War Diaries Talk

Unreadable pages

  • Stork by Stork

    I hate whining, but here's a request: In the diary I'm tagging, at least 50 pages so far have been hard or impossible to read because the print is so faint. I magnify them to make the print huge and stare at the screen until my eyes get sore, and even then I'm lucky if I can make out the words. Can the person who scans the pages simply look at them after scanning them and decide if they are readable or not, and if not, make them darker? Our tagging will be far more accurate if you do this.

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Stork I am tagging this same diary as you from the beginning and I agree lots of the pages are faint.

    Some pages very difficult to place tags between the lines because the writer of the diary's writing is all over the place. For example page link: https://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/subjects/AWD0003ms5 quite a lot of pages like this one.

    These take a long time to tag. Takes a lot of concentration to put the information in, between the right date lines. I Use Chrome and use their contrast. filter etc. to lighten and darken the information and then zoom in - this has really helped me to tag these faint pages as I am going along. I just have to keep calm and carry on. 😃

    Also different people have been writing these diary pages as they go along, you just get used to someone's writing, then someone else takes over.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to Stork's comment.

    Stork, I sympathize with you completely. Some pages are really difficult to read.

    Just do what you can with them. If it is too frustrating, there's no need to stick with a particular diary. You can switch entirely to another diary or just take a break, tag a different one, and then go back to the first one. This ability to pick your diary is one of the great features of this project.

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Actually, I took a break from it, and tagged another 2 diaries all through, then went back on to it.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    I use Picasa to make such pages more readable.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to Stork's comment.

    Stork, I've realized I missed the point of your initial comment. We really have no control over the scanning. It is, or was as I believe it is all complete now, done at the National Archives, where the original diaries are kept.

    Posted