Preparing scans using Macromedia Fireworks MX

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Preparing scans using Macromedia Fireworks MX

This is a short overview of the actions I use to prepare my cover scans for MobyGames. If you have contributed before, many of these steps will be redundant. Yet, some parts, such as removing dust spots, rotating disc scans, creating a white background for disc scans and restoring the original colours may be useful.

Straightening and cutting covers

First of all, I scan covers at 600 DPI, you can resize them afterwards, but large resolutions are encouraged. I usually put a magazine on top of the scans to keep it pressed against the glass. Otherwise, reflections or folded parts will be shown. The rostering shown in the image below is a compression technique by Fireworks to keep editing fast, this is not shown on the actual image.

This is the original double cover scan, at 6% of the original resolution:

The front and the back cover need to be split, so use the Marquee Tool (cf. arrow) to draw a rectangle for the part you want to cut out (the front in this case). Once it is selected (the dotted line in the image below), copy and paste it into a new document.

If your scan isn't completely straight, you can still rotate the image before cutting. Use this menu command:

Choose rotate and enter a value. To tilt it a little to the left, use 359 (degrees), or 1 (degree) to tilt it to the right. To straighten it even more accurately, use decimal values, as shown below. The result is immediately visible.

When you paste it into a new document, switch the suggested width and height. We still need to rotate the cover.

Once pasted, use the action below to rotate the cover 90 degrees (clockwise or counter-clockwise).

Make sure the cover is completely visible and no other parts are shown, then tone down the resolution to something reasonable. If you have lots of bandwidth, you can use the original resolution, but this implies +- 10MB per cover. In this case, I bring it back to a width of 1000 pixels.

Bringing back the original colours

Through scanning, you usually lose some of the colour intensity. Below is a comparison of my original scan (left) and a re-touched scan (right)

Select the image you want to restore and use these commands:

Don't use the value for contrast arbitrarily. 20 may be too intense for your covers, or based on your scanner settings. Compare the result to the actual, physical cover and toy with the value to make it look authentic.

The only thing left to do is export:

At the final step, I use the settings shown below: JPEG format, 90% Quality (reasonable), 100% is preferred, but files become 3 times as large, and the difference is close to impossible to notice. The projected file size is also shown at the third arrow.

Removing Dust Spots

Dust spots are especially visible against black surfaces. The top part of a PlayStation 2 cover is a regular:

Select the brush (first arrow), pick a line colour (second arrow: once clicked, you'll get a colour picker: move it over the black surface to get the exact same colour to work with). Choose the type of brush (third arrow) and the edge. A soft edge will make it easier to work around image elements without covering them. The picture below shows the result after using the brush on the black surface: much better!

Oh my: those nasty disc scans

A lot of people don't like to include the disc scans because they're quite hard to get right. This section will show you how to align them and create a white background. This fits in nicely with the MobyGames classic lay-out, without showing a ghastly ugly yellow rectangle around it.

This is the original scan, at 6% of its resolution. Notice the faded yellow background, and how the disc is not aligned:

Again, use the Marquee Tool to draw a rectangle around the disc. Make sure the disc is completely visible, and leave a little white margin.

Paste the image into a new document. Now choose the Magic Wand and click on any part of the background to select it.

Press the Delete button and woof... the background is gone, without hurting the original image. See the visual comparison below:

You can also do it for the small hole in the middle of the disc, but the Magic Wand is not without flaws there.

Now zoom in on your image and choose a point of focus as you are going to straighten it. A logo with a rectangle or text will do nicely. Follow the steps shown below. You will need to use decimal degrees to straighten it to perfection.

You can remove dust spots from the disc as well. Use the brush again (as mentioned before) and use the colour picker to get the exact colour from the disc to work with:

That's it. There are many other ways to get good scans, especially through Photoshop or The Gimp with similar actions, but I just wanted to share my method.

Happy scanning!

Contributed by Sciere long time MobyGames contributor and approver