Message-Id: <mailto:199504171551.KAA09399@library.wustl.edu> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 15:43:18 -0400 From: Misha Schutt <mailto:MishaGMCLA@AOL.COM> Subject: Scanning newspaper clippings To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
I've been on IMAGELIB for several months now, and I've scanned the entire logfile for this, so I guess it's not a common question.We are about to begin scanning our files of newspaper clippings and other ephemera. We have a lot of old clippings which are beginning to crumble, and the scanning project is intended both for preservation and for ease of access, but ease of scanning will probably be an issue. We expect to use TIFF files and will probably store them on the new cheap 100M Bernoulli cartridges, though we're also considering magneto-optical disks.
The most basic question is, is there a generally-accepted preservation standard for b/w images such as newsprint? Grayscale is not an issue, of course, since the photos are already halftoned. Since we have over a million items, file size is a significant consideration. Maybe I'm naive, but it seems that there would be diminishing returns at higher resolutions than 300 dpi, since newspaper printing is quick and dirty to start with.
We plan to use large grayscale monitors for viewing the images, and we expect to use 17-inch monitors so that an 8 1/2 x 11 page could be viewed vertically. Does anyone have experience with clippings on this type of monitor? Can you read newspaper print at actual size, or do you have to blow it up to avoid eyestrain? Is there perhaps a viewer that can use grayscale onscreen to approximate a higher resolution? (I know that some fax viewers use grayscale to reduce the visual "blockiness" of low-res fax images.)
I can't believe that nobody is engaged in scanning newspaper clippings--perhaps there just aren't any problems associated with such projects ;-)?
Misha Schutt ONE Institute / International Gay & Lesbian Archives (Los Angeles, CA) (day job: Burbank Public Library)