Documentation:Toolkit for the Digitization of First Nations Knowledge/SECTION C: Digitization Best Practices and Guides/C2: Standards

The following tables contain standards summarized from various industry standards that should be followed for all digitization projects if possible. By adhering to these accepted standards, we are able to

• Ensure that the digital files created through digitization are of high quality and meet national and international standards
• Maintain the integrity and longevity of the digital files for long term digital preservation

These standards are subject to change as technology and practice evolve. Furthermore, each digitization project is unique in its setting and goals. The ultimate objective is to have a preservation master copy that is a faithful reproduction of the original from which additional copies can be made.

Manuscripts and printed text

	Preservation and Access Master	Print Access	Screen Access	Thumbnail
File format	TIFF and TXT or PDF/A with OCR	JPEG, PNG or PDF with OCR	JPEG, PNG or PDF with OCR	JPEG or PNG
Resolution	300 -- 600 dpi	150 -- 300 dpi	150 dpi	150 dpi
Bit depth	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit colour RBG or 8 bit grayscale
Dimensions	3000 -- 6000 pixels across the long edge	3000 pixels across the long edge	800 pixels across the long edge	200 pixels across the long edge
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless compression	Lossless compression	Lossless compression

Photographs

	Preservation and Access Master	Print Access	Screen Access	Thumbnail
File format	TIFF	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG
Resolution	300 -- 600 dpi	150 -- 300 dpi	150 dpi	150 dpi
Bit depth	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale
Dimensions	3000 -- 6000 pixels across the long edge	3000 pixels across the long edge	800 pixels across the long edge	200 pixels across the long edge
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless compression	Lossless compression	Lossless compression

Film, negatives, and slides

	Preservation and Access Master	Print Access	Screen Access	Thumbnail
File format	TIFF	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG
Resolution	800 -- 1200 dpi	150 -- 300 dpi	150 dpi	150 dpi
Bit depth	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale
Dimensions	4000 -- 6000 pixels across the long edge	3000 pixels across the long edge	800 pixels across the long edge	200 pixels across the long edge
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless compression	Lossless compression	Lossless compression

Graphic art

	Preservation and Access Master	Print Access	Screen Access	Thumbnail
File format	TIFF	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG
Resolution	600 - 800 dpi	150 -- 600 dpi	150 dpi	150 dpi
Bit depth	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale
Dimensions	6000 -- 8000 pixels across the long edge	6000 pixels across the long edge	800 pixels across the long edge	200 pixels across the long edge
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless compression	Lossless compression	Lossless compression

Maps

	Preservation and Access Master	Print Access	Screen Access	Thumbnail
File format	TIFF	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG	JPEG or PNG
Resolution	Less than 36 inches on the long edge: 600 dpi Greater than 36 inches on the long edge: 300 -- 400 dpi	Less than 36 inches on the long edge: 300 dpi Greater than 36 inches on the long edge: 150 dpi	150 dpi	150 dpi
Bit depth	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale	24 bit RBG colour or 8 bit grayscale
Dimensions	6000 -- 8000 pixels across the long edge	6000 pixels across the long edge	1078 pixels across the long edge	200 pixels across the long edge
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless compression	Lossless compression	Lossless compression

Audio recordings

	Preservation and Access Master	Screen Access
File Format	WAV, BWF or AIF (Apple)	MP3
Sample Rate	Spoken language: 44.1 kHzMusic and ambient sounds: 96 kHz	44.1 kHz
Bit Depth	24 bit	16 bit
Comments	Highest recommended current quality, Standard for DVD/HD audio, Requires conversion to 16 bit and 44.1 kHz for most consumer audio devices	Lowest frequency range acceptable, Maximizes storage space, May not provide sufficient quality for future formats

Video recordings

	Preservation and Access Master		Screen Access
File format	QuickTime .mov	File format	.mov
Codec	UYVY	Codec	QuickTime H.264
Bit depth	10 bit	Frame size width	640
Frame size width	720 pixels	Frame size height	360
Frame size height	576 pixels	Pixel aspect ratio	Square
Frame rate	25 frames per second	Frame rate	23.976
Frame type	Progressive	Field Output	Progressive
Frame aspect ratio	4:3	Pixel depth	24
Pixel aspect ratio	1:1	Spatial quality	75
Colour space	YCrCb	Min. Spatial quality	25
Chroma sub sampling	4:2:2	Key frame interval	30
Audio component	Uncompressed stereo audio	Temporal quality	50
Compressor	uncompressed PCM	Min. temporal quality	25
Bit depth	16bit / 24bit	Average data rate	1.331 Mbps
Sample rate	48KHz	Maximum data rate	1.331 Mbps
Number of channels	2	Audio Encoder	AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
Audio interleave	1 sec	File size	599.04 MB/hour of source
File size	93 GB/hour (approx.)

Glossary

dpi stands for dots per inch, a measurement of resolution for a digitized document (the higher the dpi, the better the tonality of the image.) The dpi setting of the scanner relates to the final pixel size of the scanned image.

8-bit refers to method of shoring image information in a computer’s memory or in an image file, such that each pixel is represented by one 8-bit byte.

grayscale refers to an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample composed exclusively of shades of grey.

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and refers to a type of graphics file format commonly used for images, photographs, etc.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is Adobe’s proprietary file format.

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It is the electronic translation of scanned text into machine-encoded text. OCR makes it possible to edit the text, search for a word or phrase, etc.

24-bit RGB refers to 24 bits per pixel in which three 8-bit integers between 0 and 255 represent red, green and blue intensities.

TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format and refers to a type of file format for storing images.

96 kHz 24-bit refers to sample rate for audio. It means that a sample at 24 bits is taken 96,000 times per second.

BWF stands for Broadcast Wave Format. It is a standard used by the broadcast industry whereby metadata can be added to Wave files.

WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format. It is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream.

MP3 is a digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compress

References