Cover Submission Guidelines

Submitting scans for the Naval Cover Museum web site

One image of the front of the cover and one of the back is all that is required for submission. The back image is required even if it appears to be blank (for completeness). Both scans must be in JPG format.

The Museum uses an HP ScanJet © 6300C flat bed scanner and its associated HP PrecisionScan Pro © software. The scan parameters listed below may or may not translate easily to other scanners and their software, but these issues are usually not difficult to work out.

Images created by a digital camera are not acceptable. Unfortunately, the quality is just too inconsistent.

Scan Parameters

Output Type = true color
Resolution = 100
Units = pixels
Scale = 100%
Quality = 9 (where 1 = low compression, 11 = high compression)

The goal is to have an image that is large enough and clear enough to be legible (except for the small stuff). Size should be around 30KB to 50KB for a normal size cover in order to maintain reasonable download times over the net.

Additional Information

For each cover, the following information would be very helpful but is not required for submission:

Identification of the cachet SDA (sponsor, director, artist). If we could have only one piece of information, this would be it.
Special features of the cachet and the cover (two different things!). A cachet feature would be: hand-painted, hand- colored, thermographed ink, etc. A cover feature would be: handwritten signatures of cachet sponsors or ship personnel, embossed ship seal, etc. Check the Features index at the web site for the current list. Although many features are easily discernable from a scan, some are not so obvious (ie, thermographed ink) so any help in describing or pointing them out would be appreciated.
Cancel Locy Type and killer bar text.
If you can supply the Scott Number for the stamp, that would be fabulous! But if it is too much bother (and we are very well aware of how much bother it is), then dont worry about it.

By default, each submitter will have an entry in the Contributors page. You are encouraged to submit a couple of sentences / bullets of biographical information and a JPG photo of yourself. If you do not wish to be listed on the Contributors page, then let us know and we will not add your entry. If you do not wish to be mentioned at all, anywhere, then that is possible also.

If you want to see how much information is collected about a cover, take a look at its associated XML data file (it is one of the options under [Menu]). Also take a look at the Architecture page accessible via the Museum Lobby for data files containing all the support information.