Category: Microfiche Scanning

July 29, 2011

Convert Microfiche vs Convert Microfilm

A mistake that occurs from clients or organizations who are not familiar with micrographics is mixing up microfiche and microfilm. Every industry or niche has its own lexicon, and in the micrographics industry there are major differences between microfiche and microfilm. The purpose of this article is to describe the differences between microfilm and microfiche.

Microfilm- It’s rolled.

In the most simplest terms, microfilm is rolled and microfiche is flat. Microfilm is also called roll film, and microfilm reels, microfilm rolls. Sometimes the width of the film is used to describe the types, such as 16mm roll film or 35mm microfilm.

Microfilm is usually stored in plastic or metal spools. Some old microfilm is stored in metal pans. Yes, microfilm generally looks like small versions of movie reel film, except without the classic sprockets.

Microfilm cartridges look different that the standard reel spools- but only on the outside. The film is enclosed in a hard metal square casing to protect it. Kodak and 3M were innovators in producing microfilm cartridges.

There is no such thing as a 35mm roll film cartridge; there are only 16mm microfilm cartridges.

The actual microfilm frame placement and types vary, such as duplex film, positive, negative, duo, fixed, blipped, variable, etc, however that is a different topic and is unrelated to identifying microfilm vs microfiche.

Microfiche- It’s flat.

A jacketed microfiche

Microfiche are flat “cards”, usually 4.13 x 5.83 inches, containing a few frames on them. Whereas a microfilm may hold 500 (35mm) to 20,000 frames (duplex), a microfiche card may hold as many one one frame to a couple of hundred (COM fiche).

Jacketed microfiche are simply roll film cut up into strips and inserted into plastic sleeves. Some people get confused if they don’t see the jacket sleeves, but it could be that the microfiche was duplicated. If it was duplicated, the copy may still have faint lines highlighting the border of the jackets. Since jackets are created from microfilm strips, they can come in the 16mm microfiche or 35mm microfiche varieties. A 16mm jacket has more rows and columns, and thus can hold more frames that a 35mm jacket (1-6 frames).

COM microfiche is computer generated and contain very small frames (usually with a 42x or 48x reduction ratio).

Step-and-repeat microfiche were created with a step-and-repeat camera. Many times they contain manuals or books and can hold hundreds of frames.

February 14, 2011

Microfiche Scanning- How To Scan Microfiche

Microfiche scanning is the process of converting microfiche to digital images. Scanning microfiche and microfilm scanning are two of Generation Imaging’s main specialties- from quality to price, and to fun. As you could imagine, G.I. gets a lot of questions from callers and e-mails from potential clients that are new to the world of digital conversions. Also, many industries and organizations use different terminologies, so let me clear up some things up:

The difference between microfilm and microfiche is that fiche contain small images on flat sheets. Microfilm is roll film, usually spooled on a 16mm or 35mm or inside a Kodak or 3M cartridge. It gets kind of confusing for some people trying to identify media when they see cut strips of roll film inside clear plastic jackets. But the strong definition is that microfiche is contained on transparent flat sheets (around 4 inches x 6 inches, or 105 x 148 mm).

I used the word transparent for a reason; an image on an opaque sheet (like cardboard or index card) will only work if the material is has a cut-out rectangle. In that case, the “microfiche” is really an aperture card (an old PC card). The aperture card usually has a 35mm drawing, blueprint, or map in the cut-out. There are other scenarios where 16mm strips were cut and pasted in the rectangular cut-off. Either way, Generation Imaging can convert aperture cards to digital image.

There are a few different types of microfiche:

Jacketed microfiche (aka jacket fiche, jackets, jacket microfiche, microfiche jackets, jacketed microfilm sheets) generally contain around 5 rows of cut 16mm microfilm strips. However, 35mm jacketed microfiche have around up to 3 rows. Jacket fiche are perhaps the most varied type of microfiche: some only have a few frames on them, while others have around 60-90 images. Some jackets may contain unusual records, such as EKG, old school dot matrix computer printouts, or earthquake seismographs.

Jacket fiche can be duplicated, which ads to some people’s confusion when identifying microfiche. A diazo microfiche would not have physical sleeves anymore; instead you may see horizontal lines for each row.

digitize microfiche

COM microfiche have been around for a long time. COM = Computer Output Media. These microfiche are computer generated and usually line up perfectly, in addition to having rows/columns or 16 x 13 or 18 x 15. Occasionally, not all the frames are filled with data, so there are blank spaces instead of a packed microfiche. COM fiche usually contain accounting records.

Step-and-repeat microfiche were created with a special camera (also called 105mm film). They are more straight and even than jacket fiche. These microfiche have a varied image count, I’ve seen some have 100-300 images. They mostly contain manuals: airplanes, motorcycles, automobiles, jetski’s, scientific notebooks, etc.

Other rare types of microfiche include ultrafiche (350-500+ tiny images) and rewritable microfiche, sometimes called Microx or AB Dick microfiche.

Microfiche Scanning

Where Generation Imaging comes in is that G.I. Partners, LLC can convert microfiche to digital images, such as TIFF, PDF, or JPEG at a very low price. Microfiche scanning with NextScan scanners is a specialty of G.I. G.I. also has years of experience with microfiche scanning using Sunrise, Mekel, and Wicks & Wilson microfiche scanners, and has handled all types of microfiche scanning projects.

June 1, 2010

Converting Microfiche to Digital Image

Converting microfiche to digital image, such as PDF, TIFF, or JPEG is one of our specialties. If you have no experience with microfiche scanners, don’t have $70,000 to invest in one, or don’t have the time or money to print out one microfiche image at a time with a microfiche reader printer, then you should be pleased to know that Generation Imaging (G.I. Partners, LLC) can convert microfiche to digital image quickly and efficiently.

Microfiche is still used in many different scenarios, such as large insurance companies, genealogy records, military records, County records, engineering drawings and blueprints, sewer maps, and literally hundreds of different of industries. Many times a company or organization gets used to running a microfiche filing system and either doesn’t know about microfiche scanning or believes converting microfiche is cost prohibitive. Perhaps they inquire about buying a microfiche scanner and realize how much money, labor, and maintenance goes into microfiche scanning production. Perhaps they had purchased a cheaper alternative like a Scanpro, and realized how slow it takes. In almost all cases subcontracting microfiche digitizing to Generation Imaging is more cost-effective and quicker, not to mention microfiche conversion experts are running the project instead of newly trained laborers.

For hobbyists and researchers, sending Generation Imaging a batch of cards, or even one or two microfiche is an easy solution. With a low minimum fee for microfiche scanning, G.I. Partners takes pride in helping the so-called “civilians” in the scanning industry, as well as giving low microfiche scanning prices for high volume projects. Heck, in this new economy, the low microfiche scanning price is necessary. When you combine quality of work with the low scanning pricing, you can see why G.I. Partners is the number one choice to convert microfiche to digital image.

G.I. Partners is located in South Florida, but accepts projects from all over the world. Contact Dan or Damian for an industry-best quick response.

April 26, 2010

Need to Scan Microfiche (Just One or a Batch?)

Generation Imaging will scan a handful of microfiche for a low cost.

Do you have a genealogical microfiche, a motorcycle manual on step-and-repeat, or accounting COM fiche? Perhaps you have a historical microfiche sheet containing engineering drawings or want to digitize your military records? Whatever the case may be, Generation Imaging can help you view the microfiche images on your computer by converting them into digital images. You have found the place that can scan from one microfiche card up to any amount of microfiche cards. We can scan any quantity of microfiche that you may need scanned. Unlike some bigger corporations who charge $250 minimum fees or simply won’t even scan two fiche from a hobbyist or 20 microfiche from a small business, Generation Imaging is more than happy to assist you.

We recognize that many people will encounter the need to convert their few microfiche. Many companies find it annoying to service someone with only one card because scanning service bureaus do not like to stop production to scan a handful of microfiche cards. Most companies prefer not to bother with very small microfiche scanning jobs. Our most common request is to convert microfiche to PDF or microfiche to TIFF. After you contact Damian or Dan and get your flat rate quote, simply enclose your check to G.I. PARTNERS, LLC with the microfiche.

It makes no difference to Generation Imaging if you have a very small amount of microfiche to scan, as we give all jobs equally high awareness. To our customers, their job is essential. We also make sure that the small microfiche scanning job does not fall to the back of the priority list. Small microfiche scanning jobs are not as profitable as big scanning jobs but we make sure that this fact does not interfere with job priority.

Our priority is customer satisfaction. For this reason we will scan your one or two microfiche cards with great proficiency. Furthermore, we can also index the images we scan if you wish. Regardless of how many microfiche you have, we can provide high service.

A small microfiche conversion job of just a few microfiche cards may need to be processed in a very short amount of time. There are electronic means available to us that will allow delivery of small jobs quickly. This process is easy and can be very secure. Therefore, you don’t have to worry because we will take care of you job.

Give us a call or shoot us an e-mail the next time you need a handful of microfiche to scan. We will scan the microfiche and return your project promptly. Our goal will be your satisfaction. Although we a large capacity company that scans millions microfilm images, we also can take care of a very small microfiche job; this separates us from the rest of the scanning bureaus that throw big money around with Google AdWords. We will take care of your project so fast that you will be thankful you sent it to us.

March 24, 2010

Microfilm Scanning Bureau

Generation Imaging is a scanning bureau that uses the right kind of digital microfilm scanner to convert your microfilm, microfiche, aperture cards, and Kodak slides. Generation Imaging’s staff has decades of experience with using different types of digital microfilm scanners from various scanner manufacturers, like Sunrise, NextScan, Wicks & Wilson, Canon, Minolta, E Image Data, and others.

Generation Imaging is able to keep your microfilm scanning price down because of their low overhead. G.I. is an ideal partner for other scanning bureaus who wish to outsource microfilm scanning projects.

Why would other scanning bureaus that have scanning equipment outsource to Generation Imaging? There are quite a few reasons:

1) Scanning Costs- Depending on the volume, time-frame, and labor costs of your microfilm scanning project, it is very possible that G.I.’s scanning costs may actually be lower. Some scanning bureaus don’t have a smooth microfilm scanning production set up and it can really be a hassle sometimes.

2) Scanning equipment- not all digital microfilm scanners are created equal- some name brands are better than others, some scanners have additional modules, higher resolutions, more imaging filters, and faster image output rates. At the most basic level, some scanning bureaus don’t have a microfilm scanner, microfiche scanner, aperture card scanner, or Kodak slide scanner.

3) Work Overflow– there are some microfilm scanning projects that are so big, that a scanning bureau needs to either buy a new digital scanner or partner up with another scanning bureau. Some scanning bureaus can be hit with a bunch of smaller projects that need to be outsourced as well.

4) Film Scanning service– at Generation Imaging, co-founders Damian Hospital and Dan Gandul are trustworthy, efficient, productive, technically orientated, and practice outstanding customer service.

5) Corporate pricing– some scanning bureaus get handcuffed by their corporate office when it comes to giving low prices for an internal microfilm conversion. Subcontracting the film scanning service to G.I. is an excellent alternative.

6) Microfilm government RFP bids- in addition to offering low microfilm, microfiche, and aperture card scanning prices so scanning bureaus can be in a better position to win government RFPs, G.I. also provides other micrographic services, such as microfilming, archive writing, Florida document scanning, microfilm duplication, paper blowback printing, and more.