Scanning Your Personal Collections | Digital Preservation

- Bitonal: simple two-tone black and white scans,

suitable for typewritten and printed text docu-

ments. Handwritten letters may be scanned in

bitonal if you like the results.

- Grayscale: a palette of up to 256 gray tones is

best for black & white photographs. Grayscale

scanning may also work best for music and hand-

writing because details may display better than in

bitonal scans.

- Color: a palette of 256 to thousands of color

tones is used for photographs and documents

where color is important, such as maps, diagrams

and illustrations. To capture the natural appear-

ance of an item, color scans may be best.

Scanning your documents and photographs results in digital copies that can be reprinted

and shared.

This document provides some considerations for scanning your personal collections and

an explanation of some common scanning terms.

This is a basic overview. Read your scanner manual for additional information.

Scanning Terms:

Resolution • is finely spaced detail.

Dots per inch• , or DPI, is a mea-

sure of how many dots of color

or shading are contained within

one inch. The terms DPI and PPI

(pixels per inch) are often used

interchangeably. The more dots

densely packed in an inch, the

finer the image will be and the

larger the file size. Generally,

documents should be scanned at

300 dpi. Photographs you intend

to enlarge to 8” x 10” or greater

can be scanned at 400 or 600 dpi.

Anything above 600 may be un-

necessary.

Scanning Your Personal Collections

1. Prepare the scanner, documents and photos

Clean dirt, smudges and other particles from the documents or photographs you have

selected to scan. The scanner will capture the document or photograph as it is, so make

sure that your original item and the scanner are free of dirt or particles that could inter-

fere with the scan or it will result in a low-quality version. Aim for the cleanest, clearest

scan you can get.

2. Review and select the scanner settings

Settings have an impact on the scanned image. Understanding some of the commonly

referred to terms may help you select the best scanner setting for your needs.

PERSONAL DIGITAL ARCHIVING SERIES

NOTE: Generally, documents should be

scanned at 300 dpi.

3. Scan and save

After previewing and scanning the image, you have a choice of several different formats

in which to save your scan.

- Bitonal: Usually saved in “group IV compressed” TIFF file format.

- Greyscale: Usually saved in standard JPEG (.jpg) file format at a medium quality.

- Color: Save in medium-quality JPEG format unless you want to re-print the photo, in

which case use the high-quality JPEG setting. Use this setting also if you want 8” x 10”

enlargements.

You can also save documents in PDF format. This provides an advantage if you want to

combine several pages or photos in a single file. PDF may also be useful for text docu-

ments because you may be able to create searchable text to help find specific words later.

4. Access and storage

Once you’ve scanned your personal collections,

you need to make sure that you can access them in

the future. Here are a few helpful tips for proper

storage and access.

Organize the scanned images

• Give individual scanned files descriptive file

names, such as “0915201-wedding.jpg.” Using a

“yyyymmdd” date-structure format at the begin-

ning of a file name such as “20100915-wedding.

jpg” will help.

• Create and organize a folder-within-folder direc-

tory structure on your computer in which to store

Example of a folder-within-folder

directory/folder structure:

\My Documents

\Family

\ophelia_ wedding

20100914-Rehearsal-001.jpg

20100915-Ceremony-001.jpg

20100915-Ceremony-002.jpg

20100915-Reception-001.jpg

Make backup copies and manage them in different places

• If you’ve created multiple scans of the same item, save the one with highest quality.

• Make at least two copies of your collection. More copies are better. One can stay on

your computer; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard

drives, thumb drives or online Internet storage.

• Write a brief summary of the contents or take a “print screen” snapshot of the files

and folder, print out a paper copy and keep it with the storage media as a quick-reference

inventory sheet.

• Store copies in different locations, as far apart as practical. If disaster strikes one loca-

tion, remote copies of your collection should be safe.