How to scan very large antique books?

[lance_birk]

What would be the best method of scanning hand-colored prints

in a number of antique and rather delicate books? These are

heavy books, some of which are approximately 16in. x 20in. in

size, others are more standard dimensions.

 

The idea of laying each page over a flatbed scanner to make a

scan might be feasible for some of the smaller and more

loosely-bound books, but not for the larger format types.

 

What method would you recommend to capture the prints from

the large format books? I am thinking that a good digital camera

might be the best solution. Your thoughts?

 

Can someone recommend the best quality scanner to use for

the standard-sized books?

 

Also, what are your recommendations for a top-of-the-line printer

to reproduce those prints, life-sized for the larger ones, and/or

possibly 2x, 3x life-size for the standard print formats? I am

looking to make archiveable prints.

 

Price is NOT a consideration. I am interested in the best quality

available for these reproductions, and for the longest-lived inks.

 

Thanks

[beauh44]

Hi Lance, I'm not sure if this will work for really large books, but you might check out: http://store.alestron.us/opticbook3600.html

 

Good luck!

[chiswick_john]

Forget scanning and use a digital camera - if cost is no consideration - use a 22mp back on a med format camera.

[hendrik]

Copy photography with a good digital scanner should do the trick.

 

Lighting will be the bigest isue.

 

8MP should be enough, shoot RAW and interpolate in PS.

 

Good luck.

[hendrik]

That should be digital camera, not scanner!

[pvp]

A copy stand, a camera (MF or LF preferred, 35mm with fine-grained film usable) with a macro lens, 2 flashes. Of course, digital would have some advantages over 35mm film, at least if over 6MP.

[steven_clark]

If the pages weren't too brittle you could use HP's vertical see through scanner (4670?) which is designed to be able to be placed on the print and scan in sections. Otherwise I'm guessing digital, or 4x5 film scanned. If you had lots of cash to burn combine both and use a large format camera with a digital scanning back.

[roger krueger]

If price is REALLY not a concern, get a 4x5 camera and a Better Light scanning back. 85

megapixels for $18,000, 140 megapixles scheduled for "early 2005" (There may

be other good scanning back manufacturers as well, they're just the ones that feature in

my dreams!)<br><br>

<a href="http://www.betterlight.com/products4X5.asp">Better Light</a><br><br>

Art Reproduction is certainly one of their biggest markets.<br><br>

Anything that requires smashing an antique book flat is very bad, even for the ones where

it would seem to not do much harm.

<br><br>

For proven archival stability send out for prints on real photographic paper--Lightjet,

Frontier, Lambda, etc.

[awahlster]

Quite simple lay the huge book on a large flat table. Open it. then place a nice flat bed scanner on top of it glass side down and scan the page in sections use a program like photstitch from Canon to paste the files together trim and save.

 

As to the crease unless you are willing or able to unbind the book you will either have to crop live with or smash.

[majid]

Look at how the folks at <a href="http://www.octavo.com/">Octavo</a> do it for museum grade book.

[aimee_marshall]

To confirm most of the suggestions...photograph the book on a copy stand, whether you do that digitally or using film which is later scanned depends on the equipment you have and how much you might be willing to invest. DO NOT lay the book flat on a table and place a flatbed scanner on top of it! If these are valuable books you run a great risk in damaging the book, the binding, etc. (that suggestion makes me gasp!) In addition, the image quality will suffer, and you are only creating additional work for yourself if the flatbed cannot capture the entire page.