instances – Generation Imaging

April 24, 2012

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.

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.

September 13, 2009

Microfilm Scanning Quality

When performing a microfilm scan, there are many issues that need to be considered to assure that the resulting quality is the best possible scan.

To start, you need to determine how much information you want to capture from the film. At first, this may seem to many like a dumb question, thinking that the more the better. In many instances that is the case, but there is a limit to this benefit and at one point there is a cost to pay that counteracts some of the benefit.

The two question to answer before starting the microfilm conversion process with respect to ultimate quality are Film Scan Resolution and File Type.

The film scan resolution is often refer to as DPI or “dots per inch”. The DPI is important because it determines the size of the dots or points that make up an image. If you look at a one inch by one inch square of an image and zoom in on it so that you could see the dots that make an image, you would be able to see rows of dots that change color. A resolution of 100 would have 100 dots going across the one inch. A 300 DPI image would have 300 dots in this same row. To fit more dots in the same distance, they would have to be smaller and more compact. More dots means that the image would have better chances of been higher quality.

More dots also means that there is more information. More information also means that the image is bigger in terms of file size. This is the down side to a higher DPI. End users are sometimes affected by this issue for a couple of reasons. One is the hard drive space that will be needed to store the images. If the project is large, the difference in drive space may be significant. The second issue has to do with the end users system and its ability to handle the images quickly. The larger the files are, the more information the system needs to process. If going with larger DPI, the end user needs to make sure that the operating system, the processor in the computer, the network, and all other components, are ready to deal with the larger images and can achieve the desired results.

In addition to the DPI scan resolution, determining the file type is also important. There are various image types, including gray scale, j-peg, tiff, and others, and some various compression types withing these selections. Grey scale images offer the possibility of generating very high quality images with lots of details but it is usually much higher in file size.

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