Wanted: Best Antique Auto Literature Copy Sources

[hddennis]

Does anyone have any experience with or suggestions as to the best and most affordable way to copy a parts book so others can use the information in their restorations. Is Office Depot or one of the other copy stores a viable option?

 

Thanks for any help,

Howard Dennis

[1937hd45]

Great question, does the original get some what destroyed with the binding torn apart? Bob

[hddennis]

Bob, lets see what others say on your question.  Luckily someone else disassembled a parts book years ago and made a copy I bought. Since no other copies have surfaced I'd like to make copies for other Maxwell owners provided it's reasonably affordable.

 

Howard Dennis

[60FlatTop]

The genealogy section at many libraries have full page scanners for open book scanning. Most allow you to scan and email a copy to yourself at no cost.

 

They are nice scanners.

 

The only cost is your time, unless you can find someone who values their time less than you value yours.

[Steve Moskowitz]

A good library will have a book scanner as indicated above.  Our AACA library owns one of these expensive machines and they do a great job.

[John_S_in_Penna]

The book scanner to which Steve refers above

is specially made to hold a book.  The book does

not need to be stretched open flat 180 degrees--

which angle would likely stretch and harm its binding--

but instead remains upright and open at maybe a

135-degree angle.

 

I've never seen such a thing at a local library;  but

maybe a library in a large city, or probably a library

at a major university, would have such a thing.

Or, since your motive is to share information with

fellow car collectors, maybe a volunteer at our own

AACA Library could do that work for a reasonable

donation.

[Larry Schramm]

I have an Epson ET-16500 printer & scanner.  It will do everything up to about 12" x 17". 

 

Works great and it does not use ink cartridges. 

 

Uses bulk ink which costs about $15/ bottle.

[Walt G]

Art Schools/Colleges have scanners for art work that the students create and for projects that they want to create. The School of Visual Arts in New York City uses Epsom equipment.

One of their machines had a roll of canvas that was used to print larger scale works of art and could print something yards long and about 48 inches wide!

When i ordered my scanner/printer a former student of mine had specialized in computer science in college and I had him order what he thought I would need. I told him that my interest in period car photographs, printed matter etc if I wanted to see it copied or reproduced would have to be as close to the image of the original as possible ( beyond the car stuff I am the appointed historian for the village I reside in so also needed it for other period material that wasn't car focused) he said Epsom is the one to buy, does the best job. Most of the printed material from periodicals and sales literature is scanned so you are dealing with the little dots that the material was transfered to as an image. When I copy/scan anything for the articles I write I do a minimum setting of 600 dpi ( or now pixels).

[Steve Moskowitz]

Our library does copying  but there is  a fee attached, reasonable but  still there has to be a charge as a public library we have few means of support.  You can contact them at 717-534-2082 to get an idea of costs and  if they could tackle such a project at this time with all else that is swirling around.  

[MochetVelo]

My question, to which I've not yet found an answer: How can one scan a booklet (or book), print it out and bind it as it originally appeared? 

 

Phil

[John_S_in_Penna]

 

3 minutes ago, MochetVelo said:

My question, to which I've not yet found an answer: How can one scan a booklet (or book), print it out and bind it as it originally appeared? 

 

Any good print shop or bookbinder should be 

able to do that.  If you are thinking of using

soft-bound (paper-back) binding, please do not

use hot-glue binding.  That type of binding keeps

the individual pages in simply by their embedment

in glue, and as the glue dries over the years, the 

pages will begin to loosen and fall out.

 

A much longer-lasting soft-bound binding

is achieved by sewing the pages in "signatures"--

groups of pages that are actually sewn in with thread,

and then applying the paper cover over them.

Just as you want good quality for car restoration work,

there are various types of quality when making books.

 

Your typical print shop probably can't do the 

better-quality bindings;  but a bookbinder certainly can.

[MochetVelo]

The difficult part is copying the pages is the correct order for binding. Take, for example, a 32-page parts book. When you lay the book on the scanning screen, you will copy pages 10 and 11. In binding, however, page 10 is printed on the same sheet as page 23. On the reverse of pages 10 and 23 are pages 9 and 24. This problem is solved by disassembling the book, but that is not often possible or desired.

 

Phil

Edited October 7, 2019 by MochetVelo (see edit history)

[Bud Tierney]

A question on scanning/copying copy longevity---

In years past, working with copying/copies of various types, some types of copies faded with time (or the ink dots separated from the paper?)...

Are the present day copies permanent, or do they have a "shelf-life" dependent on use, time or light exposure??

My few 20-30 (40?) year old "Xerox" copies are in glassine/poly? sleeves and only see the light of day in an occasional use..

[wldavis]

On 10/3/2019 at 9:21 AM, MochetVelo said:

My question, to which I've not yet found an answer: How can one scan a booklet (or book), print it out and bind it as it originally appeared? 

 

Phil

Higher-end digital copiers today can scan individual pages or pages of an open book, store them on a hard drive and print the material 

in duplex mode (two-sided) so the pages in the correct order, front & back.

[wldavis]

On 10/2/2019 at 1:26 PM, hddennis said:

Bob, lets see what others say on your question.  Luckily someone else disassembled a parts book years ago and made a copy I bought. Since no other copies have surfaced I'd like to make copies for other Maxwell owners provided it's reasonably affordable.

 

Howard Dennis

Usually, "generational copies" (copies of a copy) lose some crispness from the original, but some of the higher-end copiers today can make allowances for this.

[Spinneyhill]

If you want it searchable electronically, you will need to scan with OCR. @Stevemo has posted several hundred documents at

https://archive.org/details/@steverontario?&sort=-publicdate&page=2

with OCR. They are very good. Send him a p.m. for information?

 

It seems to me if you want to do it properly, you need to scan it one page at a time, one after the other, as good as possible. Probably no more than 300 dpi is enough; 150 dpi is good enough to print. You can print a .pdf file as a "booklet" in landscape, which will print four pages on a sheet (two each side) in correct order for you to staple the middle. I did my manuals and printed them double sided on A4 portrait and bound them with one of these things:

The problem with these bindings is that they catch others on the shelf. I have also put the printed pages in ring binders.

 

But the ultimate for reference is @Stevemo's OCR searchable files. They are very big, though, like several hundred MB for a big document. Luckily OCR has improved a lot in the last 20 years and his are very good.

[hddennis]

Went to Office Depot and clerk helped me set up the in-store printer and it ran off perfect copies of 172 pages at 15 cents a page printed on both sides. Local library wanted 15 cents a page per side. Office Depot also supplied the plastic folder and section dividers.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.

 

Howard Dennis