The Computer Archive

Main Archive Visit the main repository of computer and technological literature, catalogs, magazines and documentation.

RetroType Archive Not implemented yet! A future repository of typewriter typefaces from manual, impact to electronic, as well as some character-based computer printers. (No host CPU generated typefaces.)

The Archive

• The initial seed for the archive was the literature and manuals collected mostly in the late 1970's and through the 1980's. Rather than dump it all into recycling, I figured that scanning and posting it would make it of some benefit to all, whether for research or trips down memory lane.

• Yes, I'm cutting the binding of publications (with a few exceptions special to me) because using a good sheet-fed scanner makes this project practical and generally improves quality. My philosophy is that instead of sitting on my shelves collecting dust, the content is being made available to everyone and hopefully gets archived in many places to be available for many years to come. This was/is a tough call for me as many of these magazines have a great deal of personal value and memories.

The Rules

• Materials here are generally freely downloadable and can be re-posted on other sites or used as needed. Just please do not waste my bandwidth and or grab files using multiple threads.

• If you use materials or post from here, a reference to this site would be nice.

• Everyone is welcome to help by donating additional content and materials to scan. Email

• If you wish to contribute via a monitary donation, communicate with me. I won't mind!

• If these materials are being used by for-profit businesses & organizations, go back one line and consider a contribution.

• Have a similar site? Let me know! I'm thinking about adding a links area, especially for the magazines.

 Contact

• I am your friendly Computer Archive SysOp: "Thumper"   (It's an old rodeo nickname... yes, I'm a geek who rode bulls!)

• Email address: Use my SysOp name at this web site domain.   (Just trying to keep the spam down!)

Latest updates

2024-08 Doing a LOT of scannings of magazines. Upgraded my setup to facilitate this.

Building the archive

Most of the time, I'm scanning at 600 dpi, performing the OCR and then dropping to 300 dpi for posting here with medium compression. I feel this is sufficient for posting on the web and yet I still intend to keep the original scans as best as possible.

Here is a summary of the hardware and software that I use and recommend:

• Hardware: I'm mostly using a Fujitsu fi-6770 scanner. It is super fast (up to 90 pages per minute), has both a flatbed and terrific duplex sheet fed scanner, both supporting 11x17. (They're old and relatively inexpensive, big and heavy, and rollers are still available.) I also have a typical Epson flatbed for some situations which request the best quality.

• Scanning Software: I mostly use VueScan which is excellent, highly recommended.

• Processing Software: I am currently using PDF-XChange as it seems to have the best balance of features and reliability. NAPS2 is often very useful, as well.

• Image Software: Use a combination of Paint.NET (make sure you don't click on a fake ad when downloading), FastStone Image Viewer (which does a lot more, used for years, super highly recommended), Affinty Photo (and Designer and Publisher), and Sumatra PDF for routine PDF viewing and renaming.

I hope everyone appreciates the effort posting this material. Scanning thin, glossy 40 year old paper isn't always easy, even with the excellent scanner and cleanly cut pages. Reader service cards, stuck pages are irritating and over-size fold out ads really bring things to a stop. The latter also affect page order, so if you see a few pages out of order, look for a multi-page ad to blame.

The project is not without costs even beyond the software, hardware upgrades and scanners. Due to the 'scraping' and bandwidth used, the site was forced to a VPS hosting plan that's way more expensive than typical low-cost shared hosting.