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Re: Digitization of Color Slides



At 09:40 AM 11/30/2000 -0500, Tom Wildenberg wrote:
I was wondering if anyone on the last has come across
recommended standards for digitizing color slides as a means of
permanent preservation.

Interesting question.  The answer in part depends on how you define
preservation.  Steve Puglia indicates in the new NEDCC "Handbook for
Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access" that the
film itself usually has a resolution of 3,000-4,000 line pairs.  That still
means that if you wanted to capture all of that resolution at 24 bit color,
you end up with a file size per slide of say 18 MB, or the size file size
of a PhotoCD.  This also presupposes that 24 bit color is good enough for
preservation (rather than 36 or 48 bit color), and that the color space is
standard enough so that you will be able to get the same colors out in 50
or 100 years as you see now - and assuring color fidelity is very
problematic.  (In fact, it is so problematic that some would argue that a
digital image cannot yet be a replacement for a slide).

Of course, the information content of the slide may not warrant full
capture of the theoretical resolution of the medium.  Here the discussion
by Franziska Frey and Jim Reilly in their publication "Digital Imaging for
Photographic Collections," available on the Image Permanence Institute web
site, is instructive in helping think about how the requirements for a
digital imaging project should be set.  You should also read the reports in
the new RLG /DLF "Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging," available
on the RLG web site.

Finally you might want to look at Cornell's Preservation Department's
analysis of the use of Kodak's PhotoCD technology for preservation and
access, available at <http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation> in the
publications section.  (FYI, there is also a link there to our new online
digital imaging tutorial.)


---------------------------------------------------------------
Peter B. Hirtle
Co-Director                                pbh6@cornell.edu
Cornell Institute for Digital Collections     607/255-4033 (ph)
2B Kroch Library                                   607/255-9524 (fax)
Cornell University                <http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/>
Ithaca, NY  14853
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