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- Avoid overly light or overly dark scans. Use the preview feature of your scanner to inspect the tonal range (histogram) of the scanned images. Adjust the scanner settings if the histogram indicates that light or dark areas are being badly clipped (crashing into the end of the range, see reference).
- High-quality (low compression) JPEG files are recommended for archival. For an 8 to 16 megapixel image, a high quality JPEG will typically require from 4 to 10 megabytes of disk storage. JPEG compression is independent of scan resolution and it is determined by a quality setting (usually 0-100) offered by your image processing software when you save the JPEG file. A quality setting of at least 90 is recommended.
- TIFF and other uncompressed formats are okay, but not required or recommended. TIFF files are several times larger than JPEG files, without clear benefits in quality for our use.
- Original scan files (especially JPEGs) should be treated as "digital negatives" and never overwritten. For editing, make a copy of the original and edit the copy. This eliminates a key concern about using JPEGs--that repeated overwriting will degrade image quality. (If you need to make several editing passes on an image, save your intermediate copies as TIFF files. See reference.)
- Look at the back and/or any packaging. Include any identifying information in the file name or use a photo editor that lets you put it in the IPTC caption field. If there is a lot of writing scan it too.
PDF Finding Aids
- To make it easier to view a collection of images, consider combining images into a single PDF file.
- PDF finding aids should be uploaded to the Mountaineer Archives wiki (this site) to enable the public to browse our digital materials. (The Mueller, Simmons, Swanson and Venema albums on our Collections page are good examples.)
- Creating a PDF file with several images requires PDF authoring software. There are many freeware and commercial alternatives. (Nitro PDF, a commercial product that is less expensive than Adobe Acrobat, works well.)
- Individual photos included in a PDF finding aid should generally be low resolution, to minimize the overall size of the file on line and to discourage unauthorized copying (if that is a concern). If you've scanned the images at high resolution (publication quality) you'll need to reduce them for use in a finding aid. (IrfanView, a free image viewer and editor, provides a batch conversion feature for resizing images.)
- For album pages that consist of a collage of several images, use a medium resolution scan of the entire page, to enable closer inspection of each image.
- It is not necessary to include all of a collection's images in a finding aid. It's okay to include just the most interesting ones. (It's a good idea to note this in our online catalog.)
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