Dozens of new manuals added each month!

(Updated 08/25/2011)

ARTEK MEDIA was originally conceived out of frustration in not being able to reliably find hi-resolution scans of technical manuals at a reasonable price. We used to be in the test equipment refurbishment business and you probably know (or you wouldn't be bothering to read this) the original manuals for older test equipment can be very expensive and hard to find. We started buying manuals and scanning them for our own use, as the library grew we decided to test the market and the response has been rewarding. To date ArtekMedia has sold over 79,000 manuals via FTP Download & CD-ROM to satisfied customers around the world (yes...we do ship overseas).

Manuals are supplied on CD-ROM or may be directly downloaded via our FTP site. Unfortunately manuals purchased from us on EBay may not be FTP downloaded as EBay rules generally discourage this type of transaction. IF you do make an EBay purchase rather than via direct email and you need FTP because of time constraints we are happy to set up the FTP at no additional cost , you will however receive a CD via the mail for all Ebay purchases. We run sales on the EBay items regularly if you find our item priced lower on EBay we will always honor the EBay price in our listing as the direct email purchase price.

ABOUT OUR SCANS

All text: 300dpi
Text with photos: 600dpi, gray scale (contrast adjusted)
Text with Drawings: 600dpi black and white
Schematics: 600dpi black and white
Schematics and board overlays with color notes: 256 colors 600dpi

Most of our manuals with large fold out schematic pages are scanned at 11x17 A3 sizes or larger, In 2010 we added additional scanning capability and oversized pages of ANY size will now be provided without piecing. Older scans will be updated upon request at no charge.

About File Size. I used to be a big advocate of the bigger the file the better the resolution. The later PDF processing programs have advanced file compression beyond anything imagined when we started scanning 9 years ago. Basically there is a LOT of white space on a printed page which need not take up file space. 200MB files can now be compressed to 20-50MB with no loss of detail. As time permits we will go back and recompile the larger files. If file size is a problem for you let us know and we will make a point to recompile for you. The price you do pay is that you will need a later version of Adobe Reader (7.0 or higher) as the recompiled files are not backward compatible. If your still running 6.0 or earlier time to catch up ( The latest Reader release is 10.0!) and the download is free

Life Time Data Integrity Guarantee

We guarantee all data for life ...yours or mine whichever is shorter 8^) . When you purchase a manual from us and that manual gets trashed for ANY REASON (what do you mean you don’t back up your hard drive regularly?) , simply drop us an email and we will replace it via FTP download at no charge or on CD-ROM at the cost of postage and handling (typically $2-$3)

DOWNLOAD US MILITARY MANUALS FOR FREE

One of our pet peeves, are the many sellers ( MicroManuals ) of CD manuals on EBay who do nothing more than repackage US Government manuals which can be downloaded for FREE! If you see a manual for a $1-$4 then that is a sure sign it can be downloaded for free somewhere. Yes my friend your tax dollars at work, download test equipment service manuals for free. Send us an email request at manuals@artekmedia.com and we will send you detailed instructions. I suppose I could just put the info here but how else am I going to know if you are looking at the WEB site 8^) !!!

Loan us your manual to scan, get other CD manuals Free in return!

Have a manual we don't have? Loan it to us to scan and we will give you other manuals on CD for free in return. If you see a manual in the list with an A4 schematic size that is also a candidate for a loan as we upgrade all our schematics to A3. Click on the  link for more details, or drop us an email.

 SOME TIPS ON HOW TO GET MOST OUT OF YOUR CD MANUALS

1) Always copy the files to your hard drive and work from there. Reading from a CD-ROM drive can be painfully slow even on a FAST machine.

2) Printing out entire manuals is expensive. You can eat one of those $25 toner cartridges in a hurry. A more practical approach in a real service situation is to print out the dozen or so pages that you need. They are much easier to tape on the work bench than the manual, you will actually be prone to make hand notes about voltage readings, etc , which is really useful but I always hate to do on my originals. And if you spill a cup of coffee or make a solder splash ...who cares.

3) A really good video card (hi speed video game style) is really more useful sometimes than a super fast computer. Much of what you are looking at are detailed pictures and schematics with a faster video refresh rate can make an 800MHZ computer look fast when looking at graphics. More memory never hurts either when it comes to graphics files. While I love my Adobe 9.0 it is a real “hog” when it comes to taking over your memory

4) Printing out schematics: if you print an 11x 17 schematic on an 8.5 x 11 paper you will not be able to read it very well. I don’t care how good your printer is. There is a solution called “tiled printing” Adobe Reader does not support tiled printing. I did find this viewer, PDF-XChange which has a free viewer which does support tiled printing. I would encourage you to try it if you need to do tiled printing.

Download it here <http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/PDF-XChange_Tools/pdfx_viewer>.

The download button is about 4-5 lines below the picture of the box.

GOT QUESTIONS???   

Email us at manuals@artekmedia.com

All manuals are satisfaction guaranteed or your money back, no questions asked, no hassles.

To see what we currently have to offer Click the  Tabs in the upper left hand corner see a list of what we currently have to offer or  check out our auctions on Ebay under the user name "ArtekMedia"

MANUALS WE ARE LOOKING FOR!!!

For a complete list of manuals we are actively searching for click on the  link for details. We offer two free manuals in PDF format for every manual you loan us to scan. EVEN IF IT IS NOT ON OUR NEED LIST WE ARE STILL INTERESTED IN HEARING ABOUT MANUALS THAT YOU MIGHT LOAN US.