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Post by jongjungbu on Sept 8, 2009 11:43:01 GMT -5
Yeah see the best I could do is have adobe recognize the text as text and then go back and fix hundreds of pages and it still wouldn't look right. So really the best I can or have tried is scanning the book. So, I ended up buying the Corgi version of 5th edition because it was so easy to flip through, since I didn't have the benefit of computerized search of a PDF. And now it's a very worn copy, but it works. I've been thinking about ordering a hopefully fresher copy of 5.5 (rulebook only) from FBI direct, but its not gonna be pocketsize like the Corgi though. So you tried with Adobe and the formatting was all off? Oh, I love the Corgi book. That one would probably be easier to deal with OCR-wise. At least there I know and have the text font. If you want a nice copy of 5th ed., there's a perfect-lookin' condition 7th printing for sale right now on eBay. The 7th print is by far the toughest in terms of paper and cover strength. I highly recommend it. Having said that, older perfect-bound books are notorious for having some cheap glue and they all fall to pieces eventually, so it pays to have a copy that's as new as new can be (in this case a copy of 5.5).  Well what I tried to do was I scanned it in as an image PDF, no text. Didn't bother with OCR with my scanner. Instead, I then used Adobe to recognize the text via OCR on a software side of things and this kept all the formatting in place. Unfortunately, the text then wasn't exactly the right font and sometimes it missed things that it would not let me edit, and every page there were many many mis-reads and whatnot that needed manual editing. I tried to do it with one of the solo adventures since they're shorter, but I kinda gave up. |
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quoghmyre
7th Level Troll
The Summer Troll
Posts: 1,048
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Post by quoghmyre on Sept 8, 2009 13:28:43 GMT -5
I've found in the past it more time and cost effective to just hire a high-school typist and get them to re-type the whole book. They are often looking for practice and pocket money.
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Post by Aramis of Erak on Sept 8, 2009 14:55:15 GMT -5
I doubt the wonderful 5e exists as an electronic document (1979 folks) whereas 7e certainly would. 7.0 and 7.5 are available as PDF downloads... $15 ea. Quoghmyre has a good idea... HS typist... you'll still need to proof it. |
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 8, 2009 23:29:50 GMT -5
The only high-schoolers I'm likely to come into contact with would steal the manuscript and boost my car.
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Sept 9, 2009 4:39:20 GMT -5
Hmm... I wonder if there's an option in your scanner software to scan as text, scan as text with picture and scan as photo? I'm not sure where or how to modify those settings but I know on the scanner here that text will come out fine on the text setting but images come out nasty. Everything shows up fine on the text with picture setting and then the photo setting looks great. Well, when I run it from the printer's own software, yes, kinda. There's image, photo and document. However, that's when it messed up and referenced something missing from a version of OpenOffice I no longer even have.  Now, when I run ABBYY FineReader Sprint by it's lonesome, no. The scan is just a scan. But based on your info, that must be what the issue is. Darn. That's something I can't really fix. That's a real shame, indeed.  |
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Sept 9, 2009 4:42:17 GMT -5
As far as transcribing it (or having someone else to): Well...that's something else I was going to do as a separate project. But, when I started scanning, and it turns it into doc files, I see I don't need to.
For that, I've no idea if I should transcribe the whole deal, edit the crap out of the fluff, or start with a smaller base (the Corgi solo rules) and build upwards or...what. But that's a totally separate issue that I may talk about on separate thread. (As I said, I'm kinda wanting to do a old, original-style D&D booklet thing for T&T.)
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 9, 2009 5:51:22 GMT -5
Yeah, I need to cut it up, but I wanted to see if I could do it and what needed to be done before I committed to that. Man, I hate to destroy a book. Especially a copy of T&T 5th ed., even if this is the one I own that some pages have already started to fall out of. I just spent the last three hours trying to find out what font is used in the text of 5th ed. No luck. Mach, I seem to recall Ken saying at one point that the font for the body text in 5th edition is Palatino Linotype. 12 point, I think. |
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Post by Aramis of Erak on Sept 9, 2009 6:08:11 GMT -5
As far as transcribing it (or having someone else to): Well...that's something else I was going to do as a separate project. But, when I started scanning, and it turns it into doc files, I see I don't need to. For that, I've no idea if I should transcribe the whole deal, edit the crap out of the fluff, or start with a smaller base (the Corgi solo rules) and build upwards or...what. But that's a totally separate issue that I may talk about on separate thread. (As I said, I'm kinda wanting to do a old, original-style D&D booklet thing for T&T.) Wal*Mart run: $9 in page protectors and $1 for a report cover, and the "destroyed" book is now a useful copy again. |
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Sept 9, 2009 15:59:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I need to cut it up, but I wanted to see if I could do it and what needed to be done before I committed to that. Man, I hate to destroy a book. Especially a copy of T&T 5th ed., even if this is the one I own that some pages have already started to fall out of. I just spent the last three hours trying to find out what font is used in the text of 5th ed. No luck. Mach, I seem to recall Ken saying at one point that the font for the body text in 5th edition is Palatino Linotype. 12 point, I think. Darn. Ya got me all excited. Unfortunately, it looks nothing like it, even in the sans versions, etc. Interestingly, Optima is mentioned in that article, which just so happens to be the closest thing I've found so far, it may be a suitable substitute. |
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Sept 9, 2009 16:00:29 GMT -5
As far as transcribing it (or having someone else to): Well...that's something else I was going to do as a separate project. But, when I started scanning, and it turns it into doc files, I see I don't need to. For that, I've no idea if I should transcribe the whole deal, edit the crap out of the fluff, or start with a smaller base (the Corgi solo rules) and build upwards or...what. But that's a totally separate issue that I may talk about on separate thread. (As I said, I'm kinda wanting to do a old, original-style D&D booklet thing for T&T.) Wal*Mart run: $9 in page protectors and $1 for a report cover, and the "destroyed" book is now a useful copy again. Good point. Doing something like that would even help make it a more worry-free table copy. Hmm. |
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Post by jongjungbu on Sept 9, 2009 16:46:37 GMT -5
Wal*Mart run: $9 in page protectors and $1 for a report cover, and the "destroyed" book is now a useful copy again. Good point. Doing something like that would even help make it a more worry-free table copy. Hmm. But you're talking about separating the pages from their original spine to do that right? Otherwise I'm confused. |
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Post by Aramis of Erak on Sept 9, 2009 16:59:34 GMT -5
Good point. Doing something like that would even help make it a more worry-free table copy. Hmm. But you're talking about separating the pages from their original spine to do that right? Otherwise I'm confused. You'll have to do that to get high quality scans, anyway. |
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Post by jongjungbu on Sept 9, 2009 17:40:40 GMT -5
That's what I thought. Just wanting to know if we were on the same page here. Get it? Page? HAHAHAH! ;D
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Post by ProfGremlin on Sept 9, 2009 17:49:45 GMT -5
Well, when I run it from the printer's own software, yes, kinda. There's image, photo and document. However, that's when it messed up and referenced something missing from a version of OpenOffice I no longer even have. Machfront, is it possible that the output of the scanner is looking for OpenOffice as it's destination and is running into an issue there? My Lexmark scanner software lets me specify different programs for the scanner's results, everything from MS Word to Paintshop Pro. Maybe if you can change the output program to something different your results would improve? I tried an OCR scan yesterday on a pamphlet that a friend photocopied for me: Thar's Manual of Good Conduct. It's the Orc army field guide... hilarious read... It was really just a few clicks to get the scans coming out properly with a minimum of odd characters. I selected 300 DPI since it was recommended for OCR, set the output to OCR in the Advanced scanner settings (It was a simple check box) and set the output program for MS Wordpad. I was actually surprised at the results. Now, to be fair, I wasn't scanning art as well, there isn't any and the front cover is a B+W copy of a copy... not much to work with there so I didn't. I dumped the whole result into MS Word to easily correct formatting and spelling errors. Now I just need to pick a suitable font and figure out how to lay it out to print as a pamphlet. Anyways, just a few thoughts I had while running through something similar. |
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 10, 2009 6:11:58 GMT -5
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