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URL Creator and URL integration and Docuware
Clients can take advantage of the feature in DocuWare allowing them to make calls to the server thru the Website. This is a very simple call which can be used to find documents, display individual documents or return information to a program leveraging data and DocuWare file cabinets. DocuWare provides a small bit of software called the URL Creator as a tool to help you to understand this process and test your query. In versions before 7 this tool was installed with the advanced admin tools, with version 7, it can be installed thru the web under desktop tools. Remember that the is NOTHING you have to do to enable DocuWare this feature is automatically installed with DocuWare and available to those with the proper security and access. Not all of the URL creators look exactly alike, but they are simular enough that this should still be a good example of how to use it and create links.  Enter the Server name WITHOUT the http:// or HTTPS:// that is added using the radio buttons above the name. IF you are using ENTERPRISE and have more than one Organization then add the organization number to call upon.  For a demo do not fill this area in but in the future take note that you CAN force the use of a user name, a login token or attempt a login using the AD windows login You can also set TIME LIMITS for how long this call will work. I would use this when you do not want users to find and send the links to others. Setting the link to a short time, say 10 minutes would eliminate people who did have the link from using it beyond the the time and date set,  There are a few selections h you can make here but as a first timer select RESULTLIST and VIEWER as it will provide you with the most reliable first experience.  IF you knew what DWDOCID number you wanted to display you could select DWDOCID but in the case above we are searching for items where the field OPER = 8000 OPER is the SQL field name so you will need to find that in the Configuration tool as well. The format for a Query is [FIELDNAME] cmd "DATA" In this case the field name is OPER and the way you tell Docuware it is a field is to surround it with [ ] The arithmetic cmd is the common ones used in Boolean expressions =,<,>,<>,LIKE Data is what to look for in the field There are a few exceptions to this ISEMPTY() is a DocuWare express that means exactly what it says the field is Empty NOTEMPTY() is a DocuWare Expressiong that means what it says the field is NOT Empty They would be used like this [OPER] ISEMPTY() [OPER] NOTEMPTY() Next page will provide you the link to test. You can save it if all you need is the link to a document like a personnel manual for a website or product safety sheet for a factory but chances are you want to build a button from your application to DocuWare to look for documents that relate to your existing system. That is exactly the same thing but a little different. The link looks a little like this: http://servername/DocuWare/Platform/WebClient/4/Integration?p=RLV&fc={GUID GOES HERE}&q=W09QRVJdPSI4MDAwIg2 Where the call is made to: http://servername/DocuWare/Platform/WebClient/4/Integration
?p=RLV
Which file cabinet &fc={YOUR GUID GOES HERE}
The Query above looks strange..... &q=W09QRVJdPSI4MDAwIg2 That is because it is encrypted. it is the same as the information above it is encrypted using standard URL encryption. We will not go into all of that as this is just a primer...but it is by no means difficult to do. So from your own programs you could search for any field combination in any file cabinet using just the click of a button. You can create complex query such as [OPER]='8000' and [StoreDate]>"01/16/2018" That should help you get your way to using the URL tools in DocuWare. |
Webclient responds with a 404 error.....
"You need to install IIS 6 Metabase Extensions" The message "You need to install the IIS 6 Metabase Extensions" appears when setting up a Web instance (only relates to IIS 7)
Procedure:
"An error has occurred DocuWare.Web.Error.ServerConfiguration" "An error has occurred DocuWare.Web.Error.ServerConfiguration" appears when opening the Web instance
Cause: The temporary path of the Web instance cannot be reached or the user IUSR_<servername> and/or NETWORKSERVICE has no read or write permissions.
"The instance could not be installed" The message "The instance could not be installed" appears when setting up a Web instance
Error message: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
Cause: This error appears if a Web instance already existed, and this has not been correctly removed from the IIS. In other words, the instance is no longer listed in the IIS Manager and in the Inetpub directory, but the instance still exists in the IIS Metabase. This prevents the instance being set up or reinstalled.
Procedure: You need Metabase Explorer to manually remove the entry from the IIS Metabase. This is made available in the IIS Resource Kit Tools.
You should now be able to set up the Web instance as usual.
"Access to the path is denied" "Access to the path is denied" appears when opening a Web instance Error message: Error reading resource file: E:\Daten\Docuware\Web Modules\WebClient Central\DocuWare\Languages\Strings\WebClient.de.xml, Procedure: Add the following permissions to the directory...\Docuware\Web Modules\WebClient Central permissions for the following local users:
"HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" appears when opening a Web instance
Causes and Procedure:
"Http Error 404 - Not Found" or "Website cannot be displayed" "Http Error 404 - Not Found" or "Website cannot be displayed" appears when opening a Web instance
Causes:
Images and stylesheets missing Images and stylesheets are missing when opening a Web instance Causes:
"Cannot find Server for Web Instance..." "Cannot find Server for Web Instance..." appears when opening the Web Client
Cause: This often happens after creating a new instance.
Procedure: Restarting the IIS should resolve the problem. If the error persists, check whether the GUID of the Web instance is correct in the file DWWebClient.settings (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\DWWebClient\DWWebClient.settings) or in the corresponding XML file of the Web instance (...DocuWare\Web Modules\Web Instances). You can find the correct GUID in DocuWare Administration. "The process cannot access the file as it is being used by another process" The message "The process cannot access the file as it is being used by another process" appears when starting the website
Cause: The port on which the website is configured is being used by another process.
Procedure: In order to find out if a process is already using this port, enter the "netstat –ano" command into the command line. The corresponding process can be found in the Task Manager using the PID.
There is just a blank page There is just a blank page when opening the Web Client
Cause: The virtual "DocuWare" directory is missing in the IIS for the Web instance.
Procedure:
"No active Authentication Server found" "No active Authentication Server found" appears when opening the Web Client
Procedure: Check whether the correct Authentication Server is entered in the file DocuWare.Gapi.dll.settings (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\DWWebClient\bin\DocuWare.Gapi.dll.settings).
"RemotingClientManager.Start(): SwitchClientProviderChannels are not specified" "RemotingClientManager.Start(): SwitchClientProviderChannels are not specified" appears when opening the Web Client
Error message: An error occurs. (00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000_1).
Procedure:
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Don't fix what is not broken
'If it ain't broke don't fix it' is an old saying that rings in my ears. It is the idea which recommends if the system you are working on is not broken then why change it. I can understand you want to make it faster, easier to use and more efficient. The issue is while converting it to a new form do we need to change anything else? A great example for this is the library system. We stored books for many years using the same system we use today. The thing is that many of our books are not paper on a shelf, they are digital files in the ether of our networks and computers. Why did it NOT change? It still works! Yes we added indexes and other things to the system to make it better but the heart and soul of the library system is still the same numbers we have used for many years. Even the IBSN number has not changed. If you are going to change something in your system make certain to look at the benefit and the impact it will have on all of your labor and systems. Big mistakes I have seen systems go thru: 1: You can index every page! Oh boy would that not be amazing that every page had an index that told us who'sit was and what date it was received and who indexed it etc...... Every one of those systems failed....I have never seen a system that can take random paper, information and index everything symmetrically without a great deal of labor to accomplish it. If it were that easy Google would have done it already. Imagine if every page you take into your office someone had to type 1000 characters to describe it. 2: I do not need to index anything the computer can read it. Once again this is a dream that has not reached reality. OCR/BARCODE/QR has all gotten better but perfect it is not and reading handwriting with a computer is impossible. . Let's pretend a computer could read 80% of the letters on a type written page. It is probably more than likely 60 %to 70% so we can pretend. If we assumed 80% accuracy for every 100 letters it reads 20 of them are wrong. If the average word has 4.5 letters in them than 100 letters becomes 22 words and 20 of them could be wrong. Seems there is a flaw in our logic. 3: Store everything in color at high resolution. I have seen this over and over again for 20 years, clients do not consider the impact they have on a network making files bigger and more complex. Large files take up lots of space and lots of bandwidth to deliver to the client. If you were a governmental agency trying to answer a FOIA request and the files needed were 100's of Gigabyte in size. Gathering them would be difficult and time consuming and delivering them even more so. Size matters because time matters. Bigger files slower delivery to screen, slower to store and retrieve slower everything and slower is more expensive than faster. 4: It's on backup. I can not tell you how many people never test their backup system until the system fails. When a system fails you can't have a failed backup because it could all be gone. Even worse. What if you had a backup but it would take 3 weeks to restore, now what? Redundant active systems to keep systems alive. Offsite cloud etc can work but restoring could take so long you are still out of business. When you design a system think of the end of it's life as well as what is designed to do. End of life is in some ways more important than the process itself. Since 1972 we have seen and made many mistakes, ones we do not want our clients to repeat. When you do start to look for a newer design, ask someone else about their experiences you may learn how NOT to do it. |
Practical Lifespan
I saw a car on the road today, a Model A Ford. My son had never seen one running and listening to it purr along was a delight for both of us. It made realize that if we treated our cars as if they were the most important thing in our lives, we would probably still have the first car we ever drove. We do not have our first car as things tend to break down, rubber degrades and the normal things that happen cause failure. We just plain can't afford it. It is too costly to maintain in a way that could make it last a long time.
Our company was called into work on a project involving microfiche jackets which were stored since 1980. They had chosen microfilm as their long term media because the archive had required them to. Keeping in mind in the 1980's computer systems would have been cost prohibitive and scanners did not exist. Fast forward to today. The special file cabinet, once kept in the office in a climate controlled area had been moved to the warehouse, close to the door. The heat/cold/humidity/pollution and dirt had taken their toll on this collection.
In reviewing the collection the jackets were disintegrating, film images were falling out in the drawer and there was no consistency to the file. Like the model "T" it would be very expensive to try and restore to new. Even if you did the cost to keep storing it properly (65 degrees Farenhite 40% humidity) is costly and difficult. Archive storage is a common problem everywhere there are films, and documents stored. In 1938 when they built the Illinois State Archives it would have been very difficult to reach perfect temperatures. It would also be nearly impossible to know for certain you had. Temperature and humidity systems were not sophisticated computer devices. Air-conditioning was invented in 1902, but at the time the archives were built, it would have been impossible to maintain temperature constants. Illinois State Archives acted upon this very serious issue in 1998 but the effort failed. According to a publication by Munters, cooling and air conditioning providers: “There were clear errors in calculations that led to the HVAC system, including the dehumidifier, being undersized,” said GHLN engineer Jim Kreutzmann, who led the project. The critical spaces, the vaults where the microfilm and paper records were stored, were not isolated from the rest of the building. They were receiving the same air as the office area despite the fact that the vaults required 65°F dry bulb and 40% relative humidity to protect the documents and film, much lower than the comfort cooled air supplied to the offices.” This meant the wide shifts in temperature and humidity had occurred daily throughout the entire building. The issue was fixed in 2001. If we as archivists, continue to argue about the media. As we focus on what we store on (paper, microfilm, CD or other media) we are focusing on the wrong thing. We need to focus on the digital images, paper, photos, web pages, videos, CD, DVD's, BluRay and 3d pictures that are being created every day. Arguing about what to store on while it all rots away is like parking the Model T in the driveway until we can figure out what to build a garage out of. We need to learn this and start to realize our world is changing. We need to make plans to store all of these things the best we can. The practical lifespan of anything is only as long as we are willing to maintain it properly. |
| Attachments:
Case Study- Illinois Archive.pdf
CD-R Media, lifespan longer than microfilm?
The number 1 question I have been asked this month: What else can I store on other than microfilm and have a long lifespan? This is a very complex question not as simple as Microfilm is good for 50 years and CD is good for 300. Well known libraries and archives live on the LOCKSS principal. Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe. The idea is if there are two or more of something stored in different places at least one should survive. With this in mind I want to explore a few things: How long has microfilm/CD lasted and based on these results how long is it expected to last? Will there be a method for duplication and retrieval? How expensive is it to maintain the archive? How long has microfilm lasted? Microfilm at one time was thought to be a 1,000 year media. It has since been reduced to less than 300 years. A study done by Reilly 1993 showed film decay can be as fast as 30 years when not stored properly. When stored in sealed containers some films decayed even faster. When stored in acid free cardboard boxes all films in the archive were affected as they absorbed the acids and air pollution destroying film in very few years. The industry has documented microfilm as a practice. Microfilm has commonly only been able to maintain the image for between 30 and 100 years from date of storage. If you ever walk into a film archive and smell a 'vinegar' smell that is the film decaying. Film is made from emulsion, which is gelatin, which is an animal product often rendered cow bones. According to the Canadian Archives microfilm has an archive life of 300-1,000 years but a practical life of 30-100 years. Film is by nature made from animal product and is by nature biodegradable. If not kept in low temp and low humidity it is like any animal product and degrades very quickly. How long have CD-R lasted? CD-R's are made of different materials. 'GOLD on GOLD' cd-r are found to be engineered to last the longest. Gold on Gold was pioneered by Mitsui and Eastman Kodak. Gold on Gold CD's have already last since 1990's and their period of usefulness has not yet been exceeded in 24 years. The material is made from Phthalocyanine dye covered in Gold then lacquered to eliminate oxidation. The life of Phthalocyanine dye is estimated to be over 1,000 years but manufactures of the material are conservative and estimate the useful life at 300 years. Other type of CD media are rated to last 30 to 100 years which is the same as the life of microfilm and non-acid free paper. Will there be a method for duplicating microfilm in the future? Microfilm is already suffering for loss of market. At this time there is only 1 manufacture of duplication equipment in the US and no manufactures of analog based readers. Today a duplicator is $70,000. Getting film for that duplicator and processing that film is also an issue. There are fewer and fewer manufactures of film, chemistry and equipment for micro-graphics. Very soon, within my lifetime I suspect, microfilm as an industry will have died off as it is becoming too expensive to continue. Will there be a method for duplicating Cd-R in the future? Duplication of and retrieval of images from CD-R is simple. There have been over 200 billion cd's before 2007. Although the internet, tablet computers and other personal computer devices are phasing out the inclusion of CD-Rom players, most computers still have Optical Disk Players as a means of playing music, movies etc. Blu Ray, SVS and CD-R all have the same physical size and shape but have a different pattern of creation. They are backwards compatible so CD-R will NOT go away any time soon. Duplication side note: If in a perfect world there were devices to duplicate everything there is still one issue, degraded copies. Analog images, when duplicated, degrade. Digital images never degrade, the image is exactly the same as it was the day it was created. You may have seen this issue when receiving a fax of a copy or a fax of a fax. The image degrades by as much as 12% for every copied made. 5 - 10 copies later the microfilm image is lost. The digital image is still perfect. Maintaining an Archive The rules about archives are: 1: These are the MASTERS and NOT WORKING COPIES 2: Masters are ONLY accessed when the working copy is lost How expensive is it to maintain Microfilm in an archive? Microfilm is one of the most expensive medias to maintain properly. It MUST be kept at 65 degrees Fahrenheit and within 3% of 35% humidity at all times. If the temperature or the humidity varies by more than 5 degrees or humidity by more than 3% it will start to decay very quickly. This is why film, even though rated for long periods of time, in application, has only last 30 to 40 years. Microfilm is extremely difficult and expensive to maintain. A working copy must be created for each location needing one. The average 16mm x 215' microfilm image contains 6,000 images. A duplicate runs about $45 to $60 so the cost per image is $60/6000 or 1 penny per image. Each site must have a microfilm reader or reader printer. These run between $5,000 and $14,000 per each. Only one person can have access to a copy at one time. Storage must be provided for each copy of film as well. Film occupies a 3.75 x 3.75 x .75 Inches. this means that 10 file cabinets of paper containing 160,000 images would take 27 rolls of film or about 274 cubic inches of storage per location. How expensive is it to maintain CD-R archive? Gold on Gold CD-R need only be kept in a storage area out of direct light and have normal office environment with normal relative humidity. These need to be treated as MASTER COPIES so they, like microfilm, should ONLY be handled when the copy is lost or has failed. CD-R disks have been tested at 85% humidity at 176 degrees Fahrenheit for 1000 hours without major failure. This test demonstrates over 100 years of normal storage. CD-R have a tremendous tolerance to water and other common elements. We have had clients send us their optical media after being flooded by a hurricane. They were washed, dried and buffed before reading 100% of the data off the disks. The life of CD-R is relative to conditions so a CD-R kept in an archive with Microfilm might last 1,000 years or more. Working copies do not have to be created if they are maintained on an existing computer network or on cloud storage. To compare microfilm to CD as media only, we assume each location will need a working copy of the CD and the number of images stored are the same. The average CD contains 18,000 images. A duplicate CD runs about $3 each so the cost per image is .00016 cents per image. Each site must have a computer with a CD drive a simple laptop will work between $200 and $500. Once brought onto the network MANY people could have access to the same disk at the same time. Storage for the CD-R must be provided as well. A CD in slimline case occupies 5.49 x 4.92 x .2 inches. This means that 10 file cabinets of paper containing 160,000 images would take 9 cds or about 46.7 cubic inches of space per location. MY ANSWER CD-R AND MICROFILM PRACTICAL LIFESPAN IS THE SAME: They are the same. Neither of the media has proven to outshine the other in practical application. If handled badly microfilm and CD-R will probably not live more than 100 years. BUT WAIT THAT DID NOT ANSWER THE REAL QUESTION: What else can I store on other than microfilm and have a long lifespan? My ANSWER CD-R Gold on Gold CD-R has the longevity at this time and at some time in the future there will be a media that will exist that it can be moved to but that media will cost even less than the current media so it is also cost effective. CD-R are not effected by magnetic fields, power surges, SOLAR Flares, EMP devices or short term effects of water. As digital storage goes it is by far one of the safest. If stored carefully within a climate controlled archive it will outlast its practical life (when no devices can read it). Very few libraries ONLY store/use CD-R, they ARCHIVE on CD-R and use the images from Cloud or computer network. That means there can be MANY copies of the same data all exactly the same as the first and all fulfilling the need for LOCKSS! Microfilm is very difficult to maintain properly, takes up 5 times the space, can not be easily shared and has 1,000 times the cost to create and store. So from a pure business standpoint microfilm will die a very sudden death. The costs for film keep skyrocketing, manufactures leave the market and equipment becomes irreparable. Microfilm images when duplicated lose their quality and degrade so from an pure archive standpoint they do not meet the standard to keep the best image possible. |
Counting Documents and Pages in Docuware
Need to know exactly how many documents and pages you have in a file cabinet? There is not a direct way to do this but if you are the SQL administrator you can check with a simple query if you are NOT a SQL admin you probably can not accomplish this but you can forward this to your SQL admin to assist them to getting the data you need. SELECT 'LABEL' as 'File Cab', COUNT(*) AS 'Docs', Coalesce(Sum(DWPAGECOUNT),0) as 'Pages' FROM {LOCATION OF YOUR FILE CABINET IN SQL} Label is used to make the first column in the row the label for the data. Count is exactly what you would expect keeps count of each line, 1 line 1 Document Within the docuware data structure there is a PAGECOUNT item that tells how many pages are in the document. Coalesce(Sum(DWPAGECOUNT),0) keeps a running total of the DWPAGECOUNT and reports the results. So for example if you had a file cabinet named CLASSES if would look something like this: SELECT 'Classes' as 'File Cab', COUNT(*) AS 'Docs', Coalesce(Sum(DWPAGECOUNT),0) as 'Pages' FROM [dwdata].[dbo].[classes] This is assuming the location of the File cabinet table is dwdata. IT will return a table like this: File Cab Docs Pages Classes 370 8664 Need more than 1 File cabinet UNION ALL works well SELECT 'Classes' as 'File Cab', COUNT(*) AS 'Docs', Coalesce(Sum(DWPAGECOUNT),0) as 'Pages' FROM [dwdata].[dbo].[classes] UNION ALL SELECT 'Testing' as 'File Cab', COUNT(*) AS 'Docs', Coalesce(Sum(DWPAGECOUNT),0) as 'Pages' FROM [dwdata].[dbo].[TESTING] File Cab Docs Pages Classes 370 8664 Testing 406 4075 Pretty handy of you are trying to find out what you have quickly. |
Using DWControl Font with Docuware Printer
Docuware printer is a useful tool on your desktop that converts Documents that are printed into PDF-A documents in a Docuware Tray. This can be accessed from any software just by printing. Added to that function you can pre-determine some things as you print a document to the printer using DWCONTOL font and Printer commands. These commands look a bit like this: <ControlStatements
xmlns="http://dev.docuware.com/Jobs/Control"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <dwControl:SelectConfiguration name="Testing Printer vs Import"/> <dwControl:Field dbName="FYEAR" type="Text" value="2017"/> <dwControl:Field dbName="CONTROL" type="Numeric" value="31,2" culture="en-US"/> <dwControl:Form path="C:\DWforms\c13_09.tif" /> BUT They MUST BE IN DWCONTROL FONT which should be found on your computer if you have installed the Printer. They can be any color and any size. So you can make them white at 1 point font and it will still work. They can be strung together into one line. XML does not require end of line chars that is really to make XML easier to read. so the above line can look like one continuous line of the smallest font you can create. <ControlStatements xmlns="http://dev.docuware.com/Jobs/Control" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><dwControl:SelectConfiguration name="Testing Printer vs Import"/><dwControl:Field dbName="FYEAR" type="Text" value="2017"/><dwControl:Field dbName="CONTROL" type="Numeric" value="31,2" culture="en-US"/><dwControl:Form path="C:\DWforms\c13_09.tif" /> EVEN SMALLER than I can put on this screen. The above statements basicall tell DOCUWARE Listen I got something for you to do: <ControlStatements
xmlns="http://dev.docuware.com/Jobs/Control"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> Use the "TESTING PRINTER vs IMPORT" configuration: <dwControl:SelectConfiguration name="Testing Printer vs Import"/> Add 2017 to the FYEAR field in the Filecabinet Database: <dwControl:Field dbName="FYEAR" type="Text" value="2017"/> Add 31,2 to the numeric field 'CONTROL' in the Filecabinet Database: <dwControl:Field dbName="CONTROL" type="Numeric" value="312" culture="en-US"/> Use the C13 form as an overlay:
<dwControl:Form path="C:\DWforms\c13.PDF" /> These field based commands are the same for a DWCONTROL file using IMPORT. Here are some other references you might find helpful: |
Docuware 6.7 etc and SQL 2016
THIS MAY NOT BE SUPPORTED BY DOCUWARE BUT I HAVE USED IT AS A WORK AROUND WITH NO ISSUES SO FAR That is, of course because 2016 had not been invented yet. To get around this you can go to where the workflow server is located usually {DRIVE}:\Program Files (x86)\Docuware\Workflow Server and find the DocuWare.DAL.dll.config Open this with notepad FIND this: <dataProvider name="SqlClient" checkVersion="true" CHANGE IT to look like this <dataProvider name="SqlClient" checkVersion="false" Now save it if you can...... IF YOU CAN NOT....then save it to your desktop. Rename the file in the {DRIVE}:\Program Files (x86)\Docuware\Workflow Server location to DocuWare.DAL.dll.config.OLD and then drag and drop the file from your desktop to the {DRIVE}:\Program Files (x86)\Docuware\Workflow Server location. Restart the workflow service and you are can now connect to SQL2016.....there may be issues and Docuware MAY NOT SUPPORT THIS, but for the short term it is a work around until you upgrade to Docuware 6.ten or greater. |
Microfilm, Microfilm Jackets & Microfiche
 MICROFILM ROLL or REEL film is much like the reels of film you would see in the movies. The main difference is microfilm commonly does not have sprocket holes in the film. This film is commonly 16mm wide or 35mm wide and 100, 120, 140 to 215 feet long. MICROFICHE is a single piece of film with image exposed onto the film. These commonly are used by STEP and REPEAT filmers to image paper or for Computer Output Microfilm or COM from digital data. MICROFICHE JACKETS are 2 sheets of plastic welded or glued to create sleeves or channels that microfilm is cut and slid inserted into. JACKETS are very common but also one of the most vulnerable as the welds and glue get old and brittle if not kept in a perfect environment. Old fiche is fiche is often found falling apart when kept in basements or warehouses. APERTURE CARDS are IBM style punch cards with a window in which a piece of film is adhered. Sometimes there is a sleeve in the window area or there is adhesive around the window that hold the film to the card but the APERTURE refers to the hole in the card where the film is placed. Very common in engineering and the military as the cards can be punched and found using a punch card system. MODES Filmed images are referred to as being filmed in a 'MODE' either COMIC or CINE. This refers to orientaion of right reading on the page and the edge of the film. To make this easier look at a comic strip in the news paper and think of that group of images connected all in a row. If you consider the bottom of the comic strip as the edge of the film that is where COMIC MODE came from. If you were to take a roll of film from biology class or your own home movies you would see the images are stacked one on top of the other with the sids of the images matching the edges of the film. CINE short for CINEMA and that is where that term came from. Simplex or Duplex One last thing you need to know, was the front and back imaged at the same time? If the film has one image between the edges of the film it is commonly called SIMPLEX film. If there are 2 images side by side across the width of the film that is probably a DUPLEX IMAGE. The camera filmed both the back and the front of the items at the exact same time. In banking and other industries you might have 4 of these across the width of the film. This is commonly DUO-DUPLEX. The camera operator filmed on one side of the roll, flipped it over then filmed on the other side of the roll. If you ever had a 8mm film camera the actual film was 16mm and we would film on one side and flip it film on the other then the lab would process, split the film in half and splice it end to end to create your home movies. REDUCTION RATIO No matter what kind of media you have what you need to get to are the images. When created the images are placed based on the ratio of the original size of the page as compared to the image created. This is very important to know to reproduce the image back to original size either by scanned image or onto paper. To figure out what image size you have get out a ruler and find an image on the film that you recognize and know the actual size of. For most of us that is standard letter size paper which is 8 1/2 inches X 11 inches. 16mm film for example, you might find an image you think is a letter sized image and you measure the image and it is a little short of 1/2 inch on the longest side. 11 divided by .5 is 22. The most common reduction ratios cameras filmed at are 24x, 32x, 34x, 42x, 48x so the images you probably have were most likely filmed at 24x. Round to the closest reduction ratio is the smart thing to do. It can be rare but there are others that filmed in strange non standard methods but most companies used these standards as recommended by the National Micrographics Association or the NMA. Examples of 35mm film. 35mm film is the larger film, with bigger images of originals often measuring 36 inches by 24 inches and larger. These are easier to measure and the most common ratios vary from about 14x to 21x. Film will commonly have the same ratio for the entire roll but a small percentage of the rolls found may have multiple ratios on the same film. This is because of the size of the image and how they were filmed. So now we know what kind of film we have: Roll, FIche, jacket or Card We know the width of the film :16mm or 35mm Or the size of the fiche : 4x6 or 3x5 If fiche the number of channels: count the rows of images that ewquals the number of sleeves and What the reduction ratio of the images on the film are. So what do I do with all of that. Calculate. If the a jacket has an average of 15 images per row and there are 5 rows on the jacket a full jack contains 15 x 5= 75 IF you have a great number of fiche, grab a rule and measure a few inches of fiche and remove them. Now count the total number of fiche. Count the number of full ones Count the number of non-full ones Based on what you see in partial full jackets calculate or estimate the average number of images in the partials. Let's grab 2 inches of fiche. Counting them we found 50 full fiche 50*70 =3,500 images Counting them we found 48 partial fiche averaging 3 rows 48 * 3 * 15 =2,160 images 3,500 + 2,160=5,660 images in the inches you measured. 5660/2=2,830 images per inch of storage. Measure the total number of inches you have in your storage multiply that by your calculated number and you have a good idea of how many images you have in your system. Calculating roll film can be very simple or much harder. Unlike jackets or fiche most rolls are full from end to end. We just need to estimate the number of images per roll. I will go by the rule of thumb or best estimation here. 24X images in COMIC MODE The average 100 foot roll of film with images at 24X contains about 2,400 images. The average 215 foot roll of film with images at 24X contains about 5,000 images. 42X images in Comic mode The average 100 foot roll of film with images at 42X contains about 3,100 images. The average 215 foot roll of film with images at 42X contains about 7,000 images. 42x images in CINE mode Duplex The average 100 foot roll of film with images at 42X contains about 5,500 images. The average 215 foot roll of film with images at 42X contains about 11,000 images. So figure out what kinds of film you have and estimate the number of rolls per foot of your storage just like doing fiche but instead of inches of fiche use feet of rolls. It is easier. No matter what it is not that difficult if you break it down and average the information. The old saying is "Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time." You may need to understand what you have but being exact is very difficult, trust your numbers they rarely are far off. |
Things look so much better in color but I have been told not to, why?
Great question! Scanning in color has been a reality for some time so why are most folks not storing images in color.... The short answer is because the image files are VERY LARGE. It is a bit like the difference between a photograph and a Oil Painting. If you by a digital print of an oil painting often called a Giclee is beautiful, single piece of paper that can be rolled up and shipped and shared with anyone. The ORIGINAL PAINTING has so much more, the brush strokes and the way the light hit it is so much better, but it is hard to share, ship, move. In the Document Imaging world, the Original Image scanned in color contains much more information and the size of the file reflects this. I know of an archivist that requested all of his images to be scanned in color at 1000DPI. The image was wonderful and about 150 Meg each. This allowed him to put 4 pages on a CD and that is just not practical. Can you imagine trying to view one of those images on the internet? It would take minutes to hours to download and see 1 image. Although that is a true story the archivist learned the hard way there is such a thing as overkill. That is the whole point. Why do you need color is the better question. Are the originals so bad you have no other option to convert them? Is the color of the information important? Do they just look pretty and that is important? There are practical ways to convert to color images and still maintain a file size that makes sense. 1: Pick a LOWER resolution. Color has 24 times as much information as black and white so you need less resolution to achieve the same effect. 2: Reduce the color content where you can. Color is often 24bit or more. If that is confusing it is simple. it is the DEPTH of the color or how many computer bits does it take to make a color on the screen. You can wiki or google Color Depth and get a very complicated explanation but the difference between an image scanned in pure black and white and a 24 bit color image is that the 24 bit image has 24 times more information. That is 24 times the raw size as well. Computers are switching devices and 1 switch hold 2 states, on and off. In our case that 1 switch holds BLACK(off) or White(On). Think of 1 bit = 1 switch. The human eye can discriminate more than 10 million colors. To represent those colors we need 16,777,216 variations of color or 24 switches (2 to the 24 power= ~16Million). Big difference. And you need that difference for every dot on the screen. You have to store that switch state or the COLOR for each dot. If you have a 8.5 inch X 11 inch page scanned at 300 dpi then in color there are ((8.5" * 11") * 300DPI) *24bits of color=673,200 pieces of RAW information Compare that to a black and white scanned image ((8.5 * 11) *300) * 1=28,050 pieces of RAW information. 1/24 of the size of the color image. So reducing color could be converting to 256 colors instead of 16 million. It sound ridiculous but reducing the number of colors is a very good way to reduce the size of the files. 3: Try Grayscale/Greyscale. Grayscale is a pallet of grays designed to represent the reflected light from the image. It is 8 bits deep so it is 1/3 smaller than color and 8 times bigger than black and white but it is still a good compromise 4: TEST IT Test it. I do not mean just scan it and look at it. Scan a real sample of the work you do. If a FOIA packet is 900 pages scan 900 pages. Now can you work with this document? Can it be emailed? Stored? Opened? Copied? Delivered in a timely manner on your computer network. In more than one case I have had users tell me that color is perfect and no matter what I would say they would use color, until 1 file would not fit on a DVD, or someone wanted to see the thumbnails of the images and it took 15 minutes to get them all and paint them to a screen. All of the above are real client issues we have encountered over the years and there are cases where it is VERY hard to convert the images to black and white. So try it then have the users test it and see if the choice you have made works as well as looks good. so REDUCE/REDUCE/REDUCE and test are my recommendations! Reduce Resolution Reduce Color Reduce size and Test it all to see if it works! You may have noticed I did not mention compression engines and what they do. Compression is all relative to the actual image. Some images compress well and others not so well;BUT, one this is true the starting image is the same. Start with 24 times more information and you will have a substantially larger file no matter what compression you choose. Happy scanning! |
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