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Guidelines to retouch files

NintAndBox's library development only depends on you!
You are mastering raster graphics editors such as Photoshop or Gimp?
You wish to help us improve website's raw scans?

Retouching is the step following scanning.
It is a long and careful step, where you have to rework all details of raw scanned files, in order to improve print rendering quality.
Retouching consists in reworking following items: Outlines, background, foldings or dust, illustrations, logos, screenshots and texts.
Rule 1 below explains our expectations for each quality level.

Website's quality depends on it's published files.
Therefore, your retouch will be published if and only if they respect following rules:

1) Your retouch must significantly improve previous version

Your retouch must significantly improve previous published version (original scan or retouched one).
On NintAndBox each file is rated by a level which indicates how retouched it is.
For each level, retouch must brings a bunch of improvements, detailed below:

Raw scan.
Outlines are perfect and foldings are cleanned.
Includes previous enhancements, plus:
Most dirts are cleanned (dust, tears, adhesive tape, colors, etc).
Includes previous enhancements, plus:
Illustrations and logos are cleanned or recreated.
Includes previous enhancements, plus:
Texts have entirely been retyped.
Includes previous enhancements, plus:
Illustrations and logos have been vectorized.

2) Resolution of 300 dpi for boxes and manuals

Scan in 600 dpi allow to avoid moiré pattern.
But for printing purpose, 300 dpi is a common suitable resolution.

3) Resolution of 600 dpi for stickers

Since stickers are smaller pictures, sometimes more detailed than boxes, we keep the scanned resolution of 600 dpi.
You can found some stickers in 300 dpi in here, but they come from an older version of the website, and are meant to disappear.

4) Fidelity compared to the original box

A retouch is by definition an improvement.
Each graphic item must be at the same size and position compared to the original box (or sticker, or manual).
Retyped texts must use same fonts (or the nearest as possible), be the same size, respect both horizontal and vertical spacings.

5) Do not loose any details

When a retouch is published on the website, the previous version for this box / sticker / manual is removed.
That said, your retouch must mandatory improve the previous file.
Don't forget any item, logo or text.
Keep close attention in typos, read several times and play with layers in Photoshop to compare original scan and retouched items.
Some typos are intentionally left in the retouch, because they are also in the original box!

6) Save files in JPG without compression

JPG compression can make files's size lighter, but the counterpart is worse image quality.
So, choose no compression when saving your JPG files.

7) Don't mess with global contrast of the image

Sometimes it is tempting to play with global contrast of the image, just because we think that will improve the global quality quickly. To reduce plain color background defaults for instance.
It is a bad practice, because global image contrast affects logically the whole image.
Below shows a comparison between an original scan and a too contrasted retouch:



You can notice background defaults are gone.
But if you look closer, contrast effect has eliminated a range of colors elsewhere. Right now we can't distinguish Pit's white eyes, wings, and skin.
That's why cleanning an image using contrast is a technique to avoid, or to use very carefuly.
Prefer reworking specific items separately.

8) Your retouch must correspond with an existing scan

Your retouch must correspond with a scanned file already published on the website.
If you retouch a box that you have scanned by yourself, please send your scan first. It will allow us to ensure that your retouch is faithful.

9) Don't send custom files

Custom boxes, meaning composed by separate images found on the Internet, are not a priority for the website. They are accepted very exceptionally.
We want original first of all.
Although some customs are in a great quality, sometimes better than original boxes, they may bring trouble to the website, so I perfer avoid them.

10) You must be the retouch author

I don't want trouble with anybody, it is a matter of respect regarding the original person or website.
If you get retouchs from another website, please don't send them on NintAndBox.

11) Boxes must be in A4 format

Send your retouched files in two JPG parts: Front and Back.
Use the box shapes on the website to help you retouch each side.
On the website, we publish only files in A4.
A3 format which is available on some box download pages is automaticaly merged by the website, taking both Front and Back parts.

Files improvement

Work in progress

Here are the works in progress by our members. If you would like to help, please report it on any download pages:

All works

Priority requests

Some files need a retouch, or a new scan. Here are the most priority requests:

All requests

Errors reports

Sometimes, it can happend that files get some errors, or mistakes. Here are your reports:

All reports