Lossy compression vs. archiving and OCR (was Re: Many things)

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 4:14 PM
> Randy wrote:
>> My documents are not perfect but I believe they are the best I can 
>> provide
>> given the variables of convenience and cost.
>
> As I stated in another post, my comments are only intended to influence
> ongoing archival efforts, and are not in any way intended to criticize
> the efforts of people who are scanning documents and making them 
> available.
>
> I have found several of the documents on your web site to be very
> helpful.  Thanks for providing them!
>
> Even though I don't like lossy compression applied to text and line art,
> and try to discourage it, a lossy-compression DjVu file of a document
> is MUCH more useful than not having the document at all.
>
> I might try to draw the line at JPEGs of text and line art though.  They
> literally hurt my eyes (by causing eye strain) due to the bluriness
> of the edges.  Still, if it's a document I really need I suppose I'd
> rather be able to get the JPEG than nothing at all.
>
>> These questions face every archivist, if I decided to archive "perfect
>> documents" how many could I archive?
>
> None at all.  Anyone that thinks otherwise is a fool.
>
> Eric

I too have seen people try and use JPEG's for document archiving, I also 
find them hard to read (I don't do it).

For now and the immediate future I will continue with 300 DPI TIFF's in 
PDF's.


Randy
www.s100-manuals.com