Scanning "embossed" cards?

[56Parkies]

Got a question for some of the more technical minded on the site (or at least with more experience!):

I've got some "trade show" cards I want to scan in for my website, and have been doing great from present going back to 2001 or so. Problem is, before 2000, Pacific used to "emboss" the cards rather than stamping them. You have to hold the card at a bit of an angle to catch the light to sometimes even SEE that they're "show stamped".

So my question is: How can I scan these to put up on my website? When I try, they just look like regular cards -- the embossing doesn't show up.

Any suggestions??

[centrehice]

I found with a few of them, if you leave them in a toploader, sometimes the embossing shows up a little stronger than just flat on the scanner.

Failing that, use a digital camera with hard, strong natural light, (don't use a flash) and angle the card backwards from bottom to top and that should work.

I know even the Paramount Holo-Golds and Premier Dates don't show as well when scanned head-on.

[Drewk86a]

If you are using a scanner, try to tilt the card on an angle maybe by placing something under one side of the toploader. this should help the embossing show up.

Same thing with a camera. Photo the full card, then get a close up of the embossing (hold the card at an angle).

[56Parkies]

Thanks for the input, gents.. I will definitely give that a try!

Another thing I tried was to reproduce the artwork (Pacific logo, plus text) and "ghost" it in white over the image in photoshop. It's not horrible, but to me it's cheating.. lol. I'll try your guys' methods and see what works. If anyone else has had successes, by all means share with the group!

[56Parkies]

Here's an example of what I meant:

[Drewk86a]

That actually looks pretty good!