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Scanning in or photographing old sheet music
#1
I have a hoard of old sheet music and music books that I want to digitise.   My initial thoughts are to photographically capture each page into PDF files.  

I don't have a flatbed scanner anymore, but even photos from phones seem to do a good job on sheet music.  I do have good DSLR cameras, tripods and stands as well,  that I can use.

Also, what resolution should it be done at?  Is the old 300 dpi, that I remember from laserjet printing, still considered OK?   Is that too high for old sheet music?
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#2
Take a look at Microsoft Lens/Office Lens. I think there are versions for Android, Windows and Apple. I know for sure the Android version can export photos as a pdf.
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#3
(09-27-2022, 01:39 PM)Skip Wrote: Take a look at Microsoft Lens/Office Lens. I think there are versions for Android, Windows and Apple. I know for sure the Android version can export photos as a pdf.

Thanks, yes, I haven't looked at the software side yet, but yes, I remember there are apps that can do it automatically.  I will use one of them probably.

That still leaves the question of the image quality required.  I don't know much about document archival, but I am assuming that you need at least as much resolution as the typical printer will print.
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#4
It's a question of fidelity vs. disk space, basically. Typical screens are 100-200 dpi (200+ for "retina" or "hidpi"), so 300dpi should be plenty. You could scan at higher resolution to be "future proof" if you don't mind slower loading and more disk space. Also, you can always resize the images to lower res (there are plenty of batch tools for this) but you can't increase the resolution.
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#5
(09-27-2022, 01:22 PM)jusmee Wrote: I have a hoard of old sheet music and music books that I want to digitise.   My initial thoughts are to photographically capture each page into PDF files.  

I don't have a flatbed scanner anymore, but even photos from phones seem to do a good job on sheet music.  I do have good DSLR cameras, tripods and stands as well,  that I can use.

Also, what resolution should it be done at?  Is the old 300 dpi, that I remember from laserjet printing, still considered OK?   Is that too high for old sheet music?

You could also take a look at the app Adobe Scan, if you have a decent Camera on your Phone/Tablet
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#6
I would think the size of your planned display enters into iI. I use 300 dpi with no problem. I suggest you try a couple charts and see what works best. I also recommend you stick with pdf's.
Dell Latitude 13.5" 2-in-1 Ubuntu/Win 11
Samsung Note Pro SM-P900 12.2 Android 5.0.2
Samsung S7+, Android 12
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