CT CD-ROM Issues, Take #3

[DonM]

Below is the list of identified CT CD-ROM issues as of 2/28/09:

The Traveller Adventure.pdf: page 37 rotated; light OCR editing required.
Traveller Starter Edition.pdf: page 8 upside down; all pages fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
B00 Book 00 Understanding Traveller.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
B00 Book 00 An Introduction to Traveller.pdf: page 10 upside down; fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
B01 Book 01 Characters & Combat 1977.pdf: Missing.
B01 Book 01 Characters & Combat 1981.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
B02 Book 02 Starships 1977.pdf: Missing.
B02 Book 02 Starships 1981.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
B03 Book 03 Worlds and Adventures 1977.pdf: Missing.
B03 Book 03 Worlds and Adventures 1981.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
B04 Book 04 Mercenary.pdf: page 44 different size; light OCR editing required.
B05 Book 05 High Guard 1979.pdf: Missing.
B05 Book 05 High Guard 1980.pdf: page 17 different size; light OCR editing required.
B06 Book 06 Scouts.pdf: double page 30, missing page 31, page 52 upside down; fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
B07 Book 07 Merchant Prince.pdf: page 4 upside down, 8, 9 and 27 have issues; light OCR editing required.
B08 Book 08 Robots.pdf: fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
A00 Adventure 00 The Imperial Fringe.pdf: No OCR content.
A01 Adventure 01 The Kinunir.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A02 Adventure 02 Research Station Gamma.pdf: fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
A03 Adventure 03 Twilight's Peak.pdf: pages 51 - 57 different size; light OCR editing required.
A04 Adventure 04 Leviathan.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A05 Adventure 05 Trillion Credit Squadron.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A06 Adventure 06 Expedition to Zhodane.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A07 Adventure 07 Broadsword.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A08 Adventure 08 Prison Planet.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A09 Adventure 09 Nomads of the World Ocean.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A10 Adventure 10 Safari Ship.pdf: pages 15 and 25 upside-down; fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
A11 Adventure 11 Murder on Arcturus Station.pdf: fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
A12 Adventure 12 Secret of the Ancients.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
A13 Adventure 13 Signal GK.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
AM1 Alien 01 Aslan.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
AM2 Alien 02 K'kree.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
AM3 Alien 03 Vargr.pdf: double page 20, page 16 missing; overall light; light OCR editing required. NOTE: page 28 is missing because it was BLANK.
AM4 Alien 04 Zhodani.pdf: double page 23 and 24; page 42 missing; overall light; light OCR editing required.
AM5 Alien 05 Droyne.pdf: No identified page issues; overall light; light OCR editing required.
AM7 Alien 07 Hivers.pdf: page 45 upside-down; light OCR editing required.
AM8 Alien 08 Darrians.pdf: double page 32; light OCR editing required.
D01 Double 01a Annic Nova.pdf: fuzzy resolution; need rescan; no OCR content.
D01 Double 01b Shadows.pdf: fuzzy resolution; need rescan; need full OCR rescan.
D02 Double 02b Mission On Mithril.pdf: missing page 6.
D05 Double 05a The Chamax Plague.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
D05 Double 05b Horde.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
D06 Double 06a Divine Intervention.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
D06 Double 06b Night of Conquest.pdf: page 13 upside down; light OCR editing required.
D07 Double 07a Memory Alpha.pdf: Missing.
D07 Double 07b Stranded on Arden.pdf: Missing.
G00 Game 00 Imperium Complete.pdf: Light OCR editing required. History book missing page 3.
G01 Game 01a Mayday Rules.pdf: No OCR content.
G04 Game 04 Fifth Frontier War Complete.pdf: Counters need rescan.
G07 Game 07a Striker Book1.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
M01 Module 01 Tarsus.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
M02 Module 02 Beltstrikei.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
M03 Module 03 Spinward Marches Campaign.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
M05 Module 05 Atlas of the Imperium.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
M04 Module 04 Alien Realms.pdf: double page 32.
M05 Module 05 Atlas of the Imperium.pdf: significant problems; need rescan; light OCR editing required.
S03 Supplement 03 The Spinward Marches.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
S04 Supplement 04 Citizens of the Imperium.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
S05 Supplement 05 Azhanti High Lightning.pdf: pages 4 and 5 missing. The numbers on the deck plans are unreadable, due to being much smaller than in other books (pp. 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, and 41). For instance, on the Casual Bridge, you can guess that Bridge (1) is in the center (although no hope for the locations of the crew positions). Information Center (2) and Gunnery Station (3) are toward the top, but which is left or right? Same goes for Holographic Display (4) and Open Lounge (5): which is left or right? And it gets harder for the other deck plans in the book. The rest of the scan for this book is excellent, and the poster maps from the game have all the necessary deck detail, except for the numbers corresponding to the text.
S11 Supplement 11 Library Data N-Z.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
S12 Supplement 12 Forms & Charts.pdf: Light OCR editing required.
S13 Supplement 13 Veterans.pdf: missing pages 34 and 38.
SS2 Special Supplement 2 Exotic Atmospheres.pdf: Missing page 5.

 

[Gadrin]

CT B01 Book 01 Characters & Combat 1981.pdf
CT B02 Book 02 Starships 1981.pdf
CT B03 Book 03 Worlds and Adventures 1981.pdf
CT B04 Book 04 Mercenary.pdf

Nice and dark, nice sharp focus (or good enough).

It's hard to judge the OCR text behind it without going thru it more thoroughly, however I've done enough searching for text to say those books are acceptable.


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[DonM]

Thank you... that gives me four to play with.

Now, the next question: which PDF is the WORST offender on the whole CD?

 

[Gadrin]

Safari Ship
The Spinward Marches Supplement 3

Dump either to text (use the FILE menu and SAVE AS TEXT) and then look it over.

If some idiot made Safari Ship by hand, then he's blind.

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[Vargas]

This is the closest topic I can think to post this in: the recently released errata from FFE includes Marooned/Marooned Alone saying that the original had its pages scrambled. I checked it out on my CD and found the scan there to be perfectly fine. -signed- Confused

 

[DonM]

The recently released errata is NOT for the CD-ROM; it's for the Classic Reprints, or the "Big Floppy Books".

Marc's trying to close some annoying long-standing frustrations people have had about FFE items. The reprint fixes came first. Now, I'm putting together items for the CD-ROM.

This is going to be much harder.

 

[Vargas]

The recently released errata is NOT for the CD-ROM; it's for the Classic Reprints, or the "Big Floppy Books".

Well duh!

 

[Gruffty]

If some idiot made Safari Ship by hand, then he's blind.

For Referees Only
-I
Adventure 70
Safari Ship
TRAVELLER"
ScienmFiction Adwenturn
in the Far Future
Game Designers' Workshop

kma
Thm pap is Intenthlly blank

Adventure 70
Safari Ship
TRAVELLER"
ScienceFiclon Adventure
in the Far Future
Came Designers' Workshop

CAEMTS
bcrlgn ... ... , . ... ...................,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,...... ..... ...Mm W. MIMI
RDle Amlmsncs ... .. . ..JmHarhmen. hn w-n, snd nm Bm*m
hrir RlracO
18 Durm~k
lllnm H. Kmh, Jr.
Cowr~&i'1984 bv Game Desymara' Worbhoa Inc
All Ilghu IR-0. Plln7.U m 7hw UnlW Sterns dAmema
No psn of lhm bod mav bs n4rmducsa ln a*
1-
ar
hu anrnsena w~thoutrremnss~on~nwrlllq from Ins p.allsnsr
Ttiq booklet Is an sdvemure lor ~suallar. GWswlence lmlon
rnlvlm~nggmmo sct m fhe fufuture
TdIm* IS GDW's ~.n~Btmrwd
tmdsmstk for na acleme llcmn rol+plsv~ng ~sme
msterlSll.
Game Deqnera' Worhhoa Inc
Pa 8ox 1646

That's the whole text of (pdf page) page 4 of the pdf.

Pure gobbledeegook.

 

[Gruffty]

Thm pap is Intenthlly blank

ROTFLMAO

(Completely off-topic, I know, but also brutally funny)

 

[Gruffty]

Loads of little Ankh signs scattered through out the text...

 

[chrisr]

Are you sure it's not just written in Welsh?

 

[Gadrin]

I'm pretty sure you won't get "perfect" approximations from turning a print book into a digital one, there's just too many ways for it to go wrong.

I'm hoping Marc will mandate that each book must be visually inspected after it's done or before it goes to the public, to spot obvious errors. The same with pages, make sure all the pages are present in each book.

This should take care of most of the blurred, upside down and missing material.

After that you're left with however good or bad the OCR works out to be.


Hopefully using Adobe Page Whatever will be 3 or 4 versions "up" from whatever made the last batch.


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[DonM]

Uh oh... that might be a problem... I don't use Adobe. I'm using Nitro PDF Professional...

 

[tbeard1999]

That's the whole text of (pdf page) page 4 of the pdf.

Pure gobbledeegook.

Maybe it should be submitted to Mongoose. Looks as well-edited as MGT Mercenary.

<Ducks for cover>

In all seriousness, I use Abby Finereader and it's a pretty good OCR package. I'll explore how well it integrates with Acrobat (just bought a new scanner w/Abby and Acrobat) and report back.

 

[Gruffty]

Are you sure it's not just written in Welsh?

It can't be in Welsh - there aren't any double Ls in it :rofl:

 

[aramis]

No double "l", no double "d", and no "w" as a vowel.

But it has double g's...

 

[atpollard]

But it has double g's...

proto-welsh then?

 

[aramis]

Not even rot-13 welsh....

 

[Gadrin]

Uh oh... that might be a problem... I don't use Adobe. I'm using Nitro PDF Professional...

Take a look at what Nitro had when the Adobe version was out, and see if it's gone thru X number of releases; or was even around back then. FILE menu, Document Properties, PDF Producer.

Check the Adobe product page for features and numbers vs Nitro's.



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[Gadrin]

Hey Don,

can your Rhino product convert MDI (Microsoft Document Imaging) Files to PDFs ?

I was able to scan in about 20 pages of my Cargonaut Reavers Deep booklet (and noticed that a few pages were missing in the product they sent me). I scanned in each page into a TIFF file, then opened one of them up in MDI which displays it like a PDF (with the thumbnails on the left). Then I was able to add each of the other TIFFs and save it into a single document. Then MDI allows me to OCR that and it's very similar to a PDF.

I now have a text-searchable version of my Cargonaut book, sans any maps, which I left out intentionally due to their bad quality.

There are tools on the web that convert MDI to PDF, I downloaded one of the free ones and will test it later today or tomorrow.

If that works well enough to pass muster, that might be a free alternative to using some multi-$$$ pdf maker.

The OCR came out so-so, mainly due to the poor printing of the Cargonaut document, which is actually tiny. But some of it worked very nice.

The quality of the CT books, especially the reprints are much nicer. I may give the Safari Ship a shot if it'll bend correctly to fit on my scanner



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