Collectorz.com Forum

I've scanned a cover for Batman vol2 #7. I have scanned this @ 600 dpi and 200 dpi for both resolution and size. The 600 dpi is over 3MB in size and the 200 dpi is 415kb in size. When I use the software to point to either image the image that appears is truly bad. Looks like a 25 dpi with extreme pixelation in the details frame. BUT if I go to the covers tab of the issue and click on "edit" the image that appears in the popup window looks fine. This is the same behavior with either image.

Any ideas??

Thanks --Kenny

Windows or Mac?
Which image format? JPEG, PNG, etc..?

I scan at 300 dpi and then resize the image to 700 pixels in height. I have no quality problems with these images.

My apologies...

I have a PC with Windows 7. The images are scanned in on my HP scanner and are in jpg format.

Thanks
--Kenny

And where EXACTLY does the image look bad?

You may want to take a screenshot and include it with your reply.

Alwin / all,

Thanks for the replies.

In answer to your questions, the bad image is my database because I didn't find the completed cover when I added it. When I click on the issue, (Batman #7), in the Detail template appears the bad image that I've scanned. I've scanned what I believe to be a high resolution image of the cover (600 dpi) and the final image is 3MB in size. I've also scanned a low resolution image (200 dpi) and that's 515KB. I've imported both images and both look like crap with a high level of pixelation.

This has to be something I'm dong with the scans. I've got the same image (from a diff web site) and imported it into the DB and it looks fine. So this appears to be user error.

I appreciate the help and when I figure out how to post a screen shot I will.

Thanks again!

--Kenny

Ok I've finally gotten a different scan. Below are pics to the differences I see between the same image from Windows Photo viewer and my local CZ database. I have other examples from different covers as well.

What's going on??

Thanks --Kenny
CZ Windows 5.2
Imaged scaned @ 200 dpi in jpg format (376kb)

===========================================================

Scanned image @ 200dpi viewed from Microsoft Photo Viewer


Same image viewed from CZ

Not an issue with the image in the online database. It looks fine (see below). AJ or Alwin may see this and reply next week, but you might want to submit an official support request so the support team can investigate.

Just noticed something--why is the image LARGER in dimensions in the Comic Collector screenshot than the Windows picture viewer? It's possible you scaled the image to a larger size than the original, which tends to pixelate. The image coming from the server should be 315x486px and it looks fine when I download it.

Your screenshot from Comic Collector doesn't show the height and width, but it should be listed on the bottom of the dialogue showing the pop-up image. Guessing yours is larger than 315x486.

The size is the size that pops up when I open the image in either CCZ or Windows Pic Viewer. The image still look crappy in CCZ in the Details Template on the Main screen. So I don't think this is the issue. But thanks for replying... Good to know some one is reading this!

I agree with Chris. It just looks like the picture window size you have in Comic Collector is just bigger, so stretching the image making it look bad.
Try right clicking the picture window in Comic Collector, and choose "Resize Window to Image" (or something like that).

Alwin, thanks for the reply. I truly enjoy this program and all it has to offer.

I went back to the program and worked with the image in several ways.

The cover that I've already posted is the default size that pops up when I launch the popup from CCZ Main window / details view. I did find the resize image options when I right clicked on the popup image. The options are "Auto-Size Window to Picture", "Auto-Size Picture to Window","Size Window to Picture (F5)", and "Close (Ctrl-F4)". Playing with these controls did nothing to "clean up" the image.

The image was scanned @ 200 dpi and has dimensions of 1105 x 1686 and is 376 kb in size.

I opened the image in GIMP, Photoshop, and inserted it into a Word 2007 document. It looks fine in these programs as I would expect from a 200 dpi image.

So I was thinking about the scale and adjusted the dimensions from 1105 x 1686 to 500 x 763. This further reduced the image to 85.5 kb. BUT it did have the effect of making the image cleaner in CCZ.

So I guess the problem is solved again with the understanding that when images are scanned in they require additional scaling down to display clean.

Dunno if you want to investigate further to understand why images display fine in other programs w/o scale manipulation or not.

Thanks for the help!!! Most appreciated.

I don't think there's anything to investigate though since I'm not aware of others having the same issue. I scan everything at 500x~780 and 300dpi. My images look the same when viewing through Windows Photo Gallery as they do inside Comic Collector.

Go back to your original post. Was the screenshot of the cover in Microsoft Photo Viewer at 100% scale of what you were seeing on your screen? Assuming so, then Photo Viewer had scaled down your image from 1105 x 1686. If you still have the original at those dimensions, open it once again in Photo Viewer. Look around the program and find the option to zoom to 100% and see what the image looks like then.

no, windows viewer, photoshop, gimp, and CCZ all opened the image @ 100%. Only CCZ displayed the same image file differently. Don't know what else to say.

Thanks --Kenny