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Re: Archiving Digital Images



Title: RE: Archiving Digital Images

Daniel,

Allow me a little more clarification: JPEG is "something" of an open standard. The problem is that JPEG is a loosy compression method, not REALLY file format. So the problem lies in WHAT you do to a file that has had the JPEG compression performed upon it...and further processing a JPEG file is risky business.

Having said that, the JPEG compression scheme is pretty well documented (how "open" a standard you want depends on how you define "open."), so changes can be tracked. I'll repeat myself, if you receive a collection of JPEGs, then that's what you've got. You "freeze" their state, understanding that any future manipulation, migration, duplication, or copying will never improve or enhance them beyond that initial state.

Imagine, instead of JPEGs, you receive photocopies as a "priceless" collection of papers. You "could" improve on the "display" of the information by scanning them, running contrast control enhancements, etc., but the originals STILL will be crappy photocopies that you hope like crazy were done on high rag content paper. In the words of a certain football coach noted in certain parts of the country, "Ya gotta dance with who brung ya."

Bottom line: the original you receive will still be your original, whatever it is. Just take the appropriate steps to preserve it. (In the case of JPEGs, I would try to make a "preservation" copy of the files to be kept elsewhere, on some kind of recordable media, like CD, but recognizing the issues that surround the use of JPEGs).

Hope this helps?

Dennis