Idea for Playfield Scanning

[bluejonny]

All



Just got thinking about this and have come up with a cunning plan.



You can pick up a cheap, but decent (1200DPI) A4 flatbed scanner off eBay now for pennies and I thought this may provide a good cheap way to scan a playfield.



So, using a laptop and a long USB cord, you could remove the lid of the scanner (most just pop off) and then lay the machine face down on the cleared playfield. Using the laptop, do the scan, and then move the scanner to the next part of the playfield, realign, and scan.



I think with a A4 scanner you could do this in 7-8 scans? You would then need to stitch the images together in Photoshop or some other program and tart them up.



get the dimensions right and it's a question of printing it (at a proper printers unless you have a plotter to hand!) out on adhesive backed plastic and applying.



Voila! A scanned playfield!



Thoughts?

 

[Rus121]

Sounds like a good idea, but wouldnt a cleared playfield bring up issues with focal lens length?



By that i mean if there is clear on the top of a playfield, the focusing lens on the scanner could possibly have difficulty getting a 'crisp' image, and the result may end up slightly blurred around the edges.



I suppose if you got the lens close enough to the playfield it wouldnt matter too much as you could touch it up in coreldraw/photoshop. Sure would be interesting to see if it could work though.....

 

[pinballparadise]

.. Increase the dpi, this will then slow down the rate the lamp moves within the scanner.



Wha do you plan on doing with at least a 500 mb image of a play field?



Or take photos 10mpx plus.



Coreldraw?! Now that is a blast from the past. Do they still make that primary school standard software?

 

[bluejonny]

Hmm. I would say that the file size would not be anywhere near 500Mb. More 100Mb based on a decent scan size. Once in Photoshop, InDesign or Quark you could optmise the resolution quite simply to something that is printable. The Cisco pinball machine template we did was only 100Mb and looks superb.



The issue most will have with photography is decent light. With a scanner at least you know the light will be the same intensity with no risk of shadows, reflections etc.



And I quite like Corel Draw!

 

[pinballparadise]

What dpi are you scanning at?



300dpi is "standard" when scanning to print.



Always scan an image at a HIGH dpi.



..IF i was doing it (each to their own). I'd scan the play field & re-draw it (Vector).



I wasn't slatting Corel Draw in any way shape or form.



Adobe Illustrator is the PRO package to use (IMO) It's been my favourite for 10 plus years.