Digitisation
Digitising your collections of photos, books and archive items seems very simple at first glance: connect scanner, scan, save file on computer, and you’re ready.
Another option is to photograph your materials, but it’s not easy to create high-quality scans or photos. And what if you have more complex materials, such as film reels and audio tapes? How do you get started with that?
A quick, everyday scan is often sufficient for the majority of practical uses that you have in mind for the short term, for example a digital copy of a contract which you also have on paper. But digitised files are more sustainable if you also create high-quality photos or scans. These can also be used for other purposes as well, such as publication in books or on websites. If you want to digitise your valuable archive or collection items, it’s worth trying to achieve the highest quality possible. Also, if you want to invest in digitising a large amount of content, we recommend doing so in a sustainable way.
In this section, we look at the general rules for performing your own sustainable and high-quality digitisation in more detail. We also provide tips for choosing to outsource the digitisation to an external company.
What are colour profiles?
TRACKS and other knowledge platforms recommend saving the colours in your files in the eciRGB_v2colour profile (or AdobeRGB if necessary). This article is for anyone who wants to know the finer deta...
Read moreEmbedded metadata for photographs
When your archive contains lots of digital photos, you might want to consider embedding additional metadata in the files – to ensure that the photos cannot be separated from their identifying data. ...
Read moreDigitising audio and video recordings
Just like paper documents, you can also digitise the analogue video and audio recordings in your archive – but this is a complex task that is usually best outsourced. In this article, you’ll learn: ...
Read moreOutsourcing a digitisation assignment
It is often recommended to outsource the digitisation of your archive or collection to an external partner. They have the expertise to deliver high-quality digitised files – but there are many thing...
Read moreHigh-quality text and image digitisation
Digitising analogue text and image content can offer many advantages, e.g. to make it more consultable. But digitisation is an intensive process that requires a lot of time and resources. Good plann...
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