Discounted Microfilm Scanning, Microfiche Scanning, Aperture Card Scanning, and Imaging Services

Tag: Generation Imaging

Your One-Stop Microfiche Scanning Services Solution

High Quality Microfiche Scanning Services

Generation Imaging is a microfiche scanning company located in South Florida. It has serviced hundreds of clients, including imaging resellers, financial institutions, schools, insurance companies, colleges, engineers, homeowners associations, government agencies, researchers, military veterans, libraries, and many others.

scanning microfiche

Does Your Microfiche Reader Need Repair?

As we march on into the 21st century, there are still remnants of an analog tech industry: you, your institution or your office may still be using microfiche on a daily basis, for an occasional request, or just as an archive. Part of the archaic method is to use a reader printer to read or print individual images.

That process can best be described as a band-aid and the general mentality is that it’s less expensive compared to digitizing the entire microfiche collection. However, a true cost benefit analysis must be considered before disregarding a microfiche conversion possibility.

Those microfiche readers were not built to last, and more and more users are reporting a lack of technical support, a need for spare parts, upgrades, or replacements. All of these searches may come up short in today’s economic times and advanced technological leaps.

What is Microfiche Scanning?

Microfiche scanning is the act of converting microfiche to digital images. Your entire fiche card or collection can be transferred to an output media such as CD, DVD, or external hard drive, or uploaded to a server, PCs, or internet. The benefits of converting an analogue media to digital media are numerous.

The resulting images can be in any image format; some common ones are TIFF, PDF, or JPEG. The frames of a microfiche may be outputted as individual files (called “single page”) or wrapped up into one file containing a fiche or name (called “multi-page”).

Microfiche Scanner Price vs Microfiche Scanning Price

Microfiche scanning is a specialized skill, and requires the correct equipment, experienced management, trained employees, a rigid set of procedures, the proper network configuration, parts and maintenance, insurance, office space, and many other factors. Microfiche scanning is a niche industry and although it is logical to presume that it would be cheaper to buy a microfiche scanner than to subcontract scanning services, that is actually not true in most cases.

A new high-quality, high-production microfiche scanner can run around $55,000 each depending on the make and model. Consider a mandatory maintenance plan and labor as well. A used microfiche scanner is slightly cheaper, of course, but understand that most are sold “as is” with no warranty or guarantees after a 30-day period (if that).

Generation Imaging offers very low microfiche scanning prices. Depending on how many microfiche cards in your collection it could a small flat rate fee for a small project or a tiny charge per image on large volume microfiche projects. Generation Imaging provides professional experience: microfiche scanning is both an art and science, and G.I. Partners has the high-end equipment, expert employees, and workflow procedure all ready right now.

The Benefits of Microfiche Scanning Conversion

Subcontracting the microfiche conversion to Generation Imaging is a relatively quick and painless process. Here are some benefits.

Microfiche to digital image saves space.
Microfiche scanning saves the time and labor of searching through file cabinets or using reader printers.
A microfiche conversion will save money for you in the long run.
Having a digital copy allows unlimited duplication, copying, emailing, uploading, and sharing.
With a microfiche’s images in your possession, you know have two copies: an analog and a digital; you can use the originals as an emergency backup if you wish.

The Different Types of Microfiche

The term microfiche can apply to various types of media. The basic characteristic that links microfiche is that they contain frames on a flat plastic sheet (as opposed to a spool of film, color slide, paper document, or cut-out cardboard aperture card). Here is a brief description of the different types of microfiche:

16mm jackets: These were originally contained on roll film strips and have been cut down and inserted into open jacket sleeves. May contain anywhere from 1 to 90 frames, although there are always exceptions to any rule regarding generalizing microfiche properties.

16mm duplicate jackets: These no longer contain the open sleeves; copies of jackets. May be black, blue, purple, or other colors depending on the duplication process.

35mm jackets: Usually very large frames (like blueprints or drawings), containing around 1-6 frames.

35mm duplicate jackets: A copy of a jacket with no open sleeves.

COM fiche: Computer generated microfiche, theoretically with perfectly aligned rows and columns. Usually packed with 208-270 images, unless some columns are not full.

Duplicated COM fiche: Same as COM fiche, but usually blue, purple, or another color. One issue that may arise is that the duplication method was wrong, so the COM fiche becomes skewed (crooked) or out of focus (rare).

Rewritable microfiche: Sometimes referred to as AB Dick or Microx, these are generally very light, and may look like duped jackets, but are evenly spaced, and contain “blank” frames.

Step and repeat microfiche: “Step-and-repeat” fiche were created with a special camera (also called 105mm film). They are more straight and even than jacket fiche, but have a varied image count, usually 60-300 images. They mostly contain manuals from Yahama, Suzuki, Ford, GM, Harley, Kawasaki, lab notebooks, books, etc.

Ultrafiche: These are like “super COM fiche” or “giant step-and-repeat” microfiche. There may be up to 500 very tiny frames on ultrafiche.

How To Start Your Microfiche Conversion

Please contact a representative from Generation Imaging today for a free, no-obligation microfiche scanning price quote.

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Sending Your Microfilm or Microfiche Projects Overseas? Read This First!

The Reality of Outsourcing Microfilm Scanning (U.S. Domestic vs Overseas)

Guest Article by Tony Simon

sending microfilm overseas

There is a huge misconception about outsourcing microfilm scanning work overseas to China, India, and other Asian countries: mainly that it is cheaper to send microfilm and microfiche work abroad than to get that work completed in the U.S. or Canada.  Let’s look at some reasons why this is a misconception, and a great alternative.

Reason #1: Shipping Costs

If you are sending boxes and boxes of heavy microfilm or microfiche, you can bet that the shipping costs alone will eat away at the savings you get using a company that scans microfilm overseas.

Reason #2: Quality

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.  When you are sending microfilm conversion work to a company far, far away, the risk is higher that the quality of the work will not be up to your standards.  If this is a problem, you will be arguing with a person on the other side of the plan to rescan your images.

Reason #3: Your Microfilm is Half a World Away

Do you really want your precious microfilm copy of your documents sent on a boat or a plane to some far off place?  Sure, you can duplicate the images and send the dupes to be scanned.  However, duplicate copies of microfilm or microfiche are lower quality than originals.  Is that what you want: unreadable digital images that force you to go back to the original microfilm?

The solution: Generation Imaging

With Generation Imaging, you can ship original microfilm and microfiche with confidence that the images will be scanned and stored within the United States, in a secure location. Even if you send duplicates, the expert scanner operators at Generation Imaging will use their years of experience to give you the best image quality possible.

When it comes to shipping, the cost will be less expensive to send your microfilm scanning project to Generation Imaging if you are anywhere in North America or the Caribbean.

Quality control is a top priority at Generation Imaging.  With our state-of-the-art NextScan machines and software, we are able to insure that your microfilm and microfiche conversion project will be clean and complete.  If you do encounter problems or have any questions, our service representatives are ready to assist you and resolve any issues as quickly as possible.  Plus, with Generation Imaging residing in Florida, you have the knowledge that you could personally visit the production facility with relative ease: no 20 hour flights around the globe and crazy jet lag!

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Generation Imaging Is The Complete Microfilm Scanning Service Provider

A recent search for Microfilm Scanning Services suggests that many people are looking for some sort of microfilm to digital conversion but may be getting confused with the various naming conventions. It is easy to get lost in the lingo. The difference between microfilm to digital conversion and microfilm conversion to digital, as well as other expressions, all relate to the more general term of microfilm scanning services. However, a microfilm scanning service provider like Generation Imaging can provide many other services that all fall under the umbrella. Microfilm scanning services can also include many other microfilm conversion to digital such as 16mm microfilm to digital conversion, 35mm microfilm conversion to digital and many other microfilm types.Generation Imaging Is The Complete Microfilm Scanning Service Provider

An organization or individual searching for a microfilm scanning service does not need to be an expert in this matter, and should do the best in finding one. Finding a true microfilm scanning service provider helps eliminate some frustrations down the line. As an example, I have talked to customers that needed a microfilm to digital conversion. After further clarification, the customer actually needed a company that had various types of digital microfilm scanners. In this case, the customer identified the source as one type of microfilm when in fact, he had various types that required different microfilm to digital conversion methods. Generation Imaging is a true microfilm scanning service provider equipped with the proper digital microfilm scanners to support all of the customers need.

Microfilm scanning services in today’s age go much further than the traditional microfilm to digital conversion. There are many other things to consider before and after the microfilm conversion to a digital formats. In most instances, the end user is only interested in the end result. For example, John from the genealogical society, wants to transfer his microfilm records to digital so that he can provide all the records online to many interested users. He contacts a microfilm scanning service provider for the solution. Although he has a clear goal, the microfilm scanning service company should provide guidance to keep John out of trouble. A successful microfilm scanning service company should find out how John will be searching for the information and offer solutions like OCR (optical character recognition ), or some other type if indexing format. Also, the microfilm scanning service providers needs to be able to perform microfilm to digital conversion on all of the different types of microfilm that John has in storage so that his image library may be complete. To support this, the microfilm scanning service provider needs to be equipped with digital microfilm scanners for 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm, and many other microfilm types.

In addition to indexing and OCR, a microfilm scanning service company should be able to perform data processing to achieve the ultimate goal. After the microfilm to digital conversion is complete, and the data has been indexed according to specifications, the final product may required that the images get wrapped into multi-page pdf files, or some other file structure. The microfilm scanning service providers should be able to handle all of the necessary steps to achieve the best possible results that our current technology offers. Check the services at Generation Imaging for your microfilm conversion needs.

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Happy New Year from Generation Imaging

The staff at Generation Imaging wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year. Initial polls show people are more hopeful this year than the last few years, so let’s hope that it translates into happiness and work for everyone.

As far as Generation Imaging goes, the growing Florida microfilm scanning company has posted increased revenues and profits every year since it has started thanks to its competitive prices, no corporate overhead, and efficient work.

Generation Imaging would like to thank all of its clients for using its microfilm, microfiche, aperture card, color slides, and document scanning services, in addition to 16mm archive writing services. Generation Imaging realizes that the client is always right, that prices need to be low in this current economy, that deadlines need to be met, and that if you are a reseller confidentiality will be respected.

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What Are Microfilm Scanning Services?

At the most basic level, microfilm scanning services refers to digitizing roll film. In other words, it is the transfer from analog media to digital format. To break it down even further, it is roll film to tiff, pdf, jpeg, or other image format. The two types of roll film are 16mm and 35mm, not to be confused with movie film.

So in addition to the actual roll film conversion, is another component of microfilm scanning services?

Quality control. Some companies don’t actually check their work, or simply do a quick spot check before sending the project out. What happens is that he burden would get put on you to perform your own in-depth quality check. If you don’t have time or labor to perform a check, there would be a great chance that the images are incorrect, which is a nightmare. Generation Imaging performs four phases of quality control, which are including in our standard microfilm scanning services.

  • Phase 1: Generation Imaging’s scanner operators actually check their work during scanning. They check their settings. As a failsafe, each project has a project manager and supervisor to verify that the microfilm machines and specifications are correct.
  • Phase 2: Another worker or workers will audit the scan. The scanner will create a ribbon of the entire roll, and the auditor will manually verify, modify, and- if necessary- adjust quality or rescan the roll.
  • Phase 3: This is an intense quality control process that meets industry standards. It is performed by a separate quality control team. A significant percentage of images is checked. 100% QC and/or manually adjusting or manually cropping or manually splitting images are add-on microfilm scanning services.
  • Phase 4: The CD, DVD, or hard drive is checked and image counts are matched.

As you can see there is more to microfilm scanning services than just hanging a roll on the machine.

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