How to contribute to the Classic Jetex archive

We welcome your contributions – articles, plans, advertisements, instruction sheets, photographs of models – in fact any documentary material that relates to the Classic Jetex era (1947 - 1970s).

You can send us copies of your material either electronically or by postal mail:

Sending electronically

You need to create a digital copy of your material. You can do this either with a scanner or a digital camera. If you don't have access to either of these gadgets, please see the section below headed "Sending by postal mail". If you do have a scanner or camera, then read on…

Go for image quality at the expense of file size

As a general principle, create your images using the highest quality settings on your scanner or camera. Although this will create the largest digital files, this outcome iis not important. We'll compress the files for web delivery, achieving the optimum balance between image quality and file size. What is important is that we have the highest possible quality of image to start with.

Should I use a camera or a scanner?

If possible, use a scanner to copy printed originals. That way, you will ensure the most faithful reproduction (see below for hints on getting the best image from the scanner). A camera is, of course, best for creating images of three-dimensional objects, such as models. Set it to the highest quality available – remember quality is more important than file size at this stage.

What file format is best?

Your digital camera will produce a JPEG file – just send us that and don't bother with trying to convert it to a different format.

If your scanner allows you to create a bitmap image (usually a TIFF or BMP format), choose that output format. (See below for advice on the colour depth setting.) The resulting file will be large, but its great advantage over other formats is that it will contain a single data element for each picture element (pixel) and thus ensure maximum fidelity to the original.

Other formats, such as JPEG or GIF, compress the data by using codes that represent a number of pixels in a single data element. These are the formats that are used for web browser display, but they don't result in optimum images to work from, because of the lack of maximum fidelity to the original. However, if your scanner outputs only in JPEG format, that's fine. A high quality JPEG image can be almost as good to work from as a bitmap image.

An entirely different type of format is the vector-based image, such as a PDF (or Acrobat) file. Instead of storing pixel data, this type of file stores a series of instructions that are 'played back' by the display software to reconstruct the image. The detail in such images varies according the level chosen at creation. If you have a plan in this format, by all means send it and we'll convert it to an image suitable for web browser display.

How can I get you the best image from my scanner?

If your scanner is capable of a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch), use that setting, otherwise set it to the maximum resolution your scanner is capable of. The higher the resolution (up to the 300 dpi limit), the greater the fidelity to the original – the greater the file size too, but remember it's quality we're going for and to hang with the file size at this stage.

If you can also set the colour depth, what you choose depends on whether you're copying a black and white document or one in colour. If it's black and white, choose 8 bit (= 256 shades) grayscale. If the original is coloured, choose the maximum setting. Hopefully, your scanner will at least be capable of 24 bit colour (so-called True Colour, allowing a range of 16,777,216 possible colours). As with resolution, the greater the colour depth, the greater the fidelity to the original and the greater the file size.

Some scanners also offer a choice of quality level. The 'High Quality' scan provides a higher quality by multiple sampling, where the scanner effectively scans twice (or more) and then averages the results. If your scanner allows this, choose the highest quality setting.

These settings should be all you need to worry about. Don't bother with attempting any optimisation – it's better to leave that to us as part of the conversion to a web image. Your quality file will provide maximum density and detail and allow us the maximum flexibility in down-sampling to create an optimum web image, using our professional-quality web graphic software (Macromedia Fireworks).

How can I send you the image file?

Attaching the file to an email message is fine. Because of the file size, it will take time to transmit, but we don't mind waiting an extra few minutes for material that's already been waiting for decades to get to us. Send it to:

jetex@websight.co.nz

Alternatively, you may want to post the file to a website that you have access to (that way, other members will be able to see it immediately). In that case, just send an email to us at jetex@websight.co.nz to let us know it's there (you'll probably want to also post a message to the list to let all members know).

If your image file is large (say, greater than 200KB), it's best not to attach it to a message you're posting to the list. Storage space for the list postings is strictly limited.

Sending by postal mail

Post your photocopy to:

John Miller Crawford
Classic Jetex Archive
8A Hope Street
Grey Lynn
Auckland 1002
New Zealand

By surface mail from the US or the UK, it'll take 3-6 weeks to get to us; by airmail, 7-10 days. We don't mind waiting! But if you'd like to get it onto the website sooner, or if you'd rather not pay for overseas mail, and you're in the US, you can send your photocopy to:

Benjamin Nead
2840 N. Forgeus Ave
Tucson, Arizona
85716-1812

Roger Simmonds
8, Orchard Way
Offord D'Arcy
St Neots
Cambs PE195RE

Ben, Carlo, Allen or Roger will scan your photocopy and send us the digital file.

Any questions?

If you have any questions or you'd like further information, please contact us at:

jetex@websight.co.nz

Thanks for your contribution!