yaoi.caBook Handling
The Cover
I always remove the cover and try to bend it as flat as possible before placing it on the scan bed.
Be consistent with how you place your manga on the scanner so that you can take advantage of batch processing images in your graphics program. In other words, consistently place one edge of a manga against one side of the glass. I always press the bottom of my manga against the left-hand side of my scan bed. The exception to this rule is when you are dealing with large art books and doujinshi -- these will then have to be manually manipulated in the graphics program afterwards.
Even with a flat cover on the scanner, I still place a book on top to make sure it is as flat as possible to the glass.
Scanning Without Debinding
To crack your spine or not to crack your spine -- that is the question. I always say that cracking your first spine is like losing your virginity -- it hurts like hell the first time (for most), but once you get over it, it's very satisfying. I completely respect people who will never crack their spines, or bend their books. But truthfully, if you are willing to crack your spines the scans will look much better. However, it is an individual choice, and the choice is yours to make. Personally, I'm just happy when anyone shares raw sample scans from their collection.
Should you choose to crack your spine, do so as early as possible in the manga. Sometimes the way a manga is manufactured (thick or uneven glue can be particularly cumbersome) will prevent effective or straight cracking. If at some point the crack is uneven, work with the book as best as you can and eventually you find a new seem to crack along that is usually straighter. You may also have to pry some pages apart -- be careful, as you might pull the page right from the book (that happened to me this evening for the first time -- Dr. Ten, please forgive me).
Use another manga of comparable thickness to fill in the gap on the one side of the manga so that when you weight them down, the weights will be even and press as much of the manga against the glass as possible. I have three different widths of books that I use at various points to effectively fill in the gap.
When you weight the top of the scanner down, be mindful of where the book actually is on the glass. If you are scanning both pages simultaneously, then you'll wish to distribute the weight evenly. If you are scanning one page, then you might wish to distribute most of the weight on that half of the manga.
You want as much of the page flat to the glass as possible. In the image above you can see the manga and another book used to fill in the gap.
As you scan further into the book, you will need to continue to break the spine along the way. Do your best to wedge the filler book in the gap's current crease of the spine. This is sometimes easier said than done, but do the best you can.
The halfway point is about the only spot where you don't really need another book to fill in the gap. Just make sure that the spine is nicely broken at that point.
Here is a thinner book used to fill in the gap. Again, try to wedge it right against the crease of the spine.
Getting to the end of a book can be very difficult. You have broken the spine all the way along, and the buildup of creasing sometimes makes the pages curl a little more dramatically than they did in the beginning. I also find (and perhaps this might be due to my physical limitations) that I am less likely to create a good crack in the spine towards the end of the book. In any event, make use of the secondary book to fill in the gap, and flatten the thinner side as much as possible to the glass.
Book Repair
Now that you are left with a manga that looks to be about twice the size as it was when it started, you can always cram it tightly on a bookshelf between other books, or use huge encyclopedias as weights on top to try and return the book as closely to its original shape as possible. But don't despair, you have a well loved book on your hands. It's really not that bad.
Debinding
Manga can be debound by way of several techniques:
- cutting
- ironing
- microwaving
Pnyxtr has a nicely descriptive page on debinding with an iron. After debinding with my microwave (see below), I thought I would try the iron method. I have to say that despite a few complications (the glue stuck so far along the page horizontally that it wasn't in the "melting zone" and therefore required some careful manipulation), this is now my preferred method. When I ran into the aforementioned situation, several pages came out of the binding together and I consequently held the edges against the iron to heat the glue in the formerly "unreachable" zone -- after which I pried the pages apart carefully. But this method works very quickly and effectly, and does not result in slight page curl (as with the microwave). And yes, you do get glue on your iron -- so use an iron that will only be used for this pupose.
Cutting, in my opinion, leaves too much room for error (especially with my unsteady hands).
I have debound with my microwave using the following method:
Remove the cover and microwave on high until the cover lifts and the first couple pages likewise lift (usually about a minute). Pull the nicely heated manga from the microwave and carefully tug the pages out from one end to the other. The end pages are the most difficult to pull out as they tend to be drenched in more glue and are stuck firmly to the covers. Extra microwave time and lots of TLC & patience are necessary. Once past about 20 pages, the pages tug out of the softened glue easily. Every 20 pages or so place the manga back in the microwave for about 20 more seconds and repeat until finished. The process doesn't take long at all.
A debound manga is tonnes easier to scan. Depending on the scanning software, you can perform all the cropping and leveling near perfectly in the scanning software. The resulting scans require VERY little cleaning (no gutter shadow -- YAY).
Debinding a manga is not necessary, I know this. And it's not for everyone. I'm totally respectful of people who don't wish to take it this far. But for my project of obsession, it's worth it for the both the results and the time saved.
Scanning Debound Pages
As noted below, scan consistently (i.e. bottom edge of manga page consistently against the same edge of the scan bed). Most scanners have a few millimeters between the glass and the lid. When scanning single pages, apply some other pages to fill the gap for the crispest scan.
I use about 20 pages of white paper. Some people use black paper if there is a lot of bleed through from the opposite side that might otherwise be a hindrance during the scanning process (within the software itself). Close the lid, cover and weight down if you wish, and scan!
Book repair for a debound manga? Not likely (unless you wish to rebind with glue), although it is possible. Otherwise, slide all the pages in the cover, deposit in a zip lock bag and store. Enjoy your scans! :-)
book handling 
