Generation Imaging » microfilm

Archival Services For Creating Microfilm

GenerationImaging — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:35:34 +0000

Archival services for documents or image files can generate microfilm that you can store for a very long time. This process allows you to save a true copy of the original information. We can assist you if you are planning on using archival services and you need to find out what it costs or what archival services options are available for you.

Large format archival services is used to transfer zoning maps, engineering maps and other types of documents that are oversize. E size drawings are reduced about 12 times and required 35mm microfilm. We can microfilm your large format and without scanning them, but if you need digital images also, we are experts at microfilm scanning as well. Archival services of smaller documents is very common for transferring pdf files to 16 mm microfilm.

We do not recommend you try to start your own archival services for your in-house needs. Archival services requires the use of chemicals for film developing. Unless you already have zoning permits and licensing from your local government, getting all this set up can be challenging. If you need archival services for a specific project or you have on-going needs, try contacting a qualified company that offers archival services. You may need to specify certain microfilm requirements and reduction issues. You may also want to have the microfilm duplicated. A duplicate roll from the original is very inexpensive to make and a good archival services company should offer this option as well. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

Generation Imaging’s Microfilm Scanning Services

GenerationImaging — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:19:58 +0000

Generation Imaging is a Florida company owned by Damian Hospital and Dan Gandul that provides 16mm and 35mm microfilm scanning services. They met each other at Lorien Technologies and have been working together since 1998. Prior to Lorien Technologies, Dan worked at First American Real Estate, and in their microfilm scanning services division for 22 years.

Experiencing life is fun, but so is learning from experiences. Damian and Dan have committed themselves to making sure microfilm scanning services provided by G.I. Partners, LLC are efficiently provided to clients with no excuses.

G.I.’s microfilm scanning services include:

-Free quotes and sample testing.

-Creating an Inventory of roll film to compare to your list or database or to build one from scratch.

-Examining the film to make sure it can be scanned or damaged or repaired.

-Digitizing film at 200DPI to 400DPI (and in rare cases higher) as bi-tonal or greyscale images. File formats can be PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ad various bi-tonal and greyscale image compressions.

-Images can be split, autocropped, manual cropped, grouped by blips, and named whatever you wish.

-All images are audited/check/modified using ribbon software, which guarantees that every image is detected and captured.

-Roll film projects can be outputed to CD, DVD, external drives, USB stick, FTP’ed, or fileshared.

-While your project is in progress and is it completes, you will be informed about it with updates. We will meet our deadline.

What is NOT included in our microfilm scanning services: bait and switch pricing, bad quality work, missed deadlines without notice, lack of communication, or sending your project overseas or to other companies. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

Scanning Company With Low Microfilm Scanning Cost

GenerationImaging — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:28:48 +0000

How important is it really to scan your microfilm records? And How is this process ever going to pay for the microfilm conversion cost? These and many other question are asked by organizations all the time. Generation Imaging is a scanning company that has been scanning microfilm for years. The experts that make up the core of this scanning company have combined 30 years plus of experience helping organizations bring their microfilm scanning need to a successful completions.

More that just a scanning company, we see ourselves as advisers. When you contact our scanning company, you will meet a team ready to help you understand all you need to know about your microfilm scanning project. The importance of your scanning project is determined by your needs. Your consideration to data conservation, efficient data utilization and customer services are just some issues our scanning company looks at to determine the importance of your microfilm conversion needs. Scanning companies may not always get involved with this, but at Generation Imaging, our scanning company goes this extra step and it has proven very beneficial to our customers.

Typically, the savings associated with a scanning project is subject to real utilization, and the value is shared with other benefits. The experts at our scanning company can look closely at some of this factors and estimated the break even point. In Many cases your project begins to pay back soon after completion because our scanning company is very competitive with price. Our scanning company will offer you some of the lowest microfilm scanning cost ever. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

16mm Cartridge Microfilm Conversion

GenerationImaging — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:45:48 +0000

Microfilm conversion is pretty much a catch all phrase that describes transferring roll film to digital image, such as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, or PNG. Most people visualize roll film as being like small versions of movie film in a mini-spool. Although the bulk of roll film is indeed like that, reels can also be enclosed in plastic cartridges.

There are a few kinds of 16mm roll film cartridges. Some are completely enclosed in a hard plastic, and are held together by screws and a snap mechanism. These were perhaps made famous by 3M, although other companies have produced and continue to sell these hard plastic film cartridges. Completely enclosed, they provide better protection from air, pests, and shipping.

Other 16mm cartridges are made of a lighter plastic and are open, and were created to be inserted into a large roll film shelf.

Generation Imaging has the capability to perform the microfilm conversion of 16mm cartridges. Let us know if you have any file format and naming preferences. Otherwise, we will digitize the cartridges using standard microfilm conversion parameters, such as 200DPI bi-tonal TIFFs.

Generation Imaging has expert microfilm conversion scanner operators with the experience and technical know-how to convert roll film to digital images in a timely manner.

Most of the time it is more cost-effective to send G.I. your cartridges instead of purchasing a microfilm scanner. If you prefer to deal locally, and are located outside of South Florida, you may be disappointed in the quality of the final product and microfilm conversion pricing you are offered, so give Generation Imaging a try.

Microfilm Conversion Steps: How To Start the Process

GenerationImaging — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:04:57 +0000

Getting Your Microfilm Conversion Started

Identify the media for microfilm conversion. Roll film can be 16mm and 35mm. You can measure the width of the film to determine this. 16mm can be on spools or cartridges, while there are no 35mm cartridges. Roll film is not microfiche (small flat cards), aperture cards (PC cards with a rectangle cut out for film), color slides, or movie film.
The term microfilm conversion refers to creating digital images from roll film. So choose an output format, such as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, or other standard image file formats. Do the folders or images need to be named a certain way? Will the files be single page or multipages?
Get an estimate as to how many reels are in the collection and around how any images are on a roll. To do that, you can use a rule of thumb of 2,000 frames for 16mm or 500 for 35mm, or you can measure an inch and count how many frames are in that inch. Then multiple that number by how long the film is (it may be indicated on the roll label). Otherwise, a rule of thumb could be 100 feet for thick film and 200 feet for thin film.
Contact Generation Imaging for your microfilm conversion quote and turnaround time.
Pack your film up and don’t leave any room for movement. Use any mail carrier you are comfortable with to send it to G.I. If you are local to South Florida you can drop it off or have us pick it up to perform your microfilm conversion.

Florida Aperture Card Scanning

GenerationImaging — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:01:03 +0000

Aperture card scanning is the process of digitizing PC cards that contain a rectangular cutout with film pasted in it. Generation Imaging is a Florida aperture card scanning solution, although we accept aperture card scanning projects from all over the world.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, PC cards containing microfilm was a great way to store and retrieve drawings, blueprints, maps, technical schematics, and other documents or records . However, in today’s digital world where having a computer is commonplace, the continuing use of apertures is impractical.

Generation Imaging uses industry leading equipment and software to create the best image quality possible from aperture card scanning. Images can be converted to PDFs, TIFFs, or JPEGs; bi-tonal or greyscale; multi-page or single page.

Once the apertures are converted to digital images they can be stored on a server or CD/DVD/hard drive. The images can also be processed with an optical character recognition (OCR) if necessary, or have a database built from the Hollerith code punches or data on the header or image.

Why aperture card scanning is a good idea:

It reduce retrieval time
Its creates office space s
Individuals can quickly find specific images
It gives instant access to an entire collections
Users can access documents over on intranet, e-mail, or internet

If your company is in South Florida and local (Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Palm Beach County), and you prefer to do business with a local company, than Generation Imaging is a great Florida aperture card scanning solution for you. If you are not in the area, keep in mind that the bulk of Generation Imaging’s clientele is out of state, and your business is welcomed. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

Records Scanning Creates Digital PDF From Microfilm

GenerationImaging — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:23:19 +0000

Microfilm is widely used for storing all sorts of information. Records scanning, on the other hand, can digitize the microfilm and create digital files. Records scanning opens the door for many opportunities. Is is a wise decision many of our customers make when they decide to the records scanning way, specially if records scanning will replace a heavily used microfilm system. In fact, the more in-demand a microfilm system is, the easier it becomes to justify a records scanning process.

Not many microfilm retrieval system can compare to a digital retrieval system that is generated from a records scanning process. One case that records scanning made a huge impact on customer service and also made a great impact within the organization, was a project we worked on years ago for a New York organization. The microfilm system they replace by records scanning procedures allowed them to evacuated over 100,000 square feet of prime Manhattan real estate. Additionally, labor was reduced considerably because the records scanning process generated all digital and completely automated retrieval system. No need for inventory of microfilm and no need for paper printing of files from the microfilm.

Perhaps the best of all is the ability to update a digital system. Records scanning is a one time process that takes microfilm to digital. After records scanning all new data that arrives in a digital format can be incorporated into the system with great ease. More than that, it is possible to organize and index files from a records scanning system easier that a traditional microfilm system. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

Computer Output Microfilm (COM)

GenerationImaging — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:59:41 +0000

Computer Output Microfilm is by far the most difficult 16mm roll film to digitize to images because the computer generated images do not have standard frame breaks most of the time. Unlike traditional 16mm roll film, Computer Output Microfilm has a super thin border (or no border!) or may have bits of data that is accidentally detected as a frame border. Most of the time, any roll film scanner (regardless if it saves one image at a time or saves the entire reel as a ribbon) will totally skip over Computer Output Microfilm sections or cut frames.

If the Computer Output Microfilm contains a 100% consistent, fixes, and thick frame order or blip marker, it is possible for a 16mm roll film scanner to detect images properly. In addition to having the correct micrographics equipment, it is very important to have experienced scanner operators. Let’s put it this way: if you have no experience with scanning Computer Output Microfilm, you will be totally lost and will need to pay the scanner manufacturer to come to your office and do it for you. They will only help you if you have a maintenance plan. In other words, you may be out of luck or it may cost you thousands of dollars to scan a few rolls of Computer Output Microfilm .

Generation Imaging has created a tried and true method to detect troublesome COM reels. Our scanner operators have been performing this method since the 1990s. It requires a knowledge of mathematics, detection algorithms, and attention to detail. It also requires post-processing: manually clipping strips. This method assures that all frames have been detected. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC

Records Scanning and Old Microfilm Systems

GenerationImaging — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:38:06 +0000

Records scanning is closing a gap that widens as technology advances. A good way to view this is to compare requirements to use system before and after records scanning. By this I mean comparing a system that uses hardcopy format records and one that made use of records scanning and is all digital imaging.

A government office in Chicago Illinois is now in the process of converting harcopy documents to microfiche. This would not include records scanning because the documents are instead filmed and then place on microfiche. The microfiche retrieval system will create a hardcopy type system without the benefit of advanced technology. Records scanning is more in tune with computer and internet systems.

Faster and more efficient services has always lead the way. Records scanning fits right inline and serves the purpose of fulfilling this need. Records scanning enables advanced systems to take advantage of the digital images to provide a fully automated storage and retrieval system. Prior to records scanning, a microfilm system requires lots of human intervention that is much slower and more expensive to maintain. Nevertheless, some companies still need to maintain a microfilm system. But, sooner or later, records scanning will probably be considered, if not for efficiency, for safety issues. Microfilm has a limited life span as well. There are many other reasons for records scanning and the best way to become aware of this is to contact a professional.

Computer Output Microfilm

GenerationImaging — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:13:28 +0000

Computer Output Microfilm is the rarest of 16mm roll film types (ironically Computer Output Microfilm is a very popular form of microfiche). Because of the nature of most COM reels not having regular edges like normal 16mm roll film, converting COM rolls into digital image can be quite a challenge. Thankfully, Generation Imaging has tons of experience working with all kinds of Computer Output Microfilm.

An example of Computer Output Microfilm

If the COM roll is blipped (small markers on the outside of the frames) and the frames have fixed sizes and are equidistant from each other, although the scanner operator must be highly experienced and the setup time is lengthy, it is theoretically possible to scan the Computer Output Microfilm without problems.

If the COM roll does not have blips, the highly skilled scanner operator must used advanced detection algorithms to attempt to find a sense area and setting to capture each frame by itself. Again, the Computer Output Microfilm must pretty much be perfect to pull this method off.

If none of the above methods will work, the expert scanner operator will have to scan the COM images as strips of frames. By padding an overscan and setting the backup, the operator can assure that no frame is missed. However this method requires post-processing: the frames must be manually cropped or split to create individual frames.

Generation Imaging offers scanning solutions for converting COM reels to PDF, TIFF, or JPEG. Please contact us today if you need this type of roll film to be converted to digital images. Copyright G.I. Partners, LLC