The project is simply to record all my plants that I have grown and which have been photographed over the years.

The work to be illustrated with images and text notes in such a form that will be easily accessible and permanent, but with facilities to edit as may be required from time to time.

The principle may be simple but the doing is not. Several hundred of slides and negatives have to be copied as data plus information and preserved as a unit in machine- readable form. This data would have to be collated and organised to form an electronic book.

I already had a PC with an Internet connection and various items of hardware which would be useful, but more equipment and extra software had to be bought before embarking on the project.

A film / slide scanner was a must and I opted for a Nikon Coolscan III this, with my existing Umax flat bed scanner, would enable all my pictures to be digitised. Once on the hard disk various image programs would be needed to manipulate the picture files.
Manipulate in this case is:
1. Adjustment to colour to make the image on a computer screen match the original.
2. Where a background is distracting to replace it with a plain colour usually black.
3. To add descriptions to identify the plant and add name of author and date picture taken.
4. To enhance a poor image where it is not possible to retake the photo.
In no case is the manipulation meant to fake pictures.

Also a Web site design facility would be required to add text and put it all together using the HTML system, I started using Dreamweaver 1.2 but have since upgraded to version 3.

I have recently (December 2002) purchased a digital camera and when I have mastered its intricacies, the intention is to replace my Pentax SLR camera for most of the plant photography. The first digi photos are on the new sedum pages..

The advantages of HTML over other readers is its flexibility, continuing development and scope for design and layout. It is now a world wide standard for the Internet, its exciting possibilities are endless with world wide distribution using HTTP protocol on which the WWW is based.

Originally I intended to put my electronic book on to a CD-ROM for my own use but have now decided to also publish on the Web by uploading selected pages (to my Website) and change these as more are completed. The first page would be the Index, from which one could move via the sub-indexes to the main pages containing small pictures and text. Each small thumbnail image would have a hyperlink to a larger version of the same. Necessary links would enable browsing to other pages like this one by going to the index sub pages.

As I hope to have visitors to my site I have kept these pages as simple as possible in the hope of making them compatible with older versions of Internet Explorer and other browsers. However to get the best viewing I would recommend :
1. Viewing with a screen resolution of 800 X 600 on a 17 inch monitor.
2. Setting the screen palette to a minimum of "High Colour 16 bit" but preferably "True colour 24 bit".
3. Disable any browser settings preventing image downloading.
4. I have recently made use of the extended facilities in I.E.5, 5.5 and 6.0, by using layers and CSS style sheets so some older browsers may not display properly.

If you wish to comment on any aspect of the project please contact me by E-mail at <NO SPAM PLEASE>

Enjoy

Les Taylor February 2000, Revised June 2004 (Revision 3).

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