Last week I had the pleasure to really use my "Amigas" (Amithlon and MacMini MorphOS) to complete a project that was basically undoable on my other main platform: ChromeOS.

My wife's co-worker had discovered a full-page newspaper ad from Christmas 1938 that featured her mother and aunt as children being visited by Santa Claus. It wasn't in good shape. It had been folded in quarters, with quite a bit of tattering on the edges and creases. It had yellowed and browned over time. She initially took it to a local camera shop that offers digital conversions of the type you see all over: VHS and Super 8 to DVD, that sort of thing. They didn't have a scanner, but offered to photograph it and have one of their specialist work it over. It was going to cost an initial $60 before even finding out what type of restoration they could achieve. That's when my wife stepped in and offered my "services" because she knows I like doing this sort of thing.

I first used an old HP ScanJet scanner with an 8.5 x 14 inch scan bed (SCSI) connected to my last remaining Amithlon box and ImageFX to make six 300dpi scans. Each image saved at 32megs. After that, I thought I could use my modern computers to finish the task. I used Gravit Designer's web-based drawing software to "stitch" the six pieces together. After importing each section, the software complained about the size of the image, but work proceeded anyway. With the stitching completed, I set out to export a .png of the project. That's when I slammed into a roadblock: No matter what I tried, Gravit Designer would hang or crash ChromeOS completely. After over an hour of trying to get the project exported, I finally gave up and booted up the MacMini with MorphOS.

Using PageStream, I was able to quickly re-do the stitching work I had done before. But with this software, I didn't get a single complaint as I imported the six huge files and nudged them around the screen! Nor did it choke when I printed to a ilbm file that ended up being just shy of 1gig! Realizing this would be unwieldy, I reduced the image size and reprinted. With almost no fuss (and no crashes or hangs) I had the raw stitched image.

Then I set about to reduce the crinkles and creases and color issues using fxPaint. I'm not sure this program ever got the praise it deserved when new, but it has ALWAYS been by go-to package for image touch-ups and compositions. The killer feature is the ability to "rub through" to another image. In my case, I simply used another copy of the image, slightly shifted on the X or Y axis to "paint" out the worst of the defects. The beauty of the tools means I can see the hidden image under the brush before I even press the mouse button! And even better: Right-clicking acts as an eraser to undo as necessary. My workflow started in a zoomed image representing about an eighth of the image and I just paged down after getting all the corrections I felt necessary. When I got to the bottom, I paged over and started working up. In no time, the image was in MUCH better shape than before.

In the end, I imported the resulting .png into Polarr (Android app running on my Pixelbook) to do the final color corrections.

My wife's co-worker loved the results and I was privately pleased that "Only Amiga Makes It Possible."

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NQEcJCw1QLVBQwXU6

Last edited by TJH132 on 18-Nov-2018 at 02:03 PM.
Last edited by TJH132 on 18-Nov-2018 at 01:59 PM.

@TJH132

Nice! please up load the images to show us the original image and the resulting one. After having read your story I would love to see them now!

@TJH132

Fair play dude! That sounds like a fun project and it's true that the Amiga still makes some tasks far easier than on some modern systems / software.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@TJH132

Wow. What version of PageStream were you using?

_________________
Sam

@TJH132

I would agree. Love to see the before an after.

For about fifteen years, at a U.S. federal agency, I had the only non-WindBlows systems out of about 125 people. I don't know how many times I pulled rabbits & other furry creatures out of my hat with Amiga systems and software.

Ah! Those were the days…

@TJH132

Great job! I would also love to see the before and after.

_________________
Sent from my Quantum Computer.

@-Sam-

I'll have to look specifically, but I believe it was the last 4.x. I found 5 to be completely unusable on any system I tried.

@2iceaday

I added a link to the Google Photos album I created. I hope it's viewable for you.

@TJH132

thanks for sharing! No surprise to us long time Amiga users to hear stories like yours over the years but still they put a smile on my face every time and a pat on the back to all of us who still use, care, and love our Amigas..both classics and NG

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c64-2sids, A1000, A1200T-060@50(finally working!),A4000-CSMKIII
! My Master Miggies- Amiga 1000 & AmigaOne X1000 !
mancave-ramblings
X1000 I BELIEVE

@TJH132

Great story. I always like to hear what people do with their Amiga systems or Amiga software.



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redfox