Getting Patterns From Books & Magazines?

[kywoodmaster]

When I subscribed to the magazines I would take the center pages to an engineering firm close to my work.  They would make me copies of the center pages that I could cut up and scan in easily.  I no longer subscribe and have not bought one in a while. This works really well and is not that expensive.

I have found digital copies of a lot of the books I own on Scribe.  The ones that I don"t have digital copies of I cut apart on the band saw and scan then I have a huge heavy duty 3 hole punch that I use to put them back in 3 ring binders.

[Jim McDonald]

..but I have thought of removing each pattern and putting them in a three-ring binder. 

I have done that in the past and it IS a lot of work. I haven't done in a couple of years, so I have a lot to catch up on. I use sheet protectors for the patterns and some magazine holders I got from Amazon. 

[Scrappile]

Once you have them scanned, why do you save the hard copy?

Edited February 12, 2023 by Scrappile

[BadBob]

48 minutes ago, Scrappile said:

Once you have them scanned, why do you save the hard copy?

I don't keep the paper. Once the scans are backed up I shred them.

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, BadBob said:

I don't keep the paper. Once the scans are backed up I shred them.

Might as well use as a pattern and save on printer ink rather than shedding them.. or am I missing something.. LOL.. That is what I was thinking about doing.. 

I do agree, why save them once scanned you have the pattern.. I do recommend backing up patterns to a few different devices in case one fails.. or store to a online cloud thing.. I had a hard drive fail one and lost at least 20,000 patterns.. most of which were free patterns from some of the old MSN groups back in the day.. maybe 15 - 20 years ago.. I used to save every pattern I come across so it wasn't like I was going to cut every one of them.. I'd like to try though, LOL

[Scrappile]

Well patterns from books or mags, are never the size I want to cut.  Once I have them on file I can manipulate then into what I want to cut. 

[OCtoolguy]

2 minutes ago, Scrappile said:

Well patterns from books or mags, are never the size I want to cut.  Once I have them on file I can manipulate then into what I want to cut. 

One of my first projects was a candy/nut basket from a book. I tried many times to get a good scan of that pattern in order to make some alterations using Inkscape. I finally gave up. I begged for help here on the Village and a few folks did try but to no avail. I know a bit more about that program now so I might try it again. I was having trouble converting it from a scan to a jpg file that I could work with. This thread has sparked my curiosity to try again. Thanks to all. An interesting topic.

[Scrollshrimp]

I usually scan the page of the book with the pattern I want then convert it to a PDF file and store it on an external hard drive.

I can then resize it to whatever size I need. The problem I encounter sometimes is that the pattern is too close to the spine of the book and this makes it difficult to scan on my scanner.

I don't like the idea of cutting up a good book either.

 

[OCtoolguy]

1 minute ago, Scrollshrimp said:

I usually scan the page of the book with the pattern I want then convert it to a PDF file and store it on an external hard drive.

I can then resize it to whatever size I need. The problem I encounter sometimes is that the pattern is too close to the spine of the book and this makes it difficult to scan on my scanner.

I don't like the idea of cutting up a good book either.

 

My problem exactly. Also the pages in my book are down in an off-color that doesn't scan well. 

[BadBob]

2 hours ago, Scrollshrimp said:

I don't like the idea of cutting up a good book either.

You'll get over it.

[Scrappile]

My scan gives me options of type of file to save it to.   

[BadBob]

3 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Might as well use as a pattern and save on printer ink rather than shedding them.. or am I missing something.. LOL.. That is what I was thinking about doing.. 

I do agree, why save them once scanned you have the pattern.. I do recommend backing up patterns to a few different devices in case one fails.. or store to a online cloud thing.. I had a hard drive fail one and lost at least 20,000 patterns.. most of which were free patterns from some of the old MSN groups back in the day.. maybe 15 - 20 years ago.. I used to save every pattern I come across so it wasn't like I was going to cut every one of them.. I'd like to try though, LOL

I would use the pattern if it were what I needed. I usually want something else. It would not save me much. My laser printer costs me less than $0.02 per sheet to print.

I wanted to mention backups. When I scan a book or pattern, it gets backed up offsite as soon as I save it the first time. When I edit a pattern, it immediately gets back up, and the old version gets saved for 30 days in case I change my mind or do something stupid like write over it. Deleted files also are saved for 30 days. I also periodically run manual backups. I have at least four copies of every scanned pattern or book., each stored in a different device of every scanned pattern or book.

If it isn't offsite, it isn't backed up.

If you haven't tested a restore, it isn't backed up. I can tell you how many times I have been given a blank tape to restore someone's data. Not a fun day.

I know someone is thinking, "I don't have to back up my paper books." Think fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, or the dog eats it. Your disaster recovery plan by all new stuff.