Art Share Your Manga & Anime Scans Here...

[KenshinSorrow]

[COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=2][FONT=Trebuchet MS]Hey all,

Do you have trouble locating quality images of your favorite anime and/or manga? Do you regularly scan images of your favorite anime/manga? Want access to hard to find work for your wallpaper, greeting card, the OB's Graphic Worm?

Well, look no further. It was with this in mind, and after receiving some very kind encouragement from James, that I came up and fleshed out this thread idea. If you have any scans you want to share and help out other Otakus in their difficult search, post/link the images in this thread.

Okay, now on to the important stuff...like the "can do this--can't do that" guidelines...Although there aren't too many of those.

[B]1)[/B] Keep to the OtakuBoard standards. This means do not post images that include adult content, do not sell/distribute the material for profit, and no plagerism (how do you plagerize scans? I'll detail that in a moment, lol).

[B]2) [/B] Do not paste your image in this thread. OB has a limited bandwidth and cannot handle the high quality photos I have in mind for this thread. Instead, please upload your picture to one of the numerous photo hosting sites, such as photobucket.com imageshack.us imagehigh.com, are some image hosting sites and include the provided link/thumbnail to their site in this thread.

Be aware tho, some image hosting sites, such as imageshack will lower the quality and resolution of your picture. Another option is linking a small thumbnail to one of these sites, and including a link to a file hosting site, such as yousendit.com, megaupload.com, where you can upload larger files without losing image quality as many of the image hosting sites do.

I'm totally up for any suggestions anyone has--this is definitely not a set-in-stone deal, and when it comes down to it, what works best for you, as long as the image remains of high enough quality to still be usable, I'm comfortable with. I plan on trying out a few image hosting sites that promise high quality on my own and will let you all know how they work out.

[B]3)[/B] If you scanned the image yourself, let us know, and mention your source. If you have an image that you did not scan but want to post, please do credit the source. If you do not know the source, let us know "source unknown" or something of the like, but please do not take credit for scans not your own. Trust me, sharing scans with other Otakus is the most important goal of this folder and your fellow Otakus will be appreciative of your efforts, whether you did the scan yourself or not.

[B]4)[/B] Quality/resolution: something around 1 million pixels in the original image is preferred, but having managed to eak out the best in low rez scans for my own wallpaper, I'm not going to complain if you and your submitted scan aren't up to that standard. If you do indeed do the scan yourself, keep reading, as I will include a few tips for better scanning in a moment.

[B]5)[/B] This is not a thread for critiquing artwork so much as sharing scans of artwork done by the original artist, but appreciation of another's efforts is always welcome.

[B]6)[/B] Do not post your original wallpapers, fanart and drawings in this thread. This thread is only for the posting and sharing of official artwork scans created by the manga/anime creator. If you want to post your own artwork, there are plenty of other threads on OB for that.


[B]TIPS FOR ACHIEVING A BETTER SCANNING QUALITY:[/B]

[B]1)[/B] There are two image file types out there. Both file types compress your image file, but in different ways that can all drastically affect the output of your picture.

[B]LOSSY:[/B] uses a form of compression that causes a slight loss of data with each save. If you repeatedly save your file in this format, it can permanently damage the quality of your file. JPEG, BMP, PNG are lossy file format.

[B]LOSSLESS:[/B] uses a compression format insuring that no data is lost. For your image, this means that the original file you started with, is the same file you end up with, even after multiple saves. File formats that are lossless are TIF, TIFF, GIF, LZW, and PSD (photoshop document). TIF and PSD can be saved with layers preserved, but layers should be flattened before sharing in this thread.

I believe JPEG is probably the best format for the final output, and probably the most compatible/accessable for others.

[B]2) Resolution.[/B] You can discovered your image's total resolution by multiplying the number of pixels per inch in your picture's width by the number of pixels per inch in the height. What this means is that if your picture width is 4625 and the height is 6989 then your total resolution is 4625 X 6989 = 3,2324125 pixels. Of course, a picture of that resolution is huge...but I tend to scan at 600 dots/pixels per inch, and later reduce it to somewhere around 300 to 150 for my scans, and most pictures you see on the web--including my wallpapers on theotaku.com--usually have around 72 ppi or less.

[B]3) Descreen.[/B] The most helpful feature I find on my scanner is the Descreening option. To find this option on your scanner you might have to open the scanner program in professional mode (if yours has that option), as I do with mine. Most printed images you see out there are printed using a half-tone pattern that can create an busy, moire pattern.

If you have ever seen a newscaster wearing a plaid coat on TV that plays with the picture, that is what a moire pattern is. Richard Nixon is famous, in a debate with Kennedy, because of the moire pattern his plaid suit coat created on the TV screens of millions across America. Basically, the descreening mode on your scanner uses a method to reduce, if not completely eliminate, the chances of this happening to any of the images your scan.

Another option is to select from the newspaper, magazine, and fine art options on your scanner, which also take advantage of the descreening feature to some degree.

Another way to ensure good resolution is by your ppi (pixels per inch). 600 is excellent quality (although rarely used because large files are cumbersome to work with in image programs), while somewhere between 300 and 150 makes for a good high resolution overall. 72 ppi or below is low resolution, and not recommended for scans. Often I will scan at 600 ppi, to ensure a good scan, but once I begin working with the image I often lower the ppi to 300 or even 150, depending upon how and where I am using the image.

And if you find that your scanner's color is off, you can choose the "color restoration" option--although I often find it easier to fix my colors in photoshop instead.

[B]4) Color.[/B] And one last item I want to go over is the [B]CMYK[/B] (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, & BlacK) vs. [B]RGB[/B] (Red, Green, & Blue). I recommend if you intend to use the image primarily on the web, in a wallpaper or online greeting card for example, that you stick with RGB, as most computer screens and the internet use on RGB. If, however, you want to print the image on your printer or a professional printer, you will find that these use the CYMK color printing process. Basically what this comes down to is the colors CMYK or RGB are mixed to create all the rest of the colors in an image. You can change your RGB image to CMYK for printing, but it usually isn't necessary as almost all printers are set up to compensate for the difference.

Remember your basic primary colors? Red, Yellow, and Blue? Well, CMYK and RGB are the digital, computer, and printing world's versions of the primary colors.

That's pretty much the absolutely necessary basics. If anyone else feels I missed any important details, feel free to share--please.

And to start off the thread, and in the spirit of sharing, I am including the thumbnails/links to of a couple of my scans that I uploaded into a flickr.com account. Just click on one of the picture and the link, and you should be able to access and download all of my uploaded scans. (I purchased the Flickr Pro account so you all could download my original files and also because, yeah, I'm just plain lazy, lol.)









This is an experiment--if enough interest is shown, the thread will survive, yada yada yada...you know the drill.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else cares to share![/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Sara]

[color=#db2007]Wow, what a great reference! That's some really useful information. Thanks for posting it.

I have a an art book for [i]Spirited Away[/i], and I'd be happy to scan some images from that. However, my scanner is pretty old and ornery, and when scanning at high resolutions, it tends to badly distort the colors in irregular ways that I can't seem to fix in Photoshop (which seems to defeat the purpose of posting full-color scans).

If I can figure out how to fix that (or if I can get access to another scanner) I'll definitely contribute.[/color]

[KenshinSorrow]

[COLOR=Indigo][FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=2]You're very welcome, Sara, and really appreciate your wanting to help get this thread started.

Hey, I figured if I was going to start a thread for scans, might as well go over the basics, lol, and I thought it was info that everyone could take advantage of. And as things go along, I'm sure I'll be providing more tips--and if I don't know the answer, I have graphic art friends and co-workers I can ask. :babble:

In reference to your comment about your scanner and colors...have you tried to look at the scanned images on another computer? The reason I ask is because the difficulty could be the scanner, or it could be your monitor.

It's unfortunate and a bit pesky, that the color you see on the monitor is most often not the true image's printed color. That's why when you print out an image you've created, the colors never look the same as they did on your screen. The only true way to get the colors on your screen to accurately match printed colors is to pay a professional thousands of dollars to calibrate your monito. I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of money to spare, lol.

Just out of curiosity, and maybe I might manage to help, could you tell me the settings you use when you scan images? Maybe we can figure out a solution for you---not only so you can share those wonderful images from your [I]Spirited Away[/I] artbook--but so you can take advantage of that scanner for your own art more often.

FWIW, these are the scanner settings I'm interested in knowing (granted, depending upon your scanner, you might not see or have access to all the settings, and the wording on mine might be slightly different):

[B]Document Type: [/B] is your setting Reflective or Transparency?
[B]AutoExposure:[/B] is this set to Photo or Document?
[B]Image Type[/B]--you'll probably see some, if not all of these options: Black & White, 8 bit Grayscale, 16 bit Grayscale, Colorsmoothing, 24 bit Color, 48 bit Color
Resolution: mine scanner ranges anywhere from 50dpi to 12800dpi (that's dots per inch, very similiar to pixels per inch in theory)--the last of which is just insane to use :confuse2:

For the above settings, I recommend using these options: Reflective, Photo, 24 bit Color, dpi is up to you, but good print/scan quality is usually 600 to 150 dpi.

You'll probably also see an area for Target size, which we don't need to worry about right now, although I recommend keeping it at 100% and if you want a larger image, try increasing your dpi a bit.

[B]Unsharp Mask Filter:[/B] if you have this checked, uncheck it. It can distort and affect your image color
[B]Descreening Filter:[/B] DO check this. You might see various options as well, such as General, Newspaper, Magazine, Fine Prints. I always choose Fine Prints. The reference to lpi is Line Per Inch. Most printers apply color in a series of lines. Inkjet printers are a common example of this process.
[B]Dust Removal: [/B] if you see this option, leave it unchecked

There are also some other options that require a lot more work, among these [B]Histogram Adjustment [/B] (I recommend you leave this one alone, as it can get very confusing), [B]Tone Correction [/B] (if the tips I just provided dont' work, we can try this later), and finally [B]Image Adjustment[/B], which can be very helpful in correcting your colors and contrast if adjusting the other options don't work.

You might see all or only some of these options. For my scanner, I had to set it to Professional Mode to access them all. It wouldn't hurt to see if your scanner also has a similiar setting.

Don't know if I helped or made you more confused. I hope it was the first. Good luck with trying to get that orney scanner to cooperate, and let me know if you have any questions! I'm happy to help in any way I can. :)

Karin[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

[Retribution]

[size=1]As a quick reference, [url=http://animepa.csusm.edu/galleries/][b]Anime Project Alliance Gallery[/b][/url] is invaluable for scans.

I have a massive library of Gundam SEED scans that were pulled from other [pretty old] sites on my old computer. If I'm ever bored enough, I'll see if I can upload a few of them.[/size]

[KenshinSorrow]

[quote name='Retribution'][size=1]As a quick reference, [url=http://animepa.csusm.edu/galleries/][b]Anime Project Alliance Gallery[/b][/url] is invaluable for scans.

I have a massive library of Gundam SEED scans that were pulled from other [pretty old] sites on my old computer. If I'm ever bored enough, I'll see if I can upload a few of them.[/size][/QUOTE]

Aaaaahhhh, yikes! This is what happens when you leave your job, make a decision to return to school fulltime, and try to find new ways to occupy your now exceedingly empty free time. Sorry...I really do wanna keep up wit this thread, honest I do. I have this horrible habit of popping out more often than in tho.

Retribution, sure, please, anything you have to share with others is more than welcome. Thank you! Oh gosh....let me look through some more scans...I'll post some more soon... :)

Anyhow, got something in the works personally to do with manga....will announce that tho, when it comes to full-fruition, lol.

Karin, mostly-out-there-somewhere....

[SunfallE]

[COLOR="goldenrod"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Although I think this is a great idea, to be honest, I've no interest in attempting to host things else where when I've already uploaded over 400 scans at my [URL="http://sunfalle.animepaper.net/"][U]AnimePaper[/U][/URL] account. It's easier since I don't have to pay for keeping the images hosted. Though I do also have a photobucket account with smaller scans as well. The link to that is in my signature. Heh.

Anyway, finding scans really isn't an issue since due to uploading scans at AnimePaper, I have more papers for getting other scans than I know what to do with. XP Though if people don't mind slightly smaller scans, I've got quite a few hosted at my photobucket account and for the bigger ones, well, you'll just have to join AP for that. It took quite a bit of time to scan all those at a higher resolution. [/FONT][/COLOR]