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  4th Feb 2015, 2:13 PM#21  REPORT  
Neil Forbes

Rock, Country or R. & B. - Classic Hits for me!
Member since Dec 2014
252 Points
nboldock wrote:
Of course you don't have to use GIMP, it just happens to be the one I use, and some others do. I like it a lot.

For those who don't know, ICE is a free download from the Microsoft website here. It is very, very easy to use.
I'll attest to that! It was nboldock who put me onto ICE and I'm glad he did! There was an issue with the download, a virus came along for the ride but my AVG took care of that and I was able to install the cleaned-up application. And you've been seeing the stuff I've been uploading, all nicely stitched together by ICE - Real COOL, man!


  4th Feb 2015, 4:45 PM#22  REPORT  
nboldock

Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink.
Member since Feb 2012
7117 Points
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I suspect the virus was a "false flag" as the download is direct from Microsoft. It should be entirely safe to install.


  4th Feb 2015, 5:03 PM#23  REPORT  
Magic Marmalade

If you're not lost... It's not an adventure!
Member since Jun 2014
3713 Points
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Incidentally,

When I upgraded to windows h8, the compatibility test for hardware and software frowned upon almost everything I'd had on XP (Yup, I move with the times people!), and many will be under the impression that their old scanners and software will not work with this split-personality, schizoid, two headed arse-less dog of a push-me-pull-you operating system.

You can!

I'm still using the PhotoImpression (Brilliant), precision scan 3.1 software with my HP 4470c scanner on it, So other old scanners may very well also work, and because people think they won't they'll most likely be cheap!

Regarde: Scanner Compatibilty With Windows h8


  5th Feb 2015, 10:15 AM#24  REPORT  
Neil Forbes

Rock, Country or R. & B. - Classic Hits for me!
Member since Dec 2014
252 Points
nboldock wrote:
I suspect the virus was a "false flag" as the download is direct from Microsoft. It should be entirely safe to install.
As I said, the AVG software dispensed with the "virus"/"False Flag" and the software installed without any grief and you've seen the results of what I've uploaded thus far.


  5th Feb 2015, 6:00 PM#25  REPORT  
Magic Marmalade

If you're not lost... It's not an adventure!
Member since Jun 2014
3713 Points
Moderator
You may be able to create your own art with ICE, as when I was scanning the Deutsche Grammophon Sleeve for that entry on classical world, I'd selected (Highlighted) the four Corner component scans before going to create panorama, and accidentally had the label scan highlit too...

the tulip crest on the labels is bigger than the logo on the front of the sleeve, and ICE read it as being where this label crest ought to go, and so seamlessly blended it in the final composite picture, in place of the Deutsche Grammophon sleeve logo tulip crest.

I sat with sleeve in hand comparing it to the image on the screen for a couple of minutes, confused, before I finally figured out what had happened...

Why did the Tulips appear bigger on the sleeve image scan that on the sleeve I'd scanned?!!!

It has to be comparable images though, with a degree of similarity to the other component images to fool ICE, otherwise it just puts a message up saying it: "can't stitch these images, pick others that overlap".

Might be fun to play about with though!


  6th Feb 2015, 9:27 AM#26  REPORT  
nboldock

Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink.
Member since Feb 2012
7117 Points
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Magic Marmalade wrote:
You may be able to create your own art with ICE, as when I was scanning the Deutsche Grammophon Sleeve for that entry on classical world, I'd selected (Highlighted) the four Corner component scans before going to create panorama, and accidentally had the label scan highlit too...

the tulip crest on the labels is bigger than the logo on the front of the sleeve, and ICE read it as being where this label crest ought to go, and so seamlessly blended it in the final composite picture, in place of the Deutsche Grammophon sleeve logo tulip crest.

I sat with sleeve in hand comparing it to the image on the screen for a couple of minutes, confused, before I finally figured out what had happened...

Why did the Tulips appear bigger on the sleeve image scan that on the sleeve I'd scanned?!!!

It has to be comparable images though, with a degree of similarity to the other component images to fool ICE, otherwise it just puts a message up saying it: "can't stitch these images, pick others that overlap".

Might be fun to play about with though!

Haha, great - you've invented a new art form!


  6th Feb 2015, 1:20 PM#27  REPORT  
Neil Forbes

Rock, Country or R. & B. - Classic Hits for me!
Member since Dec 2014
252 Points
getalife wrote:
Thanks. :thumbsup:
Am I right, you have to import all the images in one batch or can they be imported one at a time, and can you edit them yourself.
You should import all images for the front of an album cover(if that's what you're editing together), and though ICE does turn the image sections automatically, it helps if you turn them right-way-round first. Saves a bit of processing time. And, of course I should add, you import the rear cover images and edit them separately. For each set of images you "stitch" together, you then export that composite image to the file from whence you imported the component images, giving the completed stitch a new name in the export process. There's no need to save the image in the ICE programme itself.

Edited by Neil Forbes on 6th Feb 2015, 1:27 PM

  4th Sep 2021, 8:49 PM#28  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
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Having migrated to Win10 on a new desktop PC I went to install ICE only to find that Windows Image Composite Editor has been discontinued since July(?) 2021. DuckDuckGo-ing (Googling) around finds this answer from
Microsoft forums
Clicking on the suggested link downloads the wanted program before you realise it's been downloaded so you eventually find several copies, any one of which can be made to happily install itself in your programs folder

Operation is an improvement on the V1 we grew up with: you select "New panorama from images" and load the images to be stitched, whereupon four tabs appear, Inport, Stitch, Crop, Export. These step are shown briefly in the MS video promotion for the product



They can't have envisaged anyone would be using it for so trivial a task as combining scans of an album sleeve :heehee:


  11th Sep 2021, 11:36 AM#29  REPORT  
Malcyramone SUBS

Remember the good old 1980's?
Member since Sep 2011
7664 Points
Good to see someone else who doesn't want to be tracked all the time by Google and uses DuckDuckGo.


  12th Sep 2021, 10:07 PM#30  REPORT  
sladesounds

Turning rebellion into money since 1962
Member since Nov 2009
6547 Points
Moderator
Malcyramone wrote:
Good to see someone else who doesn't want to be tracked all the time by Google and uses DuckDuckGo.

I am a recent convert too! Also started using Brave as my browser - (45cat works fine on it). If you want to avoid all the google tracking read about Brave here. It's faster, has a great add blocker and it does not track you!


  13th Sep 2021, 12:11 AM#31  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
4121 Points
Moderator
Are you using Brave on a PC or mobile? Just looked for it on my phone and there's some guy going on about losing BATs in his 'wallet' :confused:


  28th Sep 2021, 1:49 AM#32  REPORT  
fantasista

Member since Feb 2015
435 Points
sladesounds wrote:
Malcyramone wrote:
Good to see someone else who doesn't want to be tracked all the time by Google and uses DuckDuckGo.

I am a recent convert too! Also started using Brave as my browser - (45cat works fine on it). If you want to avoid all the google tracking read about Brave here. It's faster, has a great add blocker and it does not track you!
Good choice, Brave and Firefox are both good options, security-wise, right out of the box.

I just used ICE 2.0 for the first time and I was genuinely blown away by how easy it was to use and how good the results are. Thanks for the link, Juke Jules - for anyone looking for the program, I'll post the links directly in this thread:

ICE-2.0.3-for-64-bit-Windows.msi
ICE-2.0.3-for-32-bit-Windows.msi


  16th Oct 2021, 10:51 PM#33  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
4121 Points
Moderator
When you update your PC to Win10 you may find you no longer have the drivers for your pre-Win10 scanner. If it was working perfectly under the old OS you may be reluctant to buy a new scanner, particularly if it's A3 size. Not-too-old scanners may have Win10 s/w to download from the manufacturer's 'support' section but my Mustek A3 is way too old for that. Pending replacing it (I'm not sure what A2 scanners are available for home/office use now anyway) I got out a portable USB A4 scanner I bought a few years ago specifically for scanning other people's records when visiting - turns out it was too many years ago for a s/w update (unless you are running Mac). It's a Canon LiDE 210 and it's only ever done about 20 scans (for 45cat) so I asked a passing IT consultant isn't there any... Quick as a flash he said VueScan so I downloaded the trial version and started scanning stuff. What about the Mustek? No problem, the VueScan website lists hundreds of scanners it has been proven for, but it should drive any kind of scanner with a Twain interface. Fortunately the Mustek has a USB port; parallel ports would need a hardware adaptor.

The guy's website says to email him any questions so I asked about the de-screen options and next time I checked my emails he had replied saying yes, and to look in the help files, so I bought the 'home' edition. A one-time payment of £30 seemed very fair to get at least two workings scanners. You can install on 4 machines operating on most Windows, MacOS and Linux versions, and you can upgrade to the full Pro version at a discounted price.

The full version has any imaginable option, including batch scanning, scanning to multi-page PDF, and OCR which is what you need if you want machine-readable documents so you can search or copy text. I scan a lot of technical documents so that would be nice, but for now I'll continue to create image PDFs using Image To PDF or XPS

Try it on your favourite scanner or an old skip-find peripheral!


  16th Oct 2021, 11:31 PM#34  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
4121 Points
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I've been using both scanners for weeks now with very successful results, and have made a few discoveries which I'll pass on here

It's ridiculously slow to start up, probably because it's the full version with most options greyed out, so leave the little blue circle circling while you peruse the latest 45cat comments and make a cup of tea. By then it will have found any connected scanners assuming they're powered up. It doesn't seem to like being hibernated so I close it when closing down. It has difficulty finding the Mustek scanner after using the Canon so I have to try using any application that will address a Twain device, such as Paint.NET, whereupon VueScan will take over.

The big bugbear when scanning record sleeves is Moiré patterning of any photographic images so good de-screen is essential. The s/w for the Mustek had brilliant de-screen with pre-set or manual settings which would clean the worst examples. I have always scanned at 100, 150 or 200 DPI depending on media size, trying to avoid the loss of quality that comes from reducing a JPEG in s/w, but the home version of VueScan only has one setting (under 'Filter) which wasn't strong enough. I was all set to pay for the full version when I found that increasing the DPI has the same effect as increasing the de-screen, and I don't notice any quality loss on a cover scan. I leave Filter > Sharpen set at Light to give a slightly sharper image

When scanning white paper documents and books select Media > Gray or just leave it at Auto, and set Color > Neutral with Black Point Min (0), White Point Max (11), Brightness Max (4). There are many usual sizes for Media but if you leave Media set to Auto it can usually detect the media size and automatically crop the image. For 45worlds you always need jpg files but for archiving literature png is preferable so I scan to tiff and convert when editing if it gives a filesize reduction

One final observation: I have struggled many times to hold a gatefold sleeve or a large book in place on the scanner bed while manipulating the mouse to click 'scan'. The other day I was holding a particularly awkward piece with one hand while operating the mouse with the other, when I accidentally hit something on the keyboard, and instead of totally messing up the job it started to scan! All the time I had my Mustek I always thought I wish they could have a dedicated keyboard button for 'scan'. and here it is - just hit Return :happy:

Edited by Juke Jules on 16th Oct 2021, 11:39 PM

  17th Oct 2021, 4:06 PM#35  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
4121 Points
Moderator
Juke Jules wrote:
When scanning white paper documents and books select Media > Gray or just leave it at Auto, and set Color > Neutral with Black Point Min (0), White Point Max (11), Brightness Max (4)

I must revise my advice: today I'm working on some detailed white paper scans which must print out with no obvious loss of detail after I edit them. They need 300DPI for the detail. and I'm playing with the Color and Filter settings. This is easily done because the effect of any setting is displayed on the current image while you make adjustments. When you are satisfied with the settings, scan again and the new file will reflect those changes

The same result may be obtained with any setting of the Media: Gray, or B/W Text or even Color (!). I am now using Gray with Heavy descreen and Color > Neutral with Black Point 3, White Point 1, Brightness 1.6


  10th Oct 2022, 12:15 AM#36  REPORT  
Juke Jules SUBS

Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow
Member since Jan 2011
4121 Points
Moderator
Having used the 'home' version of VueScan for a year now, I am making much more use of the 'crop' function. For 45 and CD sleeves, the crop box can be resized and moved with the mouse. With luck the crop area may be the same for successive scans. For books it is useful to 'flip' the scan for alternate pages, and if you position the book carefully the crop box will move to the mirror position for the pages which are scanned upside down.


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