Downloading of old ZX Spectrum mags

Doe Jones

unread,

Sep 28, 2013, 2:47:04 AM9/28/13

to

Hello - here are some URL's for downloading of old ZX Spectrum Magazines.
All of which are free - and with no "signing in".

Have just checked - and they all works :-)

http://tinyurl.com/q57zkjp Main Page (big)

http://archive.org/details/computermagazines

http://tinyurl.com/paogfcz (Your Sinclare Magazine)

http://tinyurl.com/pnpchf3 (Magazine ZX Spectrum)

http://tinyurl.com/qhjetye (Sinclair User Magazine)

http://tinyurl.com/qbtzh3g (ZX Computing Magazine)

Regards
Tommy

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---

Brian Gaff

unread,

Sep 28, 2013, 5:14:48 AM9/28/13

to

are these pictures or has someone scanned in the text and ocred it?

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Doe Jones" <d...@infocom.info> wrote in message
news:l25u1m$1bc5$1...@adenine.netfront.net...

Brian Gaff

unread,

Sep 28, 2013, 8:59:02 AM9/28/13

to

To help others its always nice to receive personal replies here but a group
reply will help others as well I think.
The reply says they are scanned to pdf, but my original question is not
really answered. IE is the text real text ascii or whatever codes, or is it
just one big graphic of a page that happens to have text as part of that
picture. In the former version, all text has to be OCRed from the page
whereas the second it is not and I can read text in the former format, but
not the latter one obviously being blind. Hope this clarifies.
My feeling is that its just pictures of words which means I' shan't bother
getting the files.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active

"Brian Gaff" <Bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:l266m8$h6n$1...@dont-email.me...

Chris Young

unread,

Sep 28, 2013, 10:23:31 AM9/28/13

to

There has been an attempt to OCR the files, and the results are
provided as plain text versions, but are mostly unreadable and next to
useless. The PDF is just graphical as far as I can tell, although the
FAQ says that they do create a hidden OCR layer in their PDFs.
However the text of this layer is likely to be the same as the
nonsense in the plain text file.

Chris
(Top posted for Brian's convenience)

On Sat, 28 Sep 2013 13:59:02 +0100 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were rappin'
to MC Brian Gaff:

> To help others its always nice to receive personal replies here but a group
> reply will help others as well I think.
> The reply says they are scanned to pdf, but my original question is not
> really answered. IE is the text real text ascii or whatever codes, or is it
> just one big graphic of a page that happens to have text as part of that
> picture. In the former version, all text has to be OCRed from the page
> whereas the second it is not and I can read text in the former format, but
> not the latter one obviously being blind. Hope this clarifies.
> My feeling is that its just pictures of words which means I' shan't bother
> getting the files.
> Brian

--

+-------------------------------------------+
| Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
| http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk |
| Your Sinclair: A Celebration |
+- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+

DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again.

Brian Gaff

unread,

Sep 29, 2013, 4:25:03 AM9/29/13

to

Yes, you need something like Omnipage or Abbey Fine reader to get decent
OCR. NVDA has the freebie OCr and its rubbish as you suggest!

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active

"Chris Young" <chris....@mail-filter.com> wrote in message
news:5246E662.MD-1.4...@unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk...

Fred

unread,

Sep 30, 2013, 6:23:17 AM9/30/13

to

28 or so Crash issues have been properly OCRd and turned into mobi format
ebooks at crash online. Maybe the kindle reader is screen reader friendly?

Fred

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/

Daniel Mandic

unread,

Sep 30, 2013, 1:23:23 PM9/30/13

to

The PDF quality going with the CK-Computerkontakt Magazines are not
really good, but I have found that POKE command in the mag which I have
been searching for years.

There are some more formats available, like Kindle, EPUB, Daisy, Full
Text, DIVu and Read-Online read. The last one mentioned seems to
deliver the best quality :-(
At least in this particular case of the CK-Computerkontakt mag scans...

Brian Gaff wrote:

> To help others its always nice to receive personal replies here but a
> group reply will help others as well I think. The reply says they
> are scanned to pdf, but my original question is not really answered.
> IE is the text real text ascii or whatever codes, or is it just one
> big graphic of a page that happens to have text as part of that
> picture. In the former version, all text has to be OCRed from the
> page whereas the second it is not and I can read text in the former
> format, but not the latter one obviously being blind. Hope this
> clarifies. My feeling is that its just pictures of words which means
> I' shan't bother getting the files. Brian

--

Daniel Mandic

spi...@freenet.co.uk

unread,

Sep 30, 2013, 5:35:21 PM9/30/13

to

And verily, didst Fred <fr...@spamcop.net> hastily babble thusly:

> 28 or so Crash issues have been properly OCRd and turned into mobi format
> ebooks at crash online. Maybe the kindle reader is screen reader friendly?

andy.p...@gmail.com

unread,

Feb 1, 2017, 7:09:16 AM2/1/17

to

Thanks for sharing. I remember buying so many of the Spectrum mags back in the day and look forward to rereading some of them.
Andy