1. Background and purpose of the project

• Introduction
  
• Background
  
• Manuscript collections
  
• The Document Digitization Evaluation Committee

2. Two surveys of the field

• Survey of imaging practices
  
• Responses to the survey of practices
  
• Summary of survey of imaging practices
  
• Survey of hardware and software

3. Committee Discussion

• Preservation-quality and access-quality images
  
• Nuances of the term preservation
  
• Document look and feel
  
• Binary and tonal digital images
  
• Thresholding: the crucial aspect of image binarization
  
• Argument for tonal images
  
• Scanning microfilm
  
• Perfect reproduction not a sine qua non
  
• Topics not covered

4. Sample documents and initial image capture

• Selecting samples
  
• Initial capture

5. Preservation-quality images: types and resolution

• Tonal versus binary images
  
• Levels of spatial resolution

6. Preservation-quality images: enhancement

• Enhancement options
  
• Contrast stretching
  
• Deskewing
  
• Despeckling of binary images
  
• Display-time smoothing of JPEG-image backgrounds

7. Preservation images: grayscale and color

• Grayscale images
  
• Color images

8. Compression

• Advantage of compressing images
  
• Lossy compression and JPEG
  
• JPEG quality setting
  
• Lossy and lossless compression

9. Defining and deriving access-quality images

• Binary versus tonal images for access
  
• Binary preferred
  
• GIF and PDF formats

10. Hardware for rapid scanning

• Rapid-scanning systems for discussion only
  
• Paper feeders
  
• Paper transport
  
• Paper stacker

11. Future Image Formats and Compression

• Future formats for discussion only
  
• Object wrapper file formats
  
• Wavelet compression

12. Phase II production plan

• Image types
  
• Producing the preservation images
  
• Producing the access images

13. Phase II image examination

• Image review
  
• Lack of objective measuring tools
  
• Preservation-quality images: Spatial and tonal resolution
  
• Preservation-quality images: Distribution of tones and imageclarity
  
• Preservation-quality images: Color and color fidelity
  
• Preservation-quality images: Black background sheet to reduce print-through
  
• Preservation-quality images: Reproducing the entire sheet
  
• Access images: Clean appearance and printability
  
• Access images: Information loss
  
• Access images: The WWW environment
  
• Access images: types will change over time

14. Project findings

15. References

Appendix A. Sample Images

Appendix B. Aspects of Scanner Design

Appendix C. Image Formats Survey Questionnaire

Appendix D. Image Enhancement Questionnaire

Appendix E. Image Enhancement Survey Responses

Appendix F. Image Enhancement Survey Mailing List

Appendix G. Scanner Survey Questionnaire

Appendix H. Scanner Survey Responses

Appendix I. Scanner Survey Mailing List

Appendix J. Test Charts