I'm a weather geek so to say and I have been keeping weather journals for 5 years now and I worte them in pencil for all 5 years and year after year my notes are fading away it could be the result of the pagers rubing together and other elements getting to it, I want to preserve them for years and years to come, what is the best way? put them in a ziplock bag and vac the air out or what? I'm starting a new journal and doing it in pen this time, to bad you got to be careful what you write. lol. I plan to graph this data so I would need to look at the logs over and over again. or keep them out til I finsih logging them put them away for ever or for a few years?

quote:

Originally posted by Doug:
what is the best way? put them in a ziplock bag and vac the air out or what?

Not such a daft idea as it sounds Doug
You want to enquire about a Laminator
which is a machine for sealing documents between thin plastic sheets
These can be brought in a Stationary Store as well as a computer store here is the cheapest @ just under $26
They go up in price to over $100 for a basic model! (More than a printer! )
There may be some going cheap (second hand) on Ebay or Amazon ? Check the www.Loot.com and www.Recycler.com sites as well. Also the local www.craigslist.org site to your area

I'm afraid that will not work. It's a sprial bound diary. Diary

Go to the link and you'll see what I have.
You see what I mean?
Any other sugestions?

I would suggest the clear spray that artist use on charcoal prints.

Charcoal is very much like pencil and can rub off and smeer with time. This clear spray seals the surface to protect them.

This just might work for you. Test it first before trying on your pages. If you do try this, do NOT use to much as it will make the paper wet an could cause it to curl. Better a couple light coats then 1 wet coat.

I'm sure you will find it at all art supply stores and some craft store.

Also, scan your pages in to your computer or copy mechine as a back up.

Personally, I think I would do all my weather notes in a pc file like MS-Excel. In that way it could be sorted by date or certain weather condition like high to low temperature or the wettest day of the year. This information can also generate a graph if you wish.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Walks On Water,

You could try covering the page with clear contact. It comes on a roll and you peel the back off and stick it over the page.

Try just hairspray...it'll preserve it. A light coating.

or you could just copy them to your computer and save everything onto a seperate hard drive
or onto a cd.
i love my notebook its so portable.

Another way of preserving them in their original form is to scan them into the computer as PDF files to show up on the Adobe Acrobat program (as they appear on your notepad)
But there is a big snag To use it to reproduce your pages means you must buy the Software ...Very expensive!! or get a license(got $1000? )(viewing is free)
That's the bad news..
Good news is there are other 3rd party programs shareware or 30 day trials?
Use this "search" to help locate a Free trial or freeware program (there's 355,000 hits ) there must be something on this to suit you? (adjust the keywords to bring the "cream" to the top)
Ps You can ask companies to scan them onto a CD/DVD (as PDF files) ....But the cost could be prohibitive for a single user

Just spotted this in the Google ads...
This is the sort of3rd party software that would be suitable for your requirements. How does $29.95 sound to you? (2nd item down)