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way to extract high res images from a flash viewer?

D

Dubb

Platinum Member
Note: the document in question was published in 1909 and is in the public domain.

I've had my eye out for a good reproduction of Burnham's "Plan of Chicago" for some time - published versions are generally crappy and taken from high numbered editions (where the original print quality is lower)

I just noticed that the encyclopedia of chicago has a good scan of a low numbered edition on their website:

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10417.html

Problem is, it uses an annoying flash viewer that can't be scaled to fit the screen, and navigating is frustrating at best.

The flash viewer is obviously sourcing the high res data from somewhere, and I'm wondering if there's any way to extract that? I'd just like to save it all once and compile a decent PDF that's easier to read.

Strategies? I poked around the page source but couldn't come up with much.
 
I was aware of the google books version - it's not good enough.

Google books actually did better than many of the released versions, but the scan is still pretty bad, particularly the graphics. Many of the maps are illegible.
 
Well, using the live http headers firefox plugin, I've got a list of links to all the source images.

now I just need a way to download all the images from a list of links.
 
The fun part is getting them the size you want, but it can be done. If you notice the filename includes &wid=580, thats the width of the image being sent. Change that for larger images, unless you've found some way to get directly at the original images (which apparently are pretty large).

EDIT >> Looks like 2000 is the maximum width allowed.

original: http://images.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/is/image/Illustrations/BURNHAMPLAN/FRONT_MATERIAL/bPCc000f000u001_ready.tif?crop=-1572,0,6018,3719&wid=580&resmode=sharp&op_usm=1,0.5,0.5

resized: http://images.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/is/image/Illustrations/BURNHAMPLAN/FRONT_MATERIAL/bPCc000f000u001_ready.tif?crop=-1572,0,6018,3719&wid=2000&resmode=sharp&op_usm=1,0.5,0.5
 
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I've got links to the originals (they're compressed .tifs 2000px wide for single pages), but they've got a max image size set, so you can't get at a whole page directly. I'll have to grab the top halves, then the bottom halves and then set photoshop to automate putting them together (annoying but pretty easy). The handful of multiple page spreads I'll do manually.

still looking through ff plugins for something that will allow me to copy & paste the list of links for downloading (several hundred images)
 
wget

I bet there's even an open source image concatenate utility that will allow you to run a single script with a few lines of bash code to automate the entire thing for you.
 
AnonymouseUser said:
Yeah, that's eliminating the unnecessary whitespace that my image doesn't have, but cuts off the bottom.... 😕
Click to expand...

it also gets you the full res of the image.


Kludgy solution:

text editor find and replace to turn links into html links.

paste into body of dummy html file and open in firefox

use download them all plugin to grab links.

grabbing the tops now, will get the bottoms next
 
Nice book. I love old maps.

When you're done, would you mind sharing? I think one or two of the plates might make a nice Christmas gift for my brother in law - a mechanical engineer in Chicago.
 
rivan said:
Nice book. I love old maps.

When you're done, would you mind sharing? I think one or two of the plates might make a nice Christmas gift for my brother in law - a mechanical engineer in Chicago.
Click to expand...
Same. I have an architect friend in Chicago.
 
SKORPI0 said:
You don't need photoshop just to merge the top and bottom pages.
Try Microsoft ICE --> http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/

Just specify the top and bottom pages and ICE merges them automatically.
Click to expand...

eh, I've got photoshop scripts that only took a little editing to crunch through all of them unattended (basically: merge two, save as .tiff, merge next two...). Looks like with that I'd have to go one by one.

Photoshop finished crunching while I was away today. I've got some manual correction to do on the blank pages and then I'll compile in indesign.

rivan said:
Nice book. I love old maps.

When you're done, would you mind sharing? I think one or two of the plates might make a nice Christmas gift for my brother in law - a mechanical engineer in Chicago.
Click to expand...

I can make it available if there is a place to put it. PDF for the final doc looks like it will be around 100MB depending on what level of optimization I do.

most of the 2 page spreads are 5500px wide, the 3 page spreads are around 8100px wide. The website sends them through with a moderate level of .jpg compression (I couldn't come up with access to the unfiltered .tiffs), so they're not great at 100%, but thankfully the resolution is high enough to mostly hide that.

Also - There may be better imagery available of some of the graphics, particularly the Guerin watercolors, which I believe were photographed and then turned into plates for the printing of the book. For this I was principally interested in having the book as it was printed.
 
Made a request to my local library, surprised that they lent me the 1909 edition. Most of the copies existing are for reference only.
Copy 827 of 1650.

1000254wg.jpg


Problem is pages 13-18, 53-56, 86-90, 105-106 and 113-114 have been torn off and replaced with photocopies.

1000255do.jpg


Book has been rebound April 1993. Looks like be scanning each page ASAP.

Test scan - page 45

scan1102130006.jpg
 
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Kinda surprising. Even damaged and rebound it's probaly worth $500-1k. Most copies are held by universities that keep them in special collections.

Assuming you didn't do any color correction on that scan, it looks less yellowed, with deeper colors than the CHS #159 scans on the web. But it looks like the printing is sharper on the lower # print - typical since the plates wear a little with each press.

The PDFs I made from the CHS copy should be available soon, but if you want to post that one I'd be curious to see more of it.
 
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