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[Klunk]

I have several old sets of plans done in the old dyeline blue. the biggest problem i have now is that they are fading, even though they are kept in rolled condition and in tubes in a dark dry area.
I have tried scanning them, but they come out really crap. I was thinking of overdrawing them with black ink.
any other ideas on how to keep these plans before they fade away?

[Klunk]

ps the scanning was a professional scanner, not a home scanner! I worked in the print trade!

[BrianB6]

Once the image has faded it is gone although there are a few cases where keeping them in the dark has brought back the image but if they have been in the dark until now, that probably will not work.   Depending on your drawing ability and the complexity you could try tracing over the drawing and then have a modern print made.
To prevent 'bleed through' Blueprints should be stored flat between acid free paper and not rolled.   There are a number of web sites that explain their conservation

[Baldrick]

Klunk, Can you clarify , when you say blueprint do you mean the type of print where the background is blue and the lines and print are white or are you referring to the DIAZO print where the background is white and the lines and work are in blue line ?  ( white print)

[Klunk]

to be honest i have both types,  but yes these are the ones that are really getting bad

[Klunk]

to be honest, i have both, but the pic above are the ones im trying to save

[grendel]

the originals were probably printed and then fixed using ammonia, somewhere there would be an original drawing, a transparency, the big problem is that it was a light printing process, so the results will fade with time, there isnt really a solution other than manual tracing over, where you can still see te detail (the eye/brain interface is far more sensitive to this than any scanner)

[SJG001]

The problem will be the type of scanner - You do get scanners which can recover faded detail from Ozalid type prints

• They are few, far between and expensive to run
• Difficult to get access to.

However the original scan if done at a high enough dpi can be run through image processing software which could recover a lot of the faded detail

If you can get a good draughtsman - they could trace over the original and create a new transparency - but good drafters are rare theses days.

As the diazol is just faded - it can sometime be re-fixed - but again this is a specailist task.

[Des]

I once purchased a set of Model Boat Magazine plans - but the prints I received looked like they had been in poor storage for several years.
What I did was to take these plans to a copy / print outlet and have them scanned to a pdf file.  I then imported this file as an underlay into AutoCAD LT, scaled it, and then laboriously "traced" the plans into a dwg file.  This can then be printed using a Xerox type process which should be a little more permanent, but at least can be clearly read.
Des

[ChrisF]

That's what I do for some of my models, without the printing and using Visio instead of CAD, but it's hard work tracing indistinct drawings especially if there are lots of spots etc. and lines are close together.

As for tracing onto film or tracing paper (I was an architectural draughtsman) you'd really, really want to do it, if it was a complicated and detailed drawing!

The sort of preservation required is sadly the preserve of museums etc. due to the expertise required and cost involved and sadly many drawings, not only for model boats will disappear.

Chris