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Workflow Description

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daa2018 edited this page May 4, 2018 · 1 revision

  1. Open ScanTailor and select "New project" to start with a new set of images.

  2. Browse and select the directory with the images you want to process. Select the desired images, if necessary, set their correct resolution (DPI).

  3. ScanTailor will use the same directory for the processed images, creating subdirectory "out" by default. But at this step now you can choose another output directory.

  4. For photo images, you may need to adjust the DPI value. (Fix DPI command in the Tools menu.) Click "All pages" and select a value from the list (for example, 300*300) or set your own 'custom' value. To estimate the actual DPI, you can divide the original image size in pixels by the actual physical size of the book in inches.

  5. At the first stage of processing "Fix Orientation" you can rotate images 90 degrees from portrait to landscape. If all the scans rotated the same, adjust the orientation of the first image, click "Apply to" and apply this option to all other images.

  6. Click on the second processing stage "Split pages". If the image is a book spread (double page layout) ScanTailor will attempt to split it into two pages. Click on the "play button" (a triangle-shaped arrow right to the stage name) to run the batch process of the remaining images. If automatic page type detection was incorrect, select the prevailing type, apply it to all pages, and then change it for individual pages. After batch processing is completed, you can manually correct the location of the cutting lines in the center window. It is convenient to check the results with thumbnails panel. Clicking on the thumbnail will open this page in the central panel, where you can adjust its type and cutting lines.

  7. At the 3d stage "Deskew" ScanTailor will attempt to compensate the skew angle of the page. If images are already aligned, you can apply zero angle to all images. Use Ctrl+Wheel to rotate individual pages if auto-detected angle is incorrect . Once again, use the triangle arrow to batch and the thumbnails panel to check pages quickly.

  8. Go to the 4th stage "Select content" and start batch processing. Wait until the end of the process. Adjust the detected content areas, dragging their edges in the central window. If the content area was not installed, you can create it manually by right-clicking in the window. Unnecessary area on a blank page can also be deleted by right-clicking. If the detection error was caused by incorrect skew compensation at the previous stage, go back one step and fix the problem there, then return to "Select content" and make sure the frame was set correctly this time. It is convenient to inspect pages sorting them by width and height of the content area (order type is shown on the drop-down list at the bottom of the thumbnails panel).

  9. Go to the 5th stage "Margins" (previously called "Page Layout"). Select the most typical page of the book and set its margins near the real book margins. Apply this setting to all pages. For the cover of the book, set zero margins and turn off the "Match size with other pages" checkbox. Then pay attention to distance between dashed and solid lines. If it is large enough, the project has pages bigger than the actual pages of the book. Either their content areas or margins were set incorrectly. To find such pages, it is convenient to sort the thumbnails by width or by height of the page. To edit the improper content area, you need to return to the previous stage. In the "Order by increasing height" & "Order by increasing width" modes observe the lowest and narrowest pages at the top of the thumbnails panel. These pages are usually incomplete and require alignment changes (top / bottom / etc) or unique margins customization. (Do not forget to break the association between pairs of margins during such customization.)

  10. Click on the 6th stage "Output". The "Black and white" mode is selected for all pages by default. If some letters seem to be "missing", try to increase text thickness by moving the slider of binarization threshold to the right. Select the mode "Mixed" for pages with pictures and photos. It is recommended to process the output with a resolution of 600 DPI. This is the default value, because it provides nice smooth letters.

  11. Start batch processing. When finished, check the result. If the text or illustration areas were not detected correctly on some pages in mixed mode, you can set them manually on the "Image Zones" tab in the central panel. Restart batch processing (this time it will be much faster than the first time.)

  12. Processed files will be written to the specified directory (by default - to the subfolder "out") in tiff format. These images, if necessary, can be further improved in graphics editors or used to assemble book files.

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