Preserving Old Tatting Patterns
We have all seen or heard of them – tatting patterns that are no longer in copyright. They are written in what almost seems a different language than modern patterns, which to an outsider can look like shorthand.
Originally there may have been many thousand copies of each of these old books but through the deaths of their owners, usage and time many of these copies are no longer around, or if around would not survive being used.
We need to preserve the ones that are still to be found and not only preserve them but, since they are no longer under copyright, we need to also spread copies of them to other tatters.
15 years ago the only way to do this for most people would have been to take that book to the copy shop and make a photocopy of it. The problem with this solution is that as a copy gets made from a copy of a copy of a copy the quality of the copy declines.
Now we can convert these cherished books to a digital format and share them with friends. We have scanners and computers within our reach (and if you have an original of an old book but no access to a scanner please ask and someone will be glad to get a photocopy of the original and scan it and convert it for you) and can do this with a little time and effort. The file can them be copied to a CD or DVD (depending on the capability of your computer) and saved that way or saved on your hard disk. Then shared by either sending it via email to another tatter or perhaps a web archive of out of copyright books could be set up.
On bump in the road to converting these files to digital format is that there are several different operating systems and they don’t all speak the same language. The solution to that is to save these files as PDF (portable data format) files. The best known program to save these files as PDF files is Adobe Acrobat. But don’t think you have to spend several hundred dollars for this program. There are other alternatives and I will discuss them later. Lets start at the beginning:
First you must figure out what route you are taking to end up with the PDF file. Does your scanner have the ability to save pages as a PDF file? If yes you can set up a folder for each book in your documents folder and save each page as a separate file in that folder, more later.
Another option is to open a word processing document, click on the insert button on the toolbar, click on picture, and the from scanner or camera button. See the screen shot below. Your scanner screen should open to allow you to scan and save the shot.
The drawback to each of these methods is that the only chance you have to crop the scan is while it is on the scanner bed. But you can always undo the scan if it is not right and do a new scan. I often have to rescan pages several times before I get it right.
A third option is to use a graphics program to import the scanned pages and save, probably as JPEG’s in a folder. This gives you a second chance to crop the scan.
Whichever route you choose set up a folder in your “My Documents” folder and name it the name of the book you are scanning. If you are going to have several different books scanned it might be a good idea to set up a folder and name it “Tatting Books”, then set up a folder for each book inside that folder so all the books are in the same place. Makes it easier when you are looking for them.
Another thing to think about is do you want each page to be it’s own file or do you want the pages linked as in the book. Either way you go you can print just one page at a time, a range of pages or the full book whenever you wish.
Scanning the book: Scan one page at a time. A page saved in color takes more data space than a page saved in grayscale. My suggestion is to scan any pages that have just text and black and white pictures on them in grayscale. Check your scanner options for how to set this option. Crop the scan – you don’t need the scanner cover showing around the actual page. If you don’t know how to do this click on the help icon and search for the directions.
If you are importing the scans into a word processing document you will end up with 1 file. Save it as whatever name the name of the book is.
If you are going the scanner to PDF file or the graphics program routes each scan will be saved as a separate scan. Name the scans/pages page 01, page02 and so on. Use of the leading zero will keep the pages in numeric order. Leave it out and it will give you page 1, page 10, page 11 and so on. Scan at at least a 400 resolution, more ink dots per inch will give a better scan.
If your scanner has the save as PDF file option you are done and can copy the file to a disk if you wish.
If you have saved the files as anything other than a PDF file you are ready for the next step: Converting the file(s) to a PDF document.
Some word processing programs do have a setting for saving the file as a PDF file, or so I have heard. The programs I use don’t so I can’t answer questions about this. Check under the file button, look under the save as option and the print option. If under the printer options you may have to check the “print to file” space.
Programs for converting files to PDF format.
1.Adobe Acrobat – find at a store that sells computer programs.
2. Check the web – there are numerous options listed.
a. Win2PDF is one program that I have heard good things about. You can use it for free if you don’t mind the advertising or pay $35 to remove the advertising.
b. http://www.pdf995.com/ is another free download that I have seen recommendations for. It also gives advertising on the free copy. Or spend $10 to $20 to get the tech support and remove the advertising.
There are other options on the web, just do a search for them. I have not tried them so I can’t address them.
If you have Adobe Acrobat: Open the program, Click on the file button on the toolbar, then click on Create PDF, then From File (if it is saved in one file such as a word processing document) or from multiple files (if you went the graphics program route).
You will note that there is a “From Scanner” option – I don’t always get the entire book scanned at one time so I don’t use that option. I prefer to go via the graphics program where I can edit the cropping as needed.
When you have saved the scans as a word processor document you choose the “from file” option and the screen that lists your documents comes up as in the screen shot below. You would also use this option if you wish each page to be it’s own file and convert the pages one at a time.
If you used the graphics program and each page is saved as a JPEG you would use the “from multiple files” option and get the following screen:
Click on the browse button and the list of your documents comes up as in the next screen shot.
Again find the files you wish to convert, picking them one at a time. Try to get them in the order you want them to appear, in page order (see why I said to use that leading 0 when setting up page numbers? It helps)
Highlight the first file, click where it says add and it is added to the list.
Repeat until all the files you want to add are listed, as in this next screen shot.
If you make a mistake just highlight the file you want to move or remove and the buttons in the “arrange files” box that are available for use will light up.
When done click on the OK button. Adobe will start assembiling the document, convert the files to PDF format and do anything else it needs to. When it is done then it’s time to save the file. Click on the “file” button on the toolbar, then “save as”, type in the name of the book (or page if you are keeping separate pages) and hit the save button.
If you are going to use Pdf995 this is the screen you will see when you click on the link (skip the next few sections if you are familiar with downloading files/programs):
Click on any of the “download here” ‘s in orange and you will go to this page:
To just convert files to PDF format you need to download both the Pdf995 printer driver and the file converter but first just download the printer driver file. When you click on the word “download” you will get the following screen:
Click on “save” and you will get the screen showing one place you can save the files (can’t say exactly what option you will get as your history will dictate that. Choose a location you will remember: if you have saved files somewhere before, put these there also, if not you can just put them into the “My Documents” folder.
When the download is done go to wherever you have put the file and you will find the file Pdf995s.exe. Click on the file and follow the instillation instructions. When you click on the Pdf995s.exe file it will ask you to download the converter file, click on OK and download that file. Then the program will install.
If you have saved the scans as one file then all you need to do is to have the file open, click on the file button on your toolbar, click on “print” and the printer options will come up. Click on the down arrow to list all your printers and highlight the one that says PDF995 as shown below:
click where it says “OK” and you will get the following screen. You can save the file in a different folder. I would suggest using the same “Tatting Books” folder in the inner folder you saved the scans in, the one for this book.
Click OK and the file will be converted and saved.
If you have saved the files as individual pages in a graphics program you will need to do one of several things:
First you could open each individual scan and save it as a separate PDF file or
Second you can import the scans into a word processing document and convert the whole book at one time.
If you want to combine the individual PDF files to one file later you will need to download pdfEdit995.
After downloading and installing pdfEdit995 you will have a new program on your program list: Software995. When you go to use it you will get this ad. Click on “Continue using the sponsored version” and continue to the next screen. If this screen bothers you too much click on the “Please take me to the upgrade page now” and pay the fee.
I am not going beyond here at this point, if you want to do this please read the directions that come with the program.