Stitching Software for Mag size slabs

[sterlingcomics]

I'm also going to post this in the mag section, but in the off-chance it is relevant here...

 

OK, so I'm wasting time downloading and evaluating software to "stitch" together two images of mag slabs so it looks "whole".

 

I've currently evaluated PanaVue and Autostitch. Panavue does the job, but is slightly complicated and costs money. Autostitch, which appears free, is very easy to use but creates a "bow" of the image...no doubt b/c it is using spherical projection. It was also free, but the results are less than perfect (see below).

 

So, I beseech thee....what stitching software is the "easiest" to use in terms of steps involved and quality of the results of CGC mag slabs...and of course...cost.

[Davenport]

You might take a look at ArcSoft Scan-N-Stitch . I've used it in the past a couple of times for slabs and it's supposed to do very large items like newspapers and maps.

[sterlingcomics]

I tried that a few months ago, but forgot to mention it. It appeared to me very cumbersome to use. Maybe you can show me the error of my ways. I don't care about newspapers or maps...just want easy software for my slabs.

[JazzMan]

Do you have PowerPoint? If you do you can import pictures onto a presentation, group them and then save the new combined picture to a file.

[sterlingcomics]

really? That's a neat trick. What's this group function you are referring to? (cranking up PowerPoint)

[JazzMan]

Here you go:

 

Step 1

Start by inserting the two pictures to a blank canvas. Go to Insert, Picture from a file

 

Step 2

Put the two together and then select all. You can use CTRL-A or select them with your mouse.

 

Step 3

Over the selected area, right click and go to group, group

 

Step 4

Right click over the new combined image and select Save As Picture. The default type is PNG but it makes a big file, I select JPG.

[Davenport]

I tried that a few months ago, but forgot to mention it. It appeared to me very cumbersome to use. Maybe you can show me the error of my ways. I don't care about newspapers or maps...just want easy software for my slabs.

Yeah, I had to experiment to get the best results. It's just easier for me to use Photoshop (scan two halves of a slab. Copy/paste in the bottom half at 50% opacity and line it up with the top half. Change it's opacity back to 100% and "layers/flatten").

[sterlingcomics]

Thanks for the steps. Unfortunately, there are overlapping areas of the two images, so it's a bit more complicated than grouping two pics.

 

Here is my image 1 and image 2. I've also included Panavue's output.

 

Image 1

Image 2

 

Image from Stitch

 

Hope this helps what I'm looking for. Even with the output you can see that I still don't have it right (notice on the top left the blending with the top isn't quite right and the first 20% or so looks higher along the top? And that's after messing around with it for an hour. Maybe I literally surgically cut both images in half and group them together, but that's more steps than I'd like to go through.

 

If anyone has tricks on making this software work better in addition to the software that does the trick with no fuss, I'd love to hear from you. I'm sure someone has gone through this pain already. You can even download my two images and include steps to accomplish it in the software along with the results...that will probably sell me quick!

[sterlingcomics]

I might contact the authors of AutoStitch and see if the non-demo version would do the "straightening" trick. If so, I think I'm set. Does anyone here use a non-demo version of this software?

 

Still would like to hear what the rest of the world does...(I have a feeling it might include "don't collect mags" and "I show what I can...fuhgetaboutit").

[JazzMan]

How's this look? What you would need to do is take one of the pictures and crop it down to size and then move it into place. To do fine movement I hold the CTRL key down and use the arrows to get it right. Since the contrast is a little different on both scans, it does look retouched.

 

[sterlingcomics]

coloring aside, it looks perfect. The colors are different because one scan the top of the book is at the top of the scanner (bright,splotchy,inconsistent) and the second image the top of the scan is at the bottom of the scanner (more consistent).

 

Some of the software I evaluated actuallly took the angles and lighting into account and could retouch the colors to make it look consistent. If you actually look at the Paravue's output you can see that they do "Blending"...so you see parts of both pics in the output.

 

But with terms like 'Phi" and "Theta" and numbers that make no sense, it's easy to see why I became a little intimidated.

[sterlingcomics]

Copy/paste in the bottom half at 50% opacity and line it up with the top half. Change it's opacity back to 100% and "layers/flatten").

 

You might be onto something here. I'm lining everything up vertically; perhaps it's better to stitch the images together from a horizontal perspective.

[Davenport]

Copy/paste in the bottom half at 50% opacity and line it up with the top half. Change it's opacity back to 100% and "layers/flatten").

 

You might be onto something here. I'm lining everything up vertically; perhaps it's better to stitch the images together from a horizontal perspective.

Right. You can use scanner-bed corners to keep both horizontal scans in a similar scanning position (1st scan: top left slab corner/to top right bed corner, 2nd scan: bottom left slab corner/to top left bed corner). Also, in Photoshop, you can use an eraser tool to to blend out any hard overlap-lines.

[Aman619]

if you are only stitching the label onto a complete scan of the book, I wouldnt worry too much about it. Your Monsters cover scan is perfectly acceptable to me. I would spend as little time as possible making the stitch "perfect" Just have the 2 scans meet in the empty area between the label and the book. Viewers will be able to see all the important stuff just fine that way.

 

 

just try to make sure each scan is sitting in th ebed as close as possible the same position... create a guide or a hard edge that will always sit in one position relative to the scanning bed and lay the slab against it on one side, then carefully remove it before scanning. Then put it back and move the slab for scan#2

 

 

then buy a larger scanner!