2011年5月13日金曜日

I'm programming stampedia Exhibition and thinking about the recommended specifications of scanning the leaves

As I told you in the article "Digital Philately makes you happier!" of "stampedia Philatelic Journal" , I' m now programming stampedia Exhibition. What I worried about is recommended specifications of scanning the leaves.
Higher DPI is not always good because file size becomes bigger with higher DPI and it makes user unhappy.So this is important and I decided to show you the experimental results. What I scan for this experimental is the leaf of "Japan 1966 60Yen definitive" stamps and covers. I made this leaf a quarter century ago without PC.

 



Experimental; scan the same leaf in three different conditions.
1)Actual size 72DPI     =>   157kb
2)Actual size 200DPI    =>   852kb
3)Actual size 300DPI    =>  1,972kb

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What is shown above is the image of leaf scanned in the condition 1 (72DPI) The other images scanned otherwise is no more better than this one, so 72DPI is enough unless you magnify the images. What is better about 72DPI is its small file size (20% of condition 2 (200 DPI), 8% of condition 3(300 DPI)) Various people come to see stampedia Exhibition by many ways, so the difference of file size is the difference of display speed.


But this is not the conclusion of this blog post. In traditional stamp exhibitions, you want to see the stamps closer if you find something rare or interesting! It is same in virtual exhibition.Next I show you how the image becomes when you magnify them.



45 magnify 72DPI46 magnify 200DPI

 

 

 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: magnify 72 DPI and Right: magnify 200DPI. 72DPI is useless if you want to magnify them while 200DPI is ok.

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Let's magnify more! Upper; magnify 200DPI and Lower; magnify 300DPI. You can find the difference if you see the trees backe of the building.


It's just the experimental and I've not decided the recommended specification.The image of magnifying 300 DPI is much better than I thought while the file size is also much bigger. I'd like to think and hear your opinion for a while.

 

2011年5月8日日曜日

How to store your exhibition-leavs at home

Almost everyone uses exhibition-leaves (without holes and equal margins) instead of ordinaly leaves (with holes leftside , non-equal margins) when they make a leaves for some exhibition. The reason is mainly beauty reasons and leaves are not good-looking when they have holes or non-equal margins.



Problems occur after the return of the leaves. You can't store them in the album because they don't have any holes. You need to get transparent bags with holes , but not easy to find it.



1.Leaf-store case

Some manufacturers are selling Leaf-store cases but I think it is useless. If you use it upright, weight gives negative impact to leaves. If you use it layed, all the weight of the other leaves are on the bottom leaf and it is very bad for the stamps.



2.Use stationery

Some non-philatelic monaufacturers makes good stationeries. But when you use them for storing leaves, unti-dust cases are necessary. Without them, dust blacks your stamps and leaves. You can get only one stationery with dust case in Japan and 132-5C of Kingu-Jimu is it with 100 pockets. You can get one at 3,220Yen at E-commerce site "ASUKURU".



When you store leaves into this products, you shuold be careful not to press stamps and covers.



3.Bosutoku Wide Album Kuria Pocket

This products are not so popular but I think it's the best way. 800Yen for 20 bags. 3,200Yen for 5frames. Even Frank Godden leaves can be stored!


2011年5月6日金曜日

The first time in the world, QR codes displayed in the stamp exhibition!

It's been 3 years and half since I start collecting stamps again. During the first two years I've been to serveral philatelic exhibiton without seeing any leaves displayed there. I see leaves now just because I started to exhibit my collection , however I feel something lazy on seeing leaves.I'de like to say this is not fault of leaves but of how exhibitions are displayed.



  1. 1 frame is 16 leaves and vertically 4 lines. You should move your head and eyes and walk a long distance to see all the exhibits.

  2. Why is it so dark? Prevent stamps from light? Just energy savings?

  3. It is natural to provide something like voice-guidance in museums while stamp exhibition don't. It is hard to enjoy seeing leaves without knowledge of stamps or exhibitors.


  4. The majority of people don't see any leaves and go home in big stamp exhibitions.



    In old days when postal authorities are not privatizated, they payed money for the stamp exhibition and thus it is needed that exhibitions are superior to dealer shops. But it changes except in emerging countries. The space for exhibitions becomes smaller because it does not earn money and majority of people don't see leaves. For example, in London 2010, the committee decided to give half space needed for exhibitions and change all the exhibits on the intermediate day. The traditional way of exhibition is no longer very luxury style.



    I don't think the leaves and stamps exhibitied are poor. I've got interested in some leaves and stamps when I can hear the guidance from my philatelic friends. Many non-philatelic museum provide multilingual-voice-guidance to the people. I found very wonderful improvement in the last All Japan Stamp Exhibition. This is the first trial in the world, I think.



    41 42


    As you can see, there's a QR code. This is an IT and when you check it with your mobile phone , you can get some comment of jury. I hope this trial goes much more in the Philanippon2011. I'd like to show you more points.



    1. Bilingual please! English is needed at least.

    2. Please understand more and more people start using smart phone such as iPhone.

    3. Jury's comment is good, we need comments of exhibitors also.

    4. Comment is good, we are happier with movies.

    5. Why don't you start board system and get comments from visitors?


    I know 4&5 are premature, however please fulfill 1,2 and 3. and Philanippon2011 will be the first improved Int'l stamp exhibition.

    Anyway, I'm happy to know this is a beginning of improvement. I like it!



2011年4月28日木曜日

We start magazine "Philatelic Journal"


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I'd like to announce all the stampedia user about our new book "Philatelic Journal" which is published on 20th April.

 


This book contains 8 philatelic articles highly specialized in traditional philately, postal history and thematic philately by Japanese active philatelists. A4 size 132page Full-color printing Bilingual(English&Japanse)

 
It is already on sale in Japan , however, we're going to sell one on ebay soon and the price will be 11 EURO or $15.

We donate 300Yen(=$3.6) per one Philatelic Journal sale to the Japansese Red Cross Society. So we appreciate everyone who generously purchased our philatelic book.




 

 

 








目次

 

Hawaii early stamps

Fumio Yamazaki

 

Ryukyu Stamps Collection(Mainly Provisional Stamps)

Tsukasa Ishizawa

 

The Opening of China from 1745 to 1897

Mitsuhiro Ohba

 

Appeal and Difficulty of collecting the Estonian Flower Design Stamps

Akihiko Ito

 

First Issue and Traditional Collection in Austria

Tamaki Saito

 

Thematic Stamp Collection and its Components

Yosuke Naito

 

The First Issue Stamps of Argentina

Koishi Sato

 

Etched Stamps(1871-1876)  

Shin-ichi Chiba

 

Digital Philately makes you happier!

 

Yokohama Travel Guide

 

 

2011年3月17日木曜日

We've started Stampedia Japanese Version!!!!

We "Stampedia project" are thinking what we can do for the people in Tohoku&Ibaragi damaged from terrible earthquake and TUNAMI. I didn't feel like doing anything myself for several days after the disaster though I don't living in that area. I know it is too early talking about reconstruction, but the days will come for the people in Tohoku and Ibaragi to pursue hope in hobby. So we decided to release Stampedia Japanese version.


To be honest, the language "Japanese " is quite different from the other languages and thus we don't think the translation system we use is enough. We were planning to release Japanese version after the release of some other languages. We've already started French and English in 2009, German & Spanish in 2010. We were just planning to release Russian, Italian and Dutch but now these projects are stopped and we're focusing to Japanese version.


We know the number of stamps exhibited in Stampedia is small, we also know we need more functions. But we also know people in Tohoku and Ibaragi will do their great best to reconstruction in the future. In comparison to their effort, the effort stampedia needed is very small I think.So we have to work hard to improve stampedia much more to all the philatelists in the world.


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2011年2月14日月曜日

I'm going to New Delhi and visit INDIPEX 2011.

From 12th to 18th February 2011, Indipex 2011 is held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

I hope to join a big international stam show, my friend in Paris who has alreday be there says it is quite a small one ,however.

But anyway , I'll be there from Tuesdady to Wednesday. This time we don't exhibit stampedia demo service in the event ,so I'll be involved seeing the ehibition and getting stamps for my wantlist!!