auldstampguy

Tim
Collector, Webmaster
26 Oct 2014
05:18:31pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Hi Bob,
On the Approvals you can load a image file up to about 1250 and the program will resize it for you back down to 900px which works quite well on the screen. If the image file is much bigger than 1250, the image resizing process runs out of memory on the server, so you will get an error message if the file is bigger than 1250.

I don't believe there is a max number of items that you can place on a page. I think you are going to be more limited by the image size.

Regards ... Tim

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Bobstamp

26 Oct 2014
06:00:00pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

You shouldn't have to buy software to join images. What image-manipulation software are you using? In any event, separate images of the front and back of a stamp or cover will do the job too.

Bob

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TuskenRaider

26 Oct 2014
06:29:31pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Hi Bob;

This is what I have found to be useful about the Stamp-O-Rama approvals.

1) I usually make my scans 900 pixels wide with a 20 pixel color border all around, with a result of 940 pixels wide. The color border is not necessary, but I feel it reduces the boredom factor. This prevents having to scroll side-to-side. A wheel mouse, makes vertical scrolling no big deal, but scrolling side-to-side, I hate. If I hate it, probably so do others. This is based on the assumption that the buyer has their monitor set to 1024 x 768 pixels, the most common setting, and sometimes even bigger screen resolution.

2) Before you upload 20 or so pages, check your brightness/contrast settings. I find more variation between software applications, than between monitors. I do this; I scan an image and adjust brightness/contrast, until it looks good, then upload. Next I look at the approval book to see if it displays good. It is usually much too dark. So I go back to original image and tweek it, and re-upload. After about 2 adjustments, I get the formula about right. I then apply that formula to the other 23 pages and upload all of them, and check them again afterwards. This way I avoid one or two adjustments to 24 pages, which could result in 50 or more extra uploads.

3) If your images were taken with a cell phone, shame on you, they are useless at focusing close-up. So are digital cameras, unless you spend $1,000 on a macro-capable digital camera, like a Canon Rebel with Macro lens. The cheapest solution is a color flat-bed scanner. I have found the best brand to be Umax, because that is all they make. Another good brand is Hewlett Packard scanners and printers, but their computers suck big time! I have little experience with other brands, but Canon is probably good too. If your images are too dark or out-of-focus, I won't even look at them. There are too many sellers on here that have good images for me to waste my time on bad images.

4) Lots of folks place little slips of paper along side of their stamps with numbers on them, to identify their offerings. I feel that is a waste of space. Here is why, the little slips of paper often create too much space between the stamps, limiting how many can occupy a row. Sometimes they actually touch the stamps. This not only looks sloppy, but sometimes covers up details of the perforation conditions. Instead put the numbers on the page as an edit function, in your graphic software, directly under the left corner of each stamp. Use white letters and avoid fancy fonts. Keep it simple and small and you'll get more stamps on the page.

5) I can get 7 Machins on a standard stock page and eight rows using an eight pocket stock page. 7x8=56 stamps max, or 56 stamps x 24 pages = 1,344 stamps. I do not like to look at stamps sideways, and neither do others. I place wide stamps on one page and tall on another page. They are all right-side-up and easy to see details.

If you have any questions about the technical aspect of good page design, private message me with a question. I used to work in graphic design as a second career, part time job.

Keep on stampin
TuskenRaider

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Stampfarm

26 Oct 2014
06:30:50pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Hi All,

A short follow up. I just did a little test and uploaded an image that was 900 wide by 1440 long with no problem so It looks like a longer image may be possible.

Bob

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Stampfarm

26 Oct 2014
06:37:38pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Hi Guys,

Many thanks to all for the great advice.

Regards,

Bob

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roy

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Irfanview does join images.

Menu>> Image >> Create Panorama

Roy

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philatelia

28 Oct 2014
12:23:09am

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

OMG you fellas are so lucky that you actually find putzing with all that graphics software to be enjoyable. To me, well all I can say is "EW". LOL so mind-numbingly boring! Yes, yes, I know that ours is a graphic hobby and we need to learn to scan a decent image, yada yada, but, again, "EW." I'd rather putter with my little slips of paper than spend another minute fiddling with the darn graphics program. I actually talked my hubby into doing most of my scanning - love that man!!! I'll bet dollars to donuts that I'm not the only one who feels that way, so all you graphics wizards will just have to bear with us still in the stone age. Hey at least I'm not using my brownie camera for the approvals. nyuk nyuk!!!

Hey I have an idea - can I hire one of you to do my graphic design and computer work?

 
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sheepshanks

28 Oct 2014
01:22:58pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Just a thought but would a tagging program put the numbers against the images? Could it be seen with a mouse-over or would "show tags" need to be enabled. The tags could also include catalogue numbers and other information.
vic

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George

27 Dec 2014
05:06:48pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

I just created a book but the images might be a bit too wide, like around 1000-1100 pixels. Is that a problem?

I scanned the images at 150 dpi since that shows the stamps in reasonable detail. What res do other people use?

Since this is the first time I'm trying this, I'd appreciate any feedback on my book (UK, seller Raichu). I've put numbering below the stamps, which I realize now could be a problem ...

EDIT: I put â–´ symbols next to the numbers on the first page to clarify that the numbers are below the stamp. Please let me know what you think.

Personally I think putting numbers between stamps has exactly the same problem but in the horizontal dimension, would be harder for people like me who can't distinguish left from right easily, and would increase the width of the page, so I think I'll stick with numbers below the stamps.

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TuskenRaider

27 Dec 2014
08:17:47pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

Hi Everyone;

@ George;

Here is my analysis of your pages. Please keep in mind that I tend to be very opinionated and
science oriented (Spock effect). I like people, but just not always good with communicating with
them. I shall have my space ship repaired soon, so I can return to my home planet.

Yes your pages are just a tad too wide. Here is how to fix them. I noticed that you have what
looks like about 1/4" to 5/16" of space between stamps. Bump that down to 1/8", and your
page will still look great. Nice stamps by-the-way and nice scans too. You don't need the arrows,
but put the numbers just a tad to the right (1/16" or so) so they are under the stamp more.

Still keep them near the corner tho and leave space under the stamps for possible notes later.
On your first page I notice town cancels of "Manchester" & "Brighton & Hove". Some collectors
look specifically for that type of material. You would be surprised how many collectors say they
collect stamps...when in fact they collect cancels-on-stamps.

Here is what you can do with that extra space under the nice or unusual cancels:

town cancel:
Manchester

Fancy Cancel

Advertising
cancel

Tho this is a tiny bit of extra work, but can be done at the same time as the numbers, it will help
the folks looking for that stuff specifically. Also those stamps if clean and no pulled or missing
perfs and good centering, could sell for 12¢ or more instead of 6¢.

About your progressive JPEG images. When they start load, they are out of focus, at least that
is the way the human eye (and even us aliens) perceive what we see. The eye will try to focus
on the image but can't. That's the same to your eye as using the wrong eyeglasses, and is bad
for your vision and will eventually cause eyestrain and headaches.

I recommend non-progressive JPEG scans. That is probably just a setting on your scanner or can
be saved in a image editing software as non-progressive. Here are more scanning tips that I
use for my images.

1) After I'm are satisfied with how my scan looks, I use sharpen lightly.

2) Then I re-sample down to 940 pixels, but only if needed.

3) I use 20% JPEG compression to reduce file size and save on SOR server space.
Note: file compression does not affect pixel size, only memory size!

I DO NOT like scrolling side-to-side, and most others that use 1024 screen resolution don't
either, even tho they are too polite to say so, unlike us aliens.

If you don't know what an advertising cancel is, your item 10 on page 24 is a good example
of the celebration of "Loughborough University of Technology 25th anniversary, located in
Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England. A blurb from their site reads:

Loughborough University has an international reputation for excellence in ... us in
research, consultancy, new technologies and services and recruiting high ...

Not all advertising cancels are as interesting as this one, so it's kinda neat.

Nonetheless you are off to a great start, and some nice stamps there, and I'm sure everyone
will enjoy them. Don't be afraid to experiment with things like editing, sharpen image,
brightness/contrast and compression. However keep track of what you've done and write down
your changes. Later you can make a recipe of steps that will produce superior scans with a lot
less tinkering with the techie stuff.

Just remember you asked for an opinion, so that is what I think, like-it-or-not.

Well gotta get back to those hyper-drive repairs on my Millennium Falcon.
TuskenRaider

 
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George

27 Dec 2014
11:55:37pm

re: A couple of Technical questions regarding the approval books:

thanks everyone i didn't expect such a great response.

that Loughborough cancel ... the reason i'm getting rid of it is that to me that's a killer cancel ...

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