Tag: microfiche

September 12, 2011

Microfiche Scanning for Vehicle Manuals

Microfiche scanning is a technique to digitize analog fiche that contain owner manuals, parts manuals, repair manuals, and technical manuals for various vehicles, such as motorcycles, automobiles, snowmobiles, trucks, SUVs, vans, and others to digital image.

If you are a mechanic, hobbyist, owner, or researcher you may have noticed that getting manufacturer’s manuals for obscure and even popular manuals results in them sending you fiche. Well, how do you print a parts manual from microfiche? The quickest way is to send the fiche to Generation Imaging for microfiche scanning.

Microfiche scanning results in digital images, such as PDF, TIFF, or JPEG that you can print from, load on your computer, and actually read. Your other options are trying to locate an old fashioned microfiche viewer or reader printer.

Generation Imaging has a very special flat rate microfiche scanning cost if you have a handful of parts manuals on step-and-repeat microfiche.

Generation Imaging is located in Florida and received and sends microfilm via USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex, and other carriers. There have been no mail mishaps. So if you are are tired of running around trying to find a way to convert parts manuals on microfiche to digital image, please give G.I. a try with our microfiche scanning service. You won’t be disappointed in the quality or turnaround time, that’s for sure.

Generation Imaging’s crew has been in the microfiche scanning industry since the 1990s and has converted hundreds of thousands of step-and-repeat fiche that contain parts, instructions, and service manuals. There is no need for you to waste your personal time trying to figure out a way to go about this on your own.

September 12, 2011

Another County Digitize Negatives to Preserve Records

Seems like everyday, another organization makes a move to digitize negatives to preserve historical records. This is a good move when you consider the benefits when you digitize negatives from microfiche cards. Microfiche with historical records are not easily accessible by the general public and they run the risk of deterioration and loss. If you digitize negatives from these microfiche, these issues go away.

The best time to digitize negatives from microfiche cards is before they begin to deteriorate. When this happens, the microfiche begins to lose quality and will eventually become useless. The precess to digitize negatives from these microfiche should start way before this decomposition has a chance to take place. The older the microfiche, the higher the risk of decomposition, although other conditions may also contribute. It is better to digitize negatives early to preserve quality and information.

Historical records hold an irreplaceable value. The ultimate step to digitize negatives from the microfiche will ensure that the information is preserved. Also digitize negatives allow easy access and distribution of the information. With this, when you digitize negatives you increase the value of the records and add layers of protection to the system.

September 8, 2011

Digitize Negatives Could Help The National Archives

The National Archives hold information military service, family information, a personal history questionnaire, affidavits of comrades-in-arms, relatives, neighbors and medical, just to name some. Many of these files are in some form of negative microfilm. To digitize negatives and create digital files from this information will require a microfilm scanning conversion. Why would you want to digitize negatives? Well, by doing so, you can create an digital system that could hols all the information on computers. Organizations like these would like to digitize negatives but have not done so, in many cases, for monetary reasons.

Historians also like to digitize negatives because they spend a great deal of time researching records in libraries and going through books. When we digitize negatives, we create a file that is much more accessible than a hardcopy book. We Like helping historians and other people that like to look for old records, like people looking for ancestor’s information. After we digitize negatives from microfiche cards of microfilm rolls, their work becomes much easier and they appreciate it so much that they let you know about it.

After we digitize negatives, the digital files that are created can be viewed on one computer or multiple computers at the same time, depending on the network setup. Another benefit to digitize negatives is that digital images can be e-mail and shared through the internet just like any other digital picture. This really helps people that are interested in working on the same project but are not in the same location. If you an interest to digitize negatives for your own work, microfilm scanning can really help you.

August 25, 2011

Convert Microfiche to PDF

Thanks to the beauty of the internet, it has never been easier to finding a solution to convert microfiche to PDF. Damian Hospital and Dan Gandul have decades of experience with microfiche scanning and through the use of the internet can reach out to more people who need to convert microfiche to digital image (PDF, TIFF, or JPEG). Generation Imaging provides wholesale pricing and very low flat rate fees if you just have a handful of fiche or even for just one card.

Some potential clients are hesitant to send out their fiche in the mail, but Generation Imaging has never had a shipping mishap and your media is secure at G.I.’s office in Florida. Generation Imaging prides itself on meeting deadlines and its internal quality control methods. If you want to convert microfiche to PDF, you can rest assured your fiche are in capable hands. You can join other satisfied clients: Generation Imaging Testimonials.

The cost to convert microfiche to PDF, TIFF, or JPEG depends on the volume (number of cards + number of frames on the cards) and if there are any indexing parameters or image enhancements/processing (such as OCR- Object Character Recognition).

Generation Imaging does not engage in any “bait and switch” tactics, scanning subcontracting, overhype our capabilities to convert microfiche, or lies about due dates. If anything changes during the scanning process (like if the fiche wasn’t as described or some fiche were of a lower quality than the initial test) you would be notified immediately.

The final product can be of any format or filing system you’d like. When we convert microfiche, we can create single page images or multi-page images. Images can be scanned at any DPI resolution. Folders can be named however you’d like.

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.