the ICE is hardware assisted. Each slide is scanned twice, first infrared to detect dust and scratches, then again normally for the picture and the software then calculates the color of dots, that were marked as bad by the first pass. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The results (the scanned pictures) will be used almost exclusively as digital media, to watch on computer or TV screens, to exchange with each other, to use on the web, to be secured on computer disks. We do not intend to produce posters or printed pictures of any size, so we are not looking for the highest possible DPI. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We are not interested in any special and licensed scanning software (like Silverfast), because the device will be used on many different computers, but it should run on Windows and on MAC. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>
And the winner is …</h3>
The first requirement already limits the choice to 3 manufacturers and since Nikon's models were several times more expensive and Reflecta and Braun offer exactly the same devices which only differ by brand name, that left us only to choose between two different Reflecta models: the older <a href="https://reflecta.de/en/products/detail/%7Eid.19/reflecta-DigitDia-5000.html" target="_blank">DigitDia 5000</a> or newer DigitDia 6000. <br />
<br />
They have the same mechanics, they both support ICE and the added CyberView software is the same. The only difference is the scanning resolution (3600 or 5000 DPI) and of course the price. The normal slide size is 24 * 36 mm, at 3600 DPI the resulting picture has approximately 3200 * 4900 pixels (I know the math here is a little wrong, I suspect slide frames hide a part of the original). This is enough to be viewed even on the still to come next generation <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-definition_television" target="_blank">Ultra-high-definition</a> television; it definitely fulfills the third requirement above and makes the newer model not worth the 30% price difference.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s1600/reflecta5000.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eToGmG7XrscsWG7oLZWKLyqLF7bny9BuEOGWtLLhHA0htxwgwyVlOsbIgRoDB1nool6sXElQM2FdnphdnxxNh5dJah3U8TGkwMyTNIzjvnZokLKNoJ-szHKZl48bHw-RbkiwfmrryjAw/s320/reflecta5000.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
So the choice was made, we wanted the Reflecta DigitDia 5000. It could be found on the net for approximately 1200 EUR and it was time for potential consortium members to do the final “put the money where your mouth is” action.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The consortium membership rules</h3>
At the same time as choosing the scanner we have also agreed on official consortium membership rules and saved it to a document. For anyone interested in details, you can download it <a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVygcRGSvfRTmhoWlZKd2JIb28" target="_blank">here</a>; warning, it is in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovene_language" target="_blank">Slovenian language</a>, but you can try <a href="http://translate.google.si/?hl=sl&tab=wT#sl/en/lep%20pozdrav" target="_blank">Google translator</a>, it is almost understandable :)<br />
<br />
Here are some of the rules:<br />
<ul>
<li>The members confirm their consortium membership by paying their share of device costs, if all the shares are not confirmed by payment, the paying members decide to pay the difference or to cancel the project. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>After initial consortium membership is finalized, additional members can only be accepted with 100% agreement of existing members (while initial costs are recalculated and shared accordingly). </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>All other consortium decisions are accepted when supported by at least two thirds of members. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The device is transferred to next member each Sunday evening (later, the day was changed to Monday, because on Sunday a lot of people come home too late for exchange from wherever they have enjoyed the weekend and the event became a weekly social gathering, where members share scanning experience while having a bear or two ). </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If the device breaks down under normal usage, all members share service costs, but if the device breaks down due to incorrect or careless usage, the responsible member is required to service it at his own costs. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The consortium will cease to exist, when all the members agree to have finished the scanning. The device will be sold for the best possible price and the proceeds will be spent for the closing dinner. </li>
</ul>
There were five initial members (interestingly, the same five people mentioned at the start of this post), several weeks later we accepted the sixth and final consortium member. We have ordered our scanner at amazon.de, but surprisingly, it was far from easy, to have it delivered to Slovenia.<br />
<br />
Read <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dhl-drama.html">next post</a> to find out why!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1356944114740858213.post-8570130746363977622012-10-15T21:16:00.000+02:002012-12-13T21:03:43.682+01:00Introduction<h3>
Why am I writing this? </h3>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Earlier this year I have started to digitize my pictures archive. In other words I started to scan thousands of slides I have taken many years ago. I was not doing it alone; it was a common project with several friends with whom we were constantly sharing ideas, problems and solutions. While searching the net for answers during this work, I have never encountered a site or blog describing similar experience. Don’t get me wrong, all the information is there to find, but not the whole (from slides to organized digital archive) do it yourself process in one place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />I read many blogs, I even comment sometimes, but until now I was never writing one of my own. One day I suddenly felt the need to share with the world and this blog is the result. I will write about the experience we (me and my friends) collected when scanning the slides, about restoring of faded colors or scratched pictures, about hardware and software we used, about how to best organize digital picture's archive and marking the pictures with meta data, about the mistakes we have made and about all the fun we had (and still have) doing it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />If you enjoy reading this blog I am satisfied, if you are also scanning and it helped you with a good hint even better. If you agree or disagree with anything, or if you want to share your own experience, do not hesitate to comment!</span><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
Who am I? </h3>
My name is <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=en&q=Mearch" target="_blank">Mirč</a> (pronounce Mearch). I live in <a href="http://www.ljubljana.si/en/" target="_blank">Ljubljana</a>, the capital of <a href="https://maps.google.si/maps?hl=sl&q=slovenia&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x476524e75e968361:0xe740451e25e2d465,Slovenija&gl=si&ei=T3d6ULGPJ4fTtAau_YCYDg&ved=0CDQQ8gEwAg" target="_blank">Slovenia</a>. I am an IT engineer who started working with computers when memory and disk size were still measured in kb and Mb. I wrote my first real program (in FORTRAN on PDP 11-34; it played <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomoku" target="_blank">Gomoku</a> and actually sometimes managed to win a game against other students) as a student at <a href="http://www.fri.uni-lj.si/en/" target="_blank">FRI</a>. After finishing the study and several years working as programmer my interests changed and most of my later career I worked as systems engineer, supporting servers running VAX VMS, Novell, Windows and VMware. <br />
<br />
I am married, I have a daughter, and 4th member of our family is a Labrador dog. We go skiing in winter, we travel in summer, we have birthdays and parties; and we shoot pictures. As some older readers might remember, in the past cameras were not digital. We had to buy films and each photographer's 1st important choice at those times was: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_film" target="_blank">diafilm</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_%28photography%29" target="_blank">negative</a>. I have made my choice after I bought my fist Nikon camera. My reasoning was (and it still is), that the whole point of taking pictures is to later bore other innocent people by showing them. And having all the guests looking at the big projected pictures together (and comment them with a beer in the hand) is much more fun, than each of them browsing the album separately (while all others talk about children or jobs or whatever), so my choice was diafilm. <br />
<br />
By the time I have bought my first digital camera, I have taken almost 5000 dia slides and three times that later with digital cameras. I was not alone, I have a friend or two, who have fewer pictures, but most of them have even more. Their families appear on my pictures and my family on theirs. From time to time I want to revive some moment from the past with some great pictures I took. Even with digital pictures, it is quite some work to find them, but with dia slides, it is almost mission impossible. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWY-y1CgoOswY6VHRPY01PKsEjaJkUg1zVpSYY-pcQ7wk9mIfzb5t808QwFsTRvxUGF426fvQGLxBpAoNdH3Iz_eTCgRoWSYzga4Ht0uz3iXtgHlAnTNtzz8P1OV5AnWbQuzl6GK-Ggrx/s1600/fujikodak-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWY-y1CgoOswY6VHRPY01PKsEjaJkUg1zVpSYY-pcQ7wk9mIfzb5t808QwFsTRvxUGF426fvQGLxBpAoNdH3Iz_eTCgRoWSYzga4Ht0uz3iXtgHlAnTNtzz8P1OV5AnWbQuzl6GK-Ggrx/s320/fujikodak-b.jpg" height="123" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
There is another problem with dia slides (and negatives). The wonderful colors I remember from the pictures I took 20 or 30 years ago are not so beautiful anymore. Although it seems to depend very much on the quality of the film (some Fujichrome or Kodachrome dia slides are almost perfect even after 15 years, while some of other marks are completely reddish) in this case the Rolling Stones were wrong, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzcWwmwChVE" target="_blank">Time is on my side</a> ( <a href="http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/40774/is-waynes-worlds-not-a-modern-invention" target="_blank"> NOT</a> ).<br />
<br />
Earlier this year, I decided, that it is high time to stop only thinking about dia slides and to start actually doing something about it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The goal </h3>
Yes, you have guessed correctly, I have decided to have all my dia slides scanned for me at a professional shop. But after checking the prices for service (about 0,30 EUR per slide was the best pro offer available, since I did not want to trust any half legal, doing it at home in the afternoon business for about 0,15 EUR per slide) and doing a quick math, this seemed quite an expensive project. <br />
<br />
I started to seriously consider the option to do it myself. Next natural step was to check on the net (I found <a href="http://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html" target="_blank">this</a> site quite informative) what other people have to say about scanning of dia slides. I found 2 important pieces of information I was not aware of before: <br />
<ul>
<li>the time required to scan one dia slide is measured in minutes (not in seconds)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>some scanners exist, where you can insert a whole slide tray </li>
</ul>
<br />
In other words, I discovered, that the time required scanning 5000 slides means about 300 hours of work, most of this time just waiting to change the slide, but that with a scanner that supports slide trays, I could just replace the tray every several hours and leave it to work.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETSOAiS8wdjZoJE9eJPQJ4MaAoDhU8eqPXd7ZUzYa2n8uGESwI_qg4JxAZhhyXf36b8BoLuqqu6qZR49sFhVQOTfD_6akhryhWQA7e3mRfNYS_t2Fonp6Z8PFNXHSusQO7l3HSX4WlqzX/s1600/lkm-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETSOAiS8wdjZoJE9eJPQJ4MaAoDhU8eqPXd7ZUzYa2n8uGESwI_qg4JxAZhhyXf36b8BoLuqqu6qZR49sFhVQOTfD_6akhryhWQA7e3mRfNYS_t2Fonp6Z8PFNXHSusQO7l3HSX4WlqzX/s320/lkm-b.jpg" height="87" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Did I mention, that all my slides are stored in <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarahmen#Leica-Kindermann-Magazin" target="_blank">LKM </a>trays, each holding 80 slides, so the decision seamed easy, right? Well not that easy, because the cost of scanners taking trays is directly comparable to the cost of using professional service.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The consortium </h3>
I wrote an email to several friends (I already mentioned them above) basically asking the question: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Are you going to do anything with your dia slides or just leave them to fade away? </blockquote>
Ten out of twelve answered something similar to: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Definitely, I am already thinking about scanning them. </blockquote>
And the remaining two said: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am already scanning </blockquote>
The emails started to fly around and one evening we have met away from distracting factors (read: wives and children) for a beer and discussion.<br />
<br />
Read <a href="http://dia-scan.blogspot.com/2012/10/dia-scan-consortium.html" target="_blank">next post</a> to discover the dia-scan-consortium !<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09005030702851946555noreply@blogger.com0Ljubljana, Slovenia46.0514263 14.505965545.875111800000006 14.190108500000001 46.2277408 14.8218225