Dust jacket scans

[Gavin]

Hi there!
At the moment I'm collecting early or first editions of the major EB series - but I'm choosing to buy them without dust jackets. This might sound a little odd but I figure I can buy approx 3 books without dust jackets for every one with a dust jacket. The second reason (and this will sound REALLY weird) is that I'd be too concerned about keeping them in top-notch condition - it would be like a responsibility! I'd be too worried about maintaining their condition to enjoy them fully.

Anyway - I thought it might be nice to print out scans of the covers - first edition Methuens for the FFOs for example. The scans on the Book Listing page are great and have been very useful to me but they're not quite high res enough to print out and look nice. Is there somewhere on the net with high quality EB cover scans?

Thanks
Gavin

[Vic Nicholas]

Mate, if there was anywhere I could get scans of the original art work for the FFO series, I would be jumping on them.

I have the series in Methuen hardbacks, but most are missing dust jackets.

I would love all my volumes to have the dust jacket.

If you come up with anything - let me know.

Vic

[Rob Houghton]

They are probably low resolution for a good reason: to stop people copying them and selling them on ebay for massive prices!

I have several Find outer books with DW's, some in very excellent condition. My best is 'Pantomime Cat'. the DW is in almost fine condition. It's a ninth edition, but I don't mind, as its the fact it has a wrapper that I tend to think is more important. The cheapest F.F.O book I have bought with a wrapper was £12.00 - about a tenth edition. Yes, they usually are expensive: around £25.00 for Pantomime Cat.

Personally I hate scans, as I bought a copy of 'SIx Cousins Again' a few years ago thinking it was a DW and found, after removing the protective plastic wrapper, that it was just a scan needless to say I never went back to the shop in question to buy other books!

[Anita Bensoussane]

[Robert:] They are probably low resolution for a good reason: to stop people copying them and selling them on ebay for massive prices!

Yes, I've seen people trying to sell photocopied Enid Blyton dust jackets on eBay for over £20 each. Think of the profit they must be making (if anyone actually buys them at such an outrageous price!)

I think I've also read somewhere that low resolution images are often used on websites because the download time is quicker - not certain whether I've got that right though.

Anita

[Keith Robinson]

(Quick explanation in case anyone needs/wants to know...)

The resolution of website images is not deliberately to prevent copying, it's just because screens don't need anywhere the resolution/size that print does. A typical screen might be 1024 pixels wide. This website is about 720 pixels wide if recall (so there's white space to the sides). The scans of the full wrap-around covers that Tony has in some places are no more that 520 pixels wide. But when you print, you typically need an image that's three or four times bigger than that in order to fill a standard sheet of paper with nice, clear print.

Images straight from a digital camera are often around 3000 x 2000 or so, big enough to print clearly using the printer's 300dpi (dots per inch) or higher. But to show a camera image on a website, unedited, you'd have to scroll sideways as well as up and down to see it.

So, in a nutshell, web images are typically not printable, and printable images are not website friendly. It's two totally different types of media.

[Gavin]

Yes, I can understand the desire not to help con-artists on eBaying from fooling the unsuspecting but at the end of the day, these sorts of people will always find a way. It's the same with any crime, including music piracy, if someone wants to do it, they will always find a way. I'm always sceptical when I look at auctions online on eBay, and wonder if the dustjackets are genuine.

Still, it would be nice if the rest of us who can't afford to buy expensive copies of these books could get access to nice cover scans - it's never going to be as good as owning the original dustjacket but it would be something

[jennifer]

I agree with you Gavin - I would really like to get a nice scan of my Dustjackets so I can protect the original ones I have, a few of mine are really "delicate" and putting a photocoy of a jacket around them would be better protection. Also they are getting to expensive most of the books are out of my price range so getting a photocopy of the d/j would be great. I live in Australia and I haven't found anywhere (printing place that is) that can do this as you I need the paper to be over size A3. Has anyone done a scan successfully that they look exactly the same? Jennifer Adelaide Australia.