Portobello Reporter Archive

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 02 Jul 2006, 21:36

The most recent edition of the Portobello Reporter is now available online. We now have a complete archive of every issue since Summer 2001.

The current editor, Brenda Molony, was the guest speaker at a recent Portobello History Society meeting, giving a talk entitled 'Portobello Reporter - the first 26 years', from which you can deduce that the first issue appeared back in 1980.

I am now looking at the possibility of providing a complete digital archive of the newspaper. It's a mammoth task since pre-2001 editions will have to be scanned or photographed, page by page - a time-consuming and expensive process. Of course, the real value of such a facility lies in being able to provide a search facility so it's not just a case of producing the pages as images, we need to incorporate OCR as well.

To achieve this, we need expert technical help and we need to find the necessary funds. It's a huge project but, I'm sure you will agree, a very worthwhile one and I will keep you posted on progress.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 07 Sep 2006, 20:18

There have been some very interesting developments on this front and I hope to have some news soon. In the meantime, to whet your appetite, we are making available in pdf format the very first edition of the Portobello Reporter, dating from June 1980.

It's a fascinating time-trip to a world of fights on the beach between punks and mods, rumours of Kings Road being demolished and plans afoot for a highly controversial development.

Portobello Reporter - the very first edition

(Warning - this is a large file. Allow time to download.)

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 29 Nov 2008, 21:25

Two years on and I haven't given up on this project yet. The challenge is working out how to scan the original pages and produce a pdf that is a manageable file size while maintaining as much quality as possible to make the text legible, bearing in mind the original source material is cheaply printed and up to 28 years old.

To do the job, I have invested in a Mustek A3 1200 USB Pro scanner. It sounds impressive but it's actually an entry-level budget machine. And I'm restricted to the limited software I already have plus any freeware I can find.

I'm scanning directly into Photoshop Elements 3. I have been experimenting with PDF Shrink, which doesn't help much, and I can produce multi-page pdfs with PDFMergeX. I've managed to get individual pages down to 1 mb but that's still 12 mb per issue.

The very first 4-page edition has now been trimmed down to 4 mb:

http://www.porty.org.uk/reporters/rep_june_80.pdf

And this is my latest attempt at a single page from a 1982 edition:

http://www.porty.org.uk/reporters/rep_autumn_82_1.pdf

You need to zoom in to at least 150% to be able to read it easily.

Looking for usability feedback and I would be grateful for advice from anyone who has experience in working with pdfs. There are around 1000 pages to scan so it's important to get it right from the beginning.

BeachBum · Post by **BeachBum** » 29 Nov 2008, 22:13

Actually, sounds like a very interesting project!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 29 Nov 2008, 22:37

Here's Page 2 of the Autumn 1982 issue:

http://www.porty.org.uk/reporters/rep_autumn_82_2.pdf

Post by **wangi** » 30 Nov 2008, 00:10

Bob, can you email me the scanner output for the June 1980 issue and I'll see if I can get it below 4MB?

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 30 Nov 2008, 00:42

The two issues I'm currently working with were scanned by a friend a couple of years back. I seem to remember that the very first issue was in A4 format. Everything since, including the Autumn 1982 issue, is A3. They were scanned as .tif files, each around 16 meg at 300 dpi.

I will stick a disk through your letterbox tomorrow.

Post by **wangi** » 01 Dec 2008, 01:10

Ok; here's a 4.8MB of all 12 pages of the October 1984 issue: portobello-reporter-19841014.pdf.

I used ImageMagick's "convert" utility to do the work. You can get at that on OS X too**...

Important thing to do is reduce the 300 DPI originals down to something more suited to screen resolutions, which are also smaller in filesize. Screens are typically 75 - 96DPI (I used 90). Also you can then compress the image with "lossy" compression (i.e. JPEG). The incantation on the command line:

Code: Select all

convert -units PixelsPerInch -density 300 *.tif -resample 90 -type Grayscale -adaptive-sharpen 0x0.2 -compress JPEG -quality 75 -density 90 portobello-reporter-19841014.pdf

You can get it smaller still by reducing the quality value.

L/

** If you have MacPorts installed it's as easy as "sudo port install ImageMagick"; otherwise see here.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 01 Dec 2008, 11:36

Lee, thanks but that's way too techy for me. I'll continue experimenting along the lines you suggest re resolution and compression though.

Post by **wangi** » 01 Dec 2008, 20:53

Bob Jefferson wrote:thanks but that's way too techy for me.

Your choice... But the hard stuff is already done. Just run save off the pages for each issue to their own folder and run that command on each folder in turn -- and that's it. Zap. Done.

A wee bit of pain now will save a load of time in the long run!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 01 Dec 2008, 22:38

Believe me, if there is an easy way of doing it then I'm interested but this command line stuff is just way beyond me. I'm still coming to terms with changing to mac. On the other hand, if you have half an hour to spare one evening...

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 01 Dec 2008, 22:40

Thanks for doing this Bob - I've really enjoyed reading them. It's amazing how many people I know and had forgotten about, especially in the CC list. Looking forward to more.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 01 Dec 2008, 22:47

Well, I'm happy to do the donkey work. I just need someone to show me how to do the difficult bit.

One of those wannabe community councillors is my sister-in-law and at least a couple of them are sadly no longer with us.

Post by **wangi** » 01 Dec 2008, 23:20

Bob Jefferson wrote:On the other hand, if you have half an hour to spare one evening...

Sure, get a good few issues scanned in and in the new year I'll show you the ropes.

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 02 Dec 2008, 22:49

Bob Jefferson wrote:One of those wannabe community councillors is my sister-in-law .

I noticed that - and she was ONLY 18!

Bob Jefferson wrote:and at least a couple of them are sadly no longer with us.

Yes, sadly noticed that too, Susan Westwood being one. However, nice to see some names who are still around. Wonder if people will be talking about us like this in years to come

(on second thoughts, with you being an incomer - maybe not

)

SoupDragon · Post by **SoupDragon** » 02 Dec 2008, 23:34

Was that Susan and Bill that has the cafe in Bath St?

Did you notice the big bit about Mistys
And the mods/punks fight on bank holiday

NOSTALGIA

and the price pf a pint!!!

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 03 Dec 2008, 10:44

I had my 21st in Mistys

.

I remember the Mods and Rockers as well because we watched them from my Mum's front window in Bath Street. My nephew was only about 6 at the time and he still remembers it (coming from a very small village he was totally in awe

)

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 03 Dec 2008, 16:24

Epykat wrote:I had my 21st in Mistys .

No way- was it open then? I went there for a stag night after an epic high street pub crawl and that was october 1982.

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 03 Dec 2008, 21:12

Porty wrote:
Epykat wrote:I had my 21st in Mistys .
No way- was it open then?.

You're probably right. When I had my 21st in 1998 it probably had shut down. I stand corrected.

SoupDragon · Post by **SoupDragon** » 04 Dec 2008, 15:41

Funny how age affects rememberance of dates

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 04 Dec 2008, 17:56

Don't worry Epykat. It's a bit like the sixties - if you can remember it you probably weren't really there.

Brenda · Post by **Brenda** » 31 Dec 2008, 16:56

Well done Bob for getting the first few pages onto the archive! The paper has become a historical record of most of the important happenings in Portobello since 1980, and it couldn't have happened without the vision and energy of the founding group - see the front page of Issue No. 1.
(BM - Ed.)