A Proposed Standard Procedure to Define Minimum Scanning Attribute Levels for Hard Copy Documents

Public agencies have been scanning hard copy documents into electronic systems for a number of years. Legally, the document needs to be a true copy of the original but no standards setting body has defined what specific attributes define when a document is a true archival copy. Documents can be scanned at high resolution levels but there is a trade off between resolution and file size. The goal is to meet the legal requirement but at the smallest file size that is reasonable. The paper will show that commonly used industry attributes of 200 dots per inch, (DPI) for text documents, 300 DPI and 8 bit gray scale colors for black and white photos and 300 DPI and 24 bit color for full color and or line work documents met the legal archival quality standard. With this recommendation, agencies can adhere to a common set of practical scanning attributes.