Anti-Reflective Glass

[ibr4him]

Hi,

I just found that "Museum Glass" and "Museum Acrylic" is perfect for our book scanning purpose.

— Reduces reflection by over 85% (to less than 1% of total light), the lowest possible reflection rating available with UV protection.
— Achieves over 97% light transmission to enhance colors, brightness and contrast levels.
— Blocks up to 99% of UV light rays.
— Does not degrade or delaminate over time. A proprietary inorganic, silica-based UV blocking coating, which is "baked" into the glass producing a permanently bonded coating.
— 2.5mm glass substrate

I think its going to be prohibitively expensive and not all stock it, but let see. Its almost impossible for me to scan (err, photograph books during the day!

[univurshul]

Spam uses this stuff, I think. You can find it at Michael's arts & crafts.

Corning is even planning on an anti-glare Gorilla Glass in 2011. Hopefully they figure out further hardness scratch resistance.

How bad is your glare? Can you throw up a few images of the glare you're experiencing? I tend to take a big interest into lighting & reflection issues.

[Misty]

I was evaluating museum glass last year. The really good stuff is expensive, is the only problem. The TruVue glass that gets the lowest reflectivity, lowest colour cast and lightest weight can run a lot. If I remember right, large-size acrylic (for quite oversized items, in my case) ran ~$250 a sheet when I was looking it up then. Glass is cheaper, but also heavier and easier to break, and not quite as good in terms of reflectivity.

[ibr4him]

Thanks for the info, Misty. I guess the prices are much lower now, I read somewhere that its around $75 for 16x20 sheet, I just don't know where to buy though, googled a lot but couldn't find any online store that sells 16x20 sheet. I'm not in US so I can only order online.

[spamsickle]

I think $75 per pane is about what I paid for 16x20. I converted the platen that uses it into the cantilevered design I prefer now, but I'm not using it for scanning at the moment because the conversion is kind of klunky. I plan to try putting together a better platen with it, using silicone sealer to bond the glass to a frame, as I'm doing currently with acrylic. The two places that sell it locally are Michaels and Jo-Anns, a couple of craft stores that do framing. I'll check later to see if either of them do mail order, and post back here.

[Misty]

There's probably a difference in price between the really expensive museum brands and other brands - but I don't know if there's enough of a difference in quality to justify that for book scanning. $75 is a lot easier to go for! Is that for glass or acrylic?

[spamsickle]

In my case, it was for glass.

[yamanassaf]

it would be probably cheaper to buy anti glare screen protectors, the ones designed to protect computer screens and apply it on a cheap glass that you could get from a hardware store.

[dansheffler]

I just thought I would test out the TruVue Museum Glass so I experimented small with 8X10 sheets Since the sheets were small they only ran $15 apiece. I am incredibly happy with them though. The color reproduction is perfect, zero glare. I'm impressed enough with them that I am planning to build a larger, sturdier platan with the stuff.

[Misty]

Very good to know! Have you used other materials for platens to compare?