[Coco] Master List

[Lothan]

TIFF is a very flexible format that supports modified Huffman compression,
LZW compression, and JPEG compression. The fact that your documents aren't
compressed or are of poor quality is a limitation of the software you are
using to generate the images. Images scanned at 600 DPI with 256 gray levels
are sharp, easy to read, and are more flexible than GIF, JPEG, or PNG
images.

The real problem with TIFF is that cheap applications typically support only
the minimum requirements for Class 2 fax machines (150 DPI or less with 16
gray levels and no compression). The minimum requirement is definitely
insufficient for permanently archiving scanned documents. OCR conversion at
this level is risky as well.

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of KnudsenMJ at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 8:38 PM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] Master List

In a message dated 3/6/04 4:23:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
adit at 1stconnect.com writes:

> >TIF at 300 DPI, PDF perhaps on a CD.
>  
>  This would probably be the recommended resolution/file format, although 
>  I'll admit a few of my scans are at 200DPI, the vast majority are at 
>  300DPI (really necessary if stuff is small point size.) Frankly as long 
>  as the stuff is gathered in some kind of 'standard' image/file formats 
>  that the majority could read I'd be happy.

TIFF is a very inefficient, HUGE format, with no compression.  GIF is best
for black-and-white images, or 16 shades of gray.  On strictly 2-color
(black & white) text and line drawings, GIF is 10x better than anything
else.  

But scanned text, if in strict B&W, will be terribly broken up and
moth-eaten or acid-etched looking, and lines will fade in and out of
drawings.  So to permit "aliasing" which preserves the shapes, it's best to
scan in 16 shades of gray, and GIF that.  Under some conditions, JPEG may do
better than GIF, certainly for 256 shades of gray as would be used for
photos.

Anyway, TIFF is good for temporary storage while you wait to do OCR or 
compression to GIF, but not for long term storage and certainly not
transmission.
--Mike K.