this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Back in the day I was in the IRC book piracy scene. "Ebooks" weren't out yet. So someone would scan a book page by page. Then they would hand it off for editing basically. First revision was the straight OCR (Optical Character Reader), then usually someone would do a pass through to take out any weird characters and what not. That second revision would then be handed off to someone like myself who would read the actual book and correct any typos the OCR created. I read books on a Palm Pilot.
Reminds me of the scanslation scene. Was a cleaner/redrawer.
Can't trace what's not there. Especially when dealing with joined pages. Some scanners somehow cut out entire sections from the middle of the page. I can go into a diatribe over skills that people in scanslation don't have anymore.
No shade intended! Just memeing with 90s memes!
I read some obscure manga titles and I'd say that the skills and care are still there.
Maybe, but I've seen some nasty stuff. Like instead of cloning a background they just blur it. Or not matching the background bubble color when cleaning the original text. Or removing the mini kanji or outside the bubble, the side comments, flavor text etc., without translating them. There are even some that go out of their way to straight up sensor the manga. I've seen cleavage removed, clothes drawn on, and the most egregious one they just put a black box around a character.
Obscure titles may draw the attention of groups that will treat them right.
I remember that one page in Medaka Box with lots of very tiny writings in the background and being impressed that the scanlator bothered to translate those into English.
Thank you for your service
Palm pilot. You an OG. I miss my little palm.
I just heard someone on a podcast calling Palm Pilots shitty porto-e-readers the other day.
Glorious.
I downloaded .txt books and read on my DS :D nostalgic but do not want to relive the experience