Scanning naming

[Ed_Haynes]

OK, all of us have been seeking a way to scan naming of commonwealth medals. My latest experiment. Inspired, believe it or not, by the departure of the youngest for college.

1- Take that sticky clay-like goo that one uses to stick posters on dormitory walls so you don't get charged thousands of dollars for sticking pins in the walls.

2- Make a nice flat surface in the goo.

3- Roll (carefully -- more carefully than I did in my test here) the named edge of your medal in that flat surface. (And, in this test, I only did part of the naming.)

4- Scan that impression (trying not to get the goo stuck to the scanner glass).

5- Mirror the scan, convert to black and white (unless you want a nice coloured scan -- in this case, electric blue) and adjust and fiddle the contrast (and I could have done much more than I have).

If you used wax I bet it would be better!

A test -- (Indian) Special Service Medal, clasp "Suraksha", named: 7237642 L/DFDR SM SHAMIM R V C

And you see:

[Guest Darrell]

Yeah they would be a pain scanned. I've had some pretty decent results with camera photos. Although if engraving was too long it would take two pics spliced together to do the trick ....