Community Resources
Resources for community members and others wishing to conduct their own digitization work.
Equipment Recommendation
The type of scanner you will need depends on the type of items you plan to scan. The CDIL recommends using a flatbed scanner to scan your items as any type of feed scanner has potential to damage delicate photos and documents. Look for a scanner with a bed size that will fit the largest of the items you’ll be scanning—something that’s at least 8 1/2” x 11” will typically work unless you have many oversize items. If you’ll be scanning slides and/or film, also opt for a scanner with a built-in transparency unit. For high-quality scans, you’ll also need something capable of scanning at at least 600 dpi.
Scanning Specifications
In the CDIL we use very specific specifications to create archival quality scans:
- DPI: DPI, or dots per inch, measures the resolution of a digital scan. A higher dpi equates to a higher resolution scan. We scan images at 600 dpi and documents at 400 dpi.
- Pixels: We scan all items at 6,000 pixels on the longest edge of the item.
- File type: We scan all items to .tiff format first. TIFF files are meant to preserve the quality of a scan and are inherently large. TIFF files are optimal for storing digital images; for sharing images on the web, you’ll want to convert them to a lower resolution JPEG.
Processing Images
After you have your items scanned, there are a few different things you can do to process and build your collection:
- Photoshop: The CDIL uses Adobe Photoshop to process the digital files from our scanning projects. Visit the Processing instructions for a guide to these procedures.
- GIMP: If you don’t have access to Photoshop, GIMP is a free image editing software with similar functions.
- Squoosh is also a good free resource for image optimization
- Metadata: Once your images are processed, you might want to create some metadata to describe your images. Visit the Metadata page to see some common metadata fields that we use for our collections. We recommend using Google Sheets to create your metadata.