Document longevity
One of the biggest risks in document scanning is doing it wrong. A document that is scanned improperly, stored improperly, and with the original paper destroyed, it could be a very serious situation for an individual or organization. Sometimes it's just too hard to anticipate or know what settings to use. For example, while your scanning today may be for the purpose of regular consumption via search and retrieval, tomorrow it could be required and printed for a law suite.
Fortunately, technologies are advancing such that scanning the “Golden Document” is practical and possible. The “Golden Document” is a document scanned with all the best settings for quality; not taking into consideration file storage or performance, the two biggest drivers to reduction in scan quality. The settings for the “Golden Document” are a resolution of 300 DPI, a color bit-depth, and a fill format of uncompressed TIFF. If the “Golden Document” is the optimum, one must make the rationalization of why to ever deviate from it.
With advances in document scanners, compression, and file formats, the need for rationalization becomes less and less. Document scanners can now scan a color image at nearly the speed of a black and white. For this reason, there is little reason to use black-and-white or gray-scale scans. A color document gives you the ability to convert, re-purpose, and print. Scanning at 300 DPI is a setting that should never be compromised. Now that you have the golden scan, you have created a rather large file. Ideally you could compress this file to a more regularly consumed format and not lose quality. Compression technology advances substantially every year. The ideal file format for storage, quality, etc. is arguably PDF searchable. This format has the functionality of a regularly consumed document and the configuration for sustainability. Alternatively, some may choose to create both a PDF plus a word document for the additional ability to re-purpose.
While you may not be scanning the “Golden Document” today, now is a time to revisit why and ways to get there.
Fortunately, technologies are advancing such that scanning the “Golden Document” is practical and possible. The “Golden Document” is a document scanned with all the best settings for quality; not taking into consideration file storage or performance, the two biggest drivers to reduction in scan quality. The settings for the “Golden Document” are a resolution of 300 DPI, a color bit-depth, and a fill format of uncompressed TIFF. If the “Golden Document” is the optimum, one must make the rationalization of why to ever deviate from it.
With advances in document scanners, compression, and file formats, the need for rationalization becomes less and less. Document scanners can now scan a color image at nearly the speed of a black and white. For this reason, there is little reason to use black-and-white or gray-scale scans. A color document gives you the ability to convert, re-purpose, and print. Scanning at 300 DPI is a setting that should never be compromised. Now that you have the golden scan, you have created a rather large file. Ideally you could compress this file to a more regularly consumed format and not lose quality. Compression technology advances substantially every year. The ideal file format for storage, quality, etc. is arguably PDF searchable. This format has the functionality of a regularly consumed document and the configuration for sustainability. Alternatively, some may choose to create both a PDF plus a word document for the additional ability to re-purpose.
While you may not be scanning the “Golden Document” today, now is a time to revisit why and ways to get there.
Labels: archive, compression, file, longevity, optimum, print, Scanning, storage
