Scanning and Image Management Software Inquiry

From: Stuart Snydman (snydman@STANFORD.EDU)
Date: Sun Dec 24 2000 - 18:08:10 CST

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    Message-Id: <200012250024.RAA17568@dns.ccit.arizona.edu>
Date:         Sun, 24 Dec 2000 16:08:10 -0800
From: Stuart Snydman <mailto:snydman@STANFORD.EDU>
Subject:      Scanning and Image Management Software Inquiry
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

    <pre> Hello -

    I am currently working on a document acquisition and archival project at Stanford University and would love some advice on software. I have several needs that I would prefer to resolve using an integrated solution, but separate applications would also be fine if they satisfy all requirements. The two most pressing needs are:

    1. High Volume Scanning and Document Management Software

    We have a lab of 7 high-speed black and white scanners of different types. Currently we are using 6 Fujitsu Flatbed Scanners (3097 and 4097) and 1 Minolta PS7000 Overhead Book Scanner. Scanning workstations are installed with Windows 98 or Windows 2000 and networked to a Windows NT 4.0 Server. All scanners are used at high volume for 10-14 hours a day with very little idle time, and we are generating multi-page TIFF files. Image counts are on the order of tens of thousands a day.

    We currently use some of the more generic scanning software, such as Imaging Pro for Windows, PixView and Scandall. I would love any suggestions that you might have on more sophisticated software options that I may not be aware of. I have several needs. For training and workflow purposes, I would like to use the same software for both the Minolta and Fujitsu's. This would require the software to be compatible with the ISIS driver for the Minolta. The TWAIN driver does not allow us to do generate multi-page TIFF files without using the software interface for each individual scan. The ISIS driver allows complete control from the scanner's console. The software must also offer the typical features such as delete, insert, rescan and append. Not all apps I have tried have flexible insert and append functionality. It should also have a small footprint and it would be nice if it had some integrated document management functionality. We currently use a separate FileMaker database to collect meta-data and track scanning progress. Something more integrated would be nice.

    2. Post-production image clean-up software

    Currently we use a combination of Photoshop, Scanfix and PixView to clean and prepare the tiff images. This is cumbersome (using 3 different apps), and I would prefer to use a single application that can do all of the following:

            Split and recombine multi-page tiff files
            Automatically split side-by-side page images into two separate images
            Crop
            Rotate
            Straighten
            Adjust brightness, contrast, etc. (as in Photoshop)
            Despeckle, Deskew, etc. (as in ScanFix)

    The process of manually dividing single side-by-side images into separate images within the multi-page tiff file is especially cumbersome. Also, in order to do this currently, we need to split the multi-page tiff into tens of individual files, divide the doubles, then recombine the images back to a single multi-page file. The ability to divide side-by-side doubles into two singles without having to break up the multi-page tiff would reduce post-processing time quite a bit.

    I would greatly appreciate advice on any software you know of that integrates all (or most) of these features.

    Stu Snydman Stanford University Digital Library Project mailto:snydman@stanford.edu

    </pre>

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