Best Format for putting a High School Yearbook on a website?

[sharveys]

Because the task of scanning and putting up a yearbook online will be very time consuming and I want to get it "right" the first time. I don't want to spend months getting it up online, only to realize I "should" have done it another way.

I'm guessing there might be a consensus by you experts as to what looks best and is most efficient. I think many others use Dreamweaver because it is considered "compliant" with accepted standards. I want my websites to be that way also. I'm NOT a webmaster expert but have put together several websites over the years. I hate when I go to another website and see/realize that I should have done something differently on one of mine.

Being a part-time pro photographer, I plan on scanning pages at a high resolution with all default settings off (including sharpening). I'll then open the scanned images up individually and edit them in Adobe Photoshop CS6, as I would one of my photos.

As a photographer posting photos on the internet, I know certain things are NOT in the grey area...like you should shoot in RAW (and not JPEG), you should convert the final product in sRGB if you're shooting in sRGB. You should sharpen AFTER you resize your photo. For high ISO shots, you should clean up noise. Posted photos should not be higher than 600 pixels for general web viewing, etc. I think that the proper format of posting a yearbook on a website (PDF, GIF, JPEG, etc.) would have general compliance standards as does creating photos for a website.

Help me, please. Thanks.

[Mariam Hovhannesyan]

I think the best format is JPEG baseline standard it most used format for webpages

[Silkrooster]

Jpg is ok if you don't mind possible quality loss. Especially if you open and save repeatedly, as it is a lossy format.

Png is a lossless format but due to keeping all the data, it normally is a larger file size.

Pdf is the way to go if you all the viewers can use a pdf viewer. Most web browsers can now view pdf by default, so this is becoming less of an issue. The advantage of pdf is that it can house either raster (bitmap), vector (paths) or both. Giving you the widest leeway of what can be displayed.

Each of these have there advantages and disadvantages, it will be up to you to decide what you are willing to give up.

[Nancy OShea]

I don't mean to come across as Debbie Downer but do you have legal permission from the Year Book owners to copy and post content online?   I ask because there could be copyright & possible privacy issues involved.   I think people have to be given an opportunity to opt-in/out of having their picture posted online.

Converting the entire book to PDF would be another option to consider.

Nancy

[davescm]

I had a similar question which is why scan the images at all. Can you not take the digital images, size them - convert to jpeg and put them into your website in a layout that simulates the yearbook layout?

Dave

[Test Screen Name]

Before you scan it, stop! Is this an antique, or was it made on a computer in the first place? Scanning is a last resort when nothing exists but paper, and the results are never up to much.

[sharveys]

Does anyone have experience scanning pages of a printed copy of a yearbook? And uploading them to a webpage?

I need to know what works.

Scan at 360dpi or 600dpi?

Upload as JPEG, GIF or PDF?

What about capturing the pages with a SLR camera with proper lighting?

[Test Screen Name]

As you’re a photographer you may value the photos most highly but others may well value the text more highly. And their key needs may include searching it. That excludes all raster formats. And PDF would need extensive OCR.

[mordechaih87426608]

These guys should be able to help you!

Yearbookscanning.com