Difference between revisions of "Digitization Guidelines"

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  * work in progress
  * work in progress


The German Science Foundation issued a set of guidelines for the digitisation of documents.<ref>[[media:Praxisregeln_Digitalisierung_Maerz_2007_DFG.pdf]]</ref>
The German Science Foundation issued a set of guidelines for the digitization of documents.<ref>[[media:Praxisregeln_Digitalisierung_Maerz_2007_DFG.pdf]]</ref>


In the following you find an excerpt from those guidelines that are especially relevant for institutes which digitise documents themselves.
In the following you find a relevant subset of the DFG guidelines and, in addition, a description of a workflow for digitizing and submitting digital documents for digital collections maintained by the MPDL.  


== Scanning ==


== Resolution and Image Quality ==
=== Resolution and Image Quality ===


For scanning greyscale or coloured prints a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is suggested. Documents containing handwriting or maps with fine lines and small descriptions might require a scan resolution of up to 400 dpi.   
For scanning greyscale or colored prints a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is suggested. Documents containing handwriting or maps with fine lines and small descriptions might require a scan resolution of up to 400 dpi.   
For generating bitonal scans, 600 dpi are requested.
For generating bitonal scans, 600 dpi are requested.






== Colour depth ==
=== Colour depth ===


Bitonal scans (b/w) are generated with a colour depth of 1 level (1 bit) per pixel. Greyscale images are digitised with 256 levels (8 bit = 1 byte) per pixel. Colour images use 3 colour channels (red, green, blue) with 1 byte per channel (= 24 bit = 3 byte per pixel), enabling 256 x 256 x 256 = 16.7 million colours per pixel.  
Bitonal scans (b/w) are generated with a color depth of 1 level (1 bit) per pixel. Greyscale images are digitized with 256 levels (8 bit = 1 byte) per pixel. Color images use 3 color channels (red, green, blue) with 1 byte per channel (= 24 bit = 3 byte per pixel), enabling 256 x 256 x 256 = 16.7 million colors per pixel.  
24 bit provide a sufficiently high colour depth for colour scans. Scanning with 48 bit colour depth makes sense only in few cases where images need to be corrected or reworked after the scanning process.
24 bit provide a sufficiently high color depth for color scans. Scanning with 48 bit color depth makes sense only in few cases where images need to be corrected or reworked after the scanning process.





Revision as of 10:37, 17 March 2008

* work in progress

The German Science Foundation issued a set of guidelines for the digitization of documents.[1]

In the following you find a relevant subset of the DFG guidelines and, in addition, a description of a workflow for digitizing and submitting digital documents for digital collections maintained by the MPDL.

Scanning[edit]

Resolution and Image Quality[edit]

For scanning greyscale or colored prints a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is suggested. Documents containing handwriting or maps with fine lines and small descriptions might require a scan resolution of up to 400 dpi. For generating bitonal scans, 600 dpi are requested.


Colour depth[edit]

Bitonal scans (b/w) are generated with a color depth of 1 level (1 bit) per pixel. Greyscale images are digitized with 256 levels (8 bit = 1 byte) per pixel. Color images use 3 color channels (red, green, blue) with 1 byte per channel (= 24 bit = 3 byte per pixel), enabling 256 x 256 x 256 = 16.7 million colors per pixel. 24 bit provide a sufficiently high color depth for color scans. Scanning with 48 bit color depth makes sense only in few cases where images need to be corrected or reworked after the scanning process.


Notes[edit]