Category Archives: Scanning

Spinning time into gold with slit-scan images

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Brian Lawler

  My blog of day before yesterday told of the process of recording things that move in front of a photo-finish camera (also called a slit-scan camera). This is an S-Bahn train coming into the station. Its speed was constant, except … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Panoramic Photography, Photography, Scanning, Software, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Difference of opinion makes a horse race

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In a recent blog I introduced you to the rotating panoramic camera, a complex mechanical device dating from the early 20th century. The heart of that camera is the roll of film, moving at a constant speed through the camera, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Gadgets, Panoramic Photography, People, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Panoramic cameras and images, Part I

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Brian Lawler

The first true panoramic camera was patented by William J. Johnston in 1904. Century Camera Company brought that camera to market in 1905 as the Century Cirkut Camera. The company later became a part of the Eastman Kodak Company, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Panoramic Photography, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Alois was here

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Several of my students joined me and my colleague Prof. Martin Delp today for a tour of the Landsampt für Digitalisierung, Breitband und Vermessung, the Bavarian office for digitization and surveying. Here, the government creates maps, collects and distributes digital geographical … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, History, Printing and Printing Processes, Scanning, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Once a bitmap, always a bitmap

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In my recent series of blogs about reproducing line art from 19th century copper engravings (and similar line art) using modern digital technologies I showed how scanning as grayscale and converting to bitmap format (with the 50 percent dither option) … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes, Scanning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Line Art – the One and Only True Bitmap format

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Brian Lawler

This is the second of several blogs about scanning and reproducing line art from 19th century copper engravings and similar artwork. When converting scanned line art into printable line art there is only one file format that will work without … Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reproducing line art with digital technology

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In the pre-halftone era (printing before the 20th century), illustrations printed by letterpress (relief printing) were made by engraving into wood or copper to make an image. It was a laborious task, and the quality was determined by the skills … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Hong Kong Day Two

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Brian Lawler

On my outings on Sunday in Hong Kong I had a chance to take the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island where my friend John Seymour and I had lunch. The weather was tempestuous, and we watched … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Bookbinding, Business, Color Management, Panoramic Photography, People, Photography, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Acrobat Professional provides extraordinary character recognition

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Brian Lawler

Over the years we have needed to convert scanned images of text into editable text. Companies have invested heavily in the process of extracting text from printed documents, some have lost fortunes in this effort. Some have solved problems, while … Continue reading →

Posted in Scanning, Software, Technology, Typography | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Details on scanning film with the Epson scanner

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In two earlier blogs I described how I set up a large tabletop arrangement to scan historic panoramic negatives on my Epson Perfection scanner. When using the Epson scanner with the Epson Scan software (you can control the Epson scanner … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, Color Management, History, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments