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 making 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.