Pictures for the archive

[Forumadmin]

Always save scanned images as TIFF with LZW compression so that they can be manipulated by others using Photoshop, Powerpoint and other programs. Look at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assis ... 91033.aspx to see what to do with Microsoft Document Imaging. Save the file in the TIFF format. Under TIFF colour compression, select the 'Perform lossless compression (LZW)' checkbox.

Archive material such as colour articles or photos should be scanned at a resolution of 300 ppi. We can scale down the resolution for presentation to the web and point to the high resolution image for download on request. Note that colour photos should be scanned at 24 bit colour depth (3Bytes per pixel) giving a file of 24MB uncompressed for an A4 sheet. Scan pure black-and-white images, or "line art" images at 600 or 720 ppi in Line Art mode with background cleaning enabled. These files can be directly put to the web and can be zoomed to reveal detail.


For material that really does not warrant archiving then in most cases, the picture will be displayed within a 600 by 400 pixel (0.24Mpixel) or 10 inch by 8 inch frame, so 72 ppi (pixels per inch) is recommended for scanning. This gives a 0.4MByte uncompressed file. You can expect 3:1 compression with LZW so that files become more manageable.

If you have a small picture, such as a cigarette card, scan at higher resolution to bring the number of pixels up to 240000 approximately, or more, if it is for the archive. We do not want to loose any detail.

If you are interested in all the formats used by Microsoft visit- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320314

Note that if sending these TIFF images to the web then there are three formats to choose from: JPEG, GIF and PNG.
If the file is Black and White or less than 256 colours then use GIF.
Otherwise use PNG.
JPEG can be used for photographs; but it is lossy

If you want to send the web ready files AS WELL AS the original TIFF/LZW files then please view them to make sure they retain adequate clarity for the type of picture and its use. Pictures will not expand to fill space without blurring. It should look as good as the original, if not even better, on the screen. Scanners and software can do marvellous things to old material. This will save me hours of time and you will enjoy doing it!

If you already have pdf files of articles then please send them. Pdf should not be used for scanning new documents as it is necessary to have the pdf viewer installed. Pdf can be used for manuals; but it is better to have the originals in TIFF format. We can compose the pdf from the TIFF where appropriate.