Digital Album - Presenting Stamps On Digital Album Pages

digital album is a place to enjoy the image..but real stamps in your hand is different..

valjean said:



I sincerely hope you mean between your tongs.....

I think I have explained this before, but I exclusively do digital albums for many reasons, but I always have the real thing for me to look at in my stockbooks any time I want. Digital albums just allow me to easily display them in a way to help tell the story / history of the stamps (similar to an album) only far, far more flexible. Plus once I have scanned my stamp and put it in the stockbook, I don't really need to handle it unless I really want to. To me that is much safer for my stamps rather than being hinged to an album page.

once upon a time,i have same kind of thought,and searching for this type of App,i do have one on my phone and use it assorting my Mauritius Queen stamps which some belongs to me while some not..
anyway its a good idea..using HD scanner and use it anytime you want when you need it as you said.

OK, OK Jon, your wonderful albums have got me playing around again with historically oriented Album Pages. Here are four pages I put together for German East Africa -- I know that I need to correct some awkward writing, but comments on the album pages are most welcome.

I am splitting the pages across two posts

Pages 3 and 4

Simply magnificent, Michael
Your background pictures covering the entire sheets makes quite an impression, especially page 3 where that native warrior seemingly is staring us directly in the eye. I'll do more of that myself! I also like your personal touch by leaving the traditional album headlines out altogeter, and rather replace by a small note giving more info on each set. Innovative! About colors - I prefer avoiding colors on frames and textboxes etc as far as possible, in order to let the colors of the stamps themselves stand out, but that's just my personal preference. Your style really gives your pages a personal character, the DCStamps look - and I admire it!

Did I say I like the stamps too?

(btw - you probably noted it already, but you need to edit the cat numbers on that last page)

Michael - a question for you. Your stamp scans seems to have much more colors than mine. My scans always get a bit dull, due to the pocket they are in during scanning, the freshness of the stamp colors is lost. That seems not to be the case for your scans, though I know you are also keeping the stamps in clear vario sheets when scanning. How do you do that - or is it my scanner which is poor?

Thanks for the nice comments Jon. As I have indicated before, I worry that the pictures are a little busy and take away from the stamps themselves.

Regarding the color of your scans. First if all, it is probably your scanner. But, one question, are you using any photography software such as Photoshop Elements? It is easy to brighten up the colors a bit to better match the original. Sometimes scans introduce a gray haze (I have no idea why).

Exactly - a grey haze, that what annoys me. Probably my scanner. Have no photoshop software beyond microsoft office 2010, and had no success when trying the 'enhance' function, could not see any difference whatsoever. I can use powerpoint to lighten the colors a bit match the stamps, but then the paper tend to get more white than the stamp.
Thanks anyway, guess I can live with the scans how they are without doing any manipulation.

Before wert beats me to it, may I suggest "gimp"? It is open source (free, but accepts donations) software similar to photoshop. It does have a learning curve, but once you catch on it is very useful.

Thank you to everyone that's added their ideas to this topic!

I scan my stamps in to my computer in small groups as I add them to my album. It's mostly to keep information and records as an online backup in case something happens to my collection, plus of course the added bonus of possibly interesting a non collector in to the hobby.

I've been wishing for a digital album type setup but had no idea how or if it could be done. Looks like I'll have something to work on learning for the next few days thanks to everyone!

Kim - thanks, I will try gimp!

Ok, so I fiddled around a bit and learned some very basic Powerpoint. So I bring you my first attempt at a page. I'll have to adjust it a bit still here and there but I think it came out pretty nicely so far.

Hi Betty, its good to see you jump in. Looks great, I like the way you put boxes in to show where a stamp goes, but it is covered by the stamp when you have them and all you see is the stamp. I like the content as well, Hiroshige is such a talented wood block artist.

Betty That's a really beautiful and well-designed page. I like the simplicity and elegance! The background in light colors is amazing, yet take let the stamps stand out.
And as Michael says, it's very good to see others participate with their pages in this thread - do not hesitate to share more of that stuff
Jon