Software for stitching together scanner images - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:29:33 am
content: Hey All,I have some very large schematic pages from old school HP manuals and every now and then I'd like to send a scan of them to someone.The limited need precludes buying a wide format scanner so I'm wondering if there is a good program that I can use to make a bunch of scans on my general size flatbed scanner and have them automatically stitched together (aligned, rotated, etc) to create one large image.Thanks,TonyG

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:44:12 am
content: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:48:13 am
content: Thanks, Circlotron - Have you tried this on schematics? How many control points have you usually created? I suspect that I'll need to have 6 to 9 images, do you have any experience in that?Thanks again,TonyG

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:51:57 am
content: No, not on schematics, only on normal pics. Mostly it worked surprisingly well though. Sooo many settings I didn't understand. Last used it about 7 or 8 years ago.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 02:10:13 am
content: Another that is more press go and forget is microsoft image compisition editor.

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 02:29:52 am
content: Believe it or not, the best/easiest tool I've found for stitching images together is Paint. Yes, the freebee that comes with Windows. I use Irfanview to rotate the images first so that they're square. Then Paint to merge them and crop the resulting image.http://www.isdntek.com/demo/paint_stitching.htm

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 03:16:15 am
content: With Hugin the trick is to tell the program that your lens are having extremely long focal length.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 03:30:47 am
content: If you have Adobe Photoshop, the Photomerge feature works fine for this.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 05:35:10 am
content: Just habit, but I still use the grand-daddy of all these programs, autostitch.Apparently there is a new version out (https://autostitch.en.softonic.com/download) but the one I use dates from about 2005.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:08:44 pm
content: While I can’t tell anything about theautostichsoftware itself, be aware that in the past Softonic was involved in spreading malware. It is also much better idea to acquire software from the original sources than from shady websites like that. In this case the author provides theofficial autostich download(1).____(1)References:Google Scholar

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 04:33:21 pm
content: Quote from: golden_labels on February 09, 2021, 01:08:44 pmThat version is not suitable for schematics:Quote

author: Tom45
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 05:02:02 pm
content: Photography is a serious hobby of mine and especially making and printing panoramas.I purchased a couple of different programs years ago and sometimes one of them would work better than the other. Both involved manually setting control points.Then I discovered Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, a free program. It has no control points and is pretty much automatic. And it works as well as, and usually better than, the programs I was using before.Now it is pretty much all that I use. Once in a great while it fails and I have to revert to one of the programs with manual control points. But it has been some years since I had to do that.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2021, 01:02:54 am
content: Quote from: edavid on February 09, 2021, 04:33:21 pmThis is exactly the same file as Softonic provides to lure people onto their website:Code:$ find autostitch-{softonic,original} -type f -exec sha256sum {} \+ | sort3ad9c814c0f8efe7b8d50a1f94a9dfe10ca0f31ec75b1e49e73059e024dc37c5 autostitch-original/LICENSE.TXT3ad9c814c0f8efe7b8d50a1f94a9dfe10ca0f31ec75b1e49e73059e024dc37c5 autostitch-softonic/LICENSE.TXT5582ae12b48a88f0e2c2f6b198d63f2aaf4ce18f9228844d214c0007a5bdc0ea autostitch-original/images/test/101-0104_img.jpg5582ae12b48a88f0e2c2f6b198d63f2aaf4ce18f9228844d214c0007a5bdc0ea autostitch-softonic/images/test/101-0104_img.jpg784c46de1d655c804d2bc7bc3e5889d20639162e91196a92d89ceff292e53f62 autostitch-original/README.TXT784c46de1d655c804d2bc7bc3e5889d20639162e91196a92d89ceff292e53f62 autostitch-softonic/README.TXTa084ff15872caea7e299f8658675fe51cecd4f7155248668b9fe83a25b42ff0c autostitch-original/autostitch.exea084ff15872caea7e299f8658675fe51cecd4f7155248668b9fe83a25b42ff0c autostitch-softonic/autostitch.exed66fede9766587f6cb9ee0b035500777b1635031d6413b9d3da6ecf6f00f341d autostitch-original/images/test/100-0040_img.jpgd66fede9766587f6cb9ee0b035500777b1635031d6413b9d3da6ecf6f00f341d autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0040_img.jpgde93836a1da696b828ee887affe1b55b594af22949e80e37d5f18babeb2f53f0 autostitch-original/images/test/100-0024_img.jpgde93836a1da696b828ee887affe1b55b594af22949e80e37d5f18babeb2f53f0 autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0024_img.jpge3f318f1da51d63dab4a7e652a97061875f20864c6037b5cc31c440929ea7943 autostitch-original/images/test/100-0025_img.jpge3f318f1da51d63dab4a7e652a97061875f20864c6037b5cc31c440929ea7943 autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0025_img.jpgea6dd5dd419b7c01b7621862536dbbec3476cd73ed4628bb4b886078212e6d5b autostitch-original/images/test/100-0023_img.jpgea6dd5dd419b7c01b7621862536dbbec3476cd73ed4628bb4b886078212e6d5b autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0023_img.jpgf29a0b79036d6d6b4cdb8a43aca660fcdde9fb527b5acc6e42aabac222ed1b87 autostitch-original/images/test/100-0039_img.jpgf29a0b79036d6d6b4cdb8a43aca660fcdde9fb527b5acc6e42aabac222ed1b87 autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0039_img.jpgf6353a94d98090e6268a3aa6f6dd3b73f357cec6b7c29bae914074a7da1634e3 autostitch-original/images/test/100-0038_img.jpgf6353a94d98090e6268a3aa6f6dd3b73f357cec6b7c29bae914074a7da1634e3 autostitch-softonic/images/test/100-0038_img.jpgAnd that file is lying there unchanged for a decade now:2011 autostich page.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2021, 01:37:28 pm
content: I just do it manually in Photoshop, which gives me the opportunity to remove blemishes and do general clean up. The photo merge programs I have tested all failed miserably on schematics.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2021, 04:10:12 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on February 11, 2021, 01:37:28 pmAs I said, try the Photomerge function. I have used it many times and it has always done at least as good a job as I would have done myself.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2021, 08:11:08 pm
content: Quote from: edavid on February 11, 2021, 04:10:12 pmThe photomerge function in Photoshop? If so, I tried that and it failed miserably but that was with Photoshop CS6 and I am not buying anything newer from Adobe.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2021, 11:59:39 pm
content: My experience is that all of these programs performance varies wildly with both type of image and even the specific image. I have had great success and total failures with each of them (except Photoshop, haven't tried that). Sometimes the reason is obvious, but in most cases I haven't been able to figure it out.Manual merging can be very tedious, but it is the only method that always works. One reason is that all methods, including manual will have some discrepancies unless both the originals were absolutely geometrically perfect throughout there production cycle, from the original through how ever many generations of reproduction until you get the one you are working with. The human operator can recognize/decide what is important to him or her in the output image and do whatever is necessary to achieve that. For me that often includes such things as eliminating coffee stains, mis-spelled words and strange scintillation on lines which weren't perfectly straight and aligned with a digitization line.