| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| sjzukrow |
Posted - June 10 2010 : 21:33:48
For the last several months, I've been redoing the Brickline on CD ROM, originally created seven years ago. With the cooperation of John Martin who created the original nine disc set and significant assistance from current Brickline editor, John Blair, I'm happy to report my project is completed.
What's the difference between the current set and the previous set? A logical question.
- The most noticeable difference is the new set isn't a set at all. Newer versions of Adobe store files more efficiently and the complete set of Bricklines fits on a single disc with no quality loss. It's hard to believe 35 years of our magazine, from the first 3-page photocopied issue in September, 1975 to the current (July 2010) issue, fits on one disc but all 3092 pages are there.
- Five newly discovered early issues, missing from the previous set, are included on the new disc.
- The new version goes through the current issue while the old set stopped at the end of 2007.
- Several mistakes have been corrected.
- Missing pages have been added.
- Some color pages, accidentally scanned in black and white have been rescanned in color.
- Duplicated pages removed.
- Upside-down pages reoriented.
- Pages out of sequence have been put back in order.
- Various pages intended for landscape orientation have been rotated 90 degrees for easier viewing. They will still print normally.
- Page numbering has been redone to match the print versions.
- I have created bookmarks and invisible links as navigation aids. You can click a line in the table of contents or a bookmark and jump directly to the corresponding page. Most of the first six volumes did not contain tables of contents. You can also click the "continued on page xx" at an article break and jump straight to the continuation.
- John Blair has provided electronic versions of the magazines starting when he took over as editor in October, 1997. I was able to recreate each of the issues from his tenure electronically. These documents include several improvements over those created by scanning the printed magazines:
- Improved image quality. Everything is stunningly clear and perfectly lined up.
- String searches of text can be done using Adobe Reader's built in search function. I wish I could have gone back to the very beginning for this capability but it just wasn't practical.
- Many of the original color pictures are included even though the corresponding pictures printed in the magazine were in black and white.
- And, if that's not all ... The price is dropping to just $75. Where else can you get 152 Bricklines for less than 50 cents apiece?
I'll be bringing a few to Lexington. The rest won't go on sale until after I return.
Stuart
#0824 |
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