Case study

zeta Office: Märklin Magazin goes digital

With a circulation of 120,000, the Märklin Magazin is one of the world’s leading model railroad magazines and connects Märklin fans across the globe.

Its content, even from its earliest issues, is still relevant today, as Peter Waldleitner, Editor in Chief of the Märklin Magazin confirms: “The Märklin Magazin regularly receives requests for older articles. The ‘Märklin Freunde’ series is particularly popular. This is where we introduce the best layouts and their creators.”

Conventional scanners were excluded

In the anniversary year of 2015, Märklin decided to digitize all back issues up to 2010.

Traditional scanning systems were out of the question for this task. “On the one hand, it was important that the magazines were treated gently, as in some cases only one issue is available. So, separating the pages was an absolute no-no,” says Peter Waldleitner emphatically. And secondly, great emphasis was placed on a productive workflow.

zeta office scans from above

Searching for alternatives, Märklin came across zeta Office from Zeutschel. The overhead scanner provides exceptional technology and allows non-contact scanning. The originals are opened, placed onto the scanning area and digitized from above.

The scanner is operated intuitively via the right-hand touchscreen. And the intelligent operating software ensures the best possible result on the very first scan. Crooked pages are straightened and distorted letters in the book fold are corrected. The great advantage of the zeta Office scanning system is its productive workflow in scanning bound documents. This eliminated a complete work step during digitization of the Märklin Magazin.

zeta office enables more effective work

Usually after each scan, the magazine needs to be taken off the scanner so the page can be turned and then repositioned on the scanning area. With the Zeutschel overhead scanner, the original stays on the scanning area and the page can be easily turned for the next scan.

“Experience has shown that working with the zeta Office is much more effective than using conventional scanners, “says Peter Waldleitner.

Presentation on the Internet

In ten working days, 232 issues of around 18,000 pages were digitized. All the issues can be searched using a text search. Märklin is considering making the magazines available on the Internet, which would allow entire generation of magazines to be comfortably used.

This would mean more than just text searches, the magazines could also be structured according to individual issues, year of publication and table of contents.

“We have made our readers extremely happy by digitizing the Märklin Magazin archive. Now it’s even possible to browse through our older issues no matter where you might be,” sums up Peter Waldleitner.