[alfa] Re: "Magnifying diagrams on the CarDisc CD manuals

[Darryl J Holman <djholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gwynne W. Spencer wrote:

> Per recommendations, I installed the pdf995 programs and looked at an
> electrical wiring diagram in my CarDisc CD for the 1991-1993 Spider.  I
> "magnified" the diagram; bad news -  the notations (I believe they are the
> wire size and color) are still completely illegible. It seems that the
> pictures were copied at very low resolution; the small print just appears
> as some "globs".

I've found that magnifying things this way (but using Acrobat instead of
pdf995) gives a slight improvement for most of the diagrams I have had to
do a bunch of electrical work on my 164, and magnifying some of the
diagrams has really made a difference in readability.  But, there are some
diagrams where the details (especially the color/wire diameter markings)
simply cannot be improved.

> I guess it is time to start looking for an original printed manual. I
> sent an email to "books4cars
> . . .
> Note that it says "most of the notations are legible" -  not exactly
> useful. If I am working on the car, I do not want to have to guess about
> something like a wire color!

If the manuals are made using standard photocopy technology, then they
should be much more readable than the CarDisc images--which were scanned
at a much lower resolution than a typical photocopier uses.  My guess is
that the CarDisc folks went with low resolution so that they could fit
everything on a CD.  At higher resolution, many of their manuals would
require either multiple CDs or a DVD.  But, for the reprinted paper
manuals there would be almost no disadvantage to using higher resolution.
Has anyone on the digest has seen both the CarDisc and the reprinted
manuals?

Finally, I have been able to do electrical work using information right
off the CarDisc images.  I can read 90% of the codes with minimal
difficulty, and any missing information can be deduced with a little
sleuthing.  Even so, it is unfortunate that the CarDisc images are
provided at such low resolution (although I really appreciate that the
product is available and packed with so much information).  It would be
really nice if the CarDisc folks were to produce high-resolution versions
of the manuals (and provide them as an upgrade) on DVD.  Perhaps a little
prodding from their loyal customers would encourage them to do so :)

If you do get the reprinted manuals, Gwynne, let us know how they compare.

Cheers,
 Darryl

Redmond, WA
'91 164L
'89 Spider
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