Bach autograph music notation

Archival objects are often single sheets of paper - in this case, musical notation written in Johann Sebastian Bach's hand.

Single-sheet letter to artist Ruth Asawa

Similarly, a letter sent to Ruth Asawa.

Artwork

Or, an object may be a small piece of art. This is a painting done by a Japanese detainee at the internment camp at Tule Lake during World War 2.

Manuscript leaf

The photography setup we use creates very even lighting, but it is not flat lighting, and it allows us to capture details like the glint of the gold leaf on objects like this.

Framed manuscript leaf

Objects that are framed can be digitized in the frame - this can pose challenges, but depending on the end-use of the images and if the object is already going to be unframed (for conservation, perhaps) or not, it usually makes the most sense to leave the object as-is.

It's also useful as an example here because you can clearly see that even for "flat" items, what we are doing is taking photographs - not using flatbed scanners, for example.

If the individual situation warrants it, objects may be removed from their frames by Conservation before digitization.

Postcards - small item, high resolution

Items like these postcards can be easily imaged at higher than standard resolution. Backs of items are not always captured, but we always do if there is anything on the back (even the smallest mark), and sometimes do even if the backs are blank depending on the requirements of the request or project.

Collection of artwork

Projects and requests often contain items of varying sizes. Because resolution is standardized - we don't re-compose to fill the camera frame with the objects - collections like this can be easily imaged all at the same time. The images are cropped after capture to size.

Stapled item - telegram from John F. Kennedy

This telegram could, perhaps, be considered bound - by a single staple.

In many cases Conservation will want to remove staples like this, as eventually they rust. Here the staple has not been removed, but the corner was already creased, so DPG staff were able to digitize all four sides of the two sheets of paper.

We often encounter stapled items like this as part of collections of loose unbound material, which is why it's included in this section. In most cases, thankfully, we are able to image them like we did here with little issue.

Restaurant menu with attached card

This item had a small card attached with a paperclip. Here, imaging staff were able to remove the card both to see what's under it and to image both sides of the card itself separately. This is a good example of our approach to capturing objects, leaving no stone (or card) unturned.

High-throughput imaging for robust unbound material

For unbound material that doesn't have handling concerns, such as this stack of photocopies, we can use a sheet feed document scanner if suitable for the end-use of the images. Often for this type of material the end-use is OCR or otherwise just for access to the text content, so aesthetics and accurate representation of the item as an object are unimportant. In those cases, sheet feed document scanners are extraordinarily productive - scanning something like this stack of 450 pages in a document scanner takes only minutes compared to several hours using an overhead camera setup.

Medium/Small Posters

As camera resolution improves over time, our definition of "oversized" evolves. Small posters, newspapers, etc. can now be imaged in a single shot, up to about 23x17 inches in size (approximately 58 x 43 cm). This "Rip Off the Big Game" poster measures 22x16 inches, and the posters below are similar or smaller.

Oversized object - Hanna House blueprint - overhead camera

Large objects like this one - a blueprint of the Hanna House by Frank Lloyd Wright, built for a Stanford professor and now owned by the university - are digitized using an overhead camera. Multiple images are captured (anywhere from 2 to 20+ depending on the size of the object) and then stitched together to achieve high resolution.

See more: Hanna House collection

Oversized object - bridge blueprint - high volume large-format sheetfeed scanner

Large collections of non-fragile objects like maps, posters, and blueprints can, alternatively, be digitized with DPG's large-format sheetfeed scanner in a small fraction of the time required to digitize oversized materials with an overhead camera. This blueprint is approximately the same size as the Hanna House blueprint, but took only about 10-15 minutes total for digitization from start to finish, including post-processing and quality control checks. An item like the Hanna House blueprint may take as much as 2-3 hours in total using the overhead camera method.

So why not always use the faster way? The large-format sheetfeed scanner produces images with excellent color and spatial accuracy and high resolution, with one big caveat - digital artifacts in the form of streaks are often present and unavoidable, as in this bridge blueprint. The streaking rarely obscures information (and if it does, we will catch it during quality control checks and rescan), so the speed makes the tradeoff worth it for many projects where access is the primary concern.

Though not suitable for images used for reproduction or for certain types of fragile materials, this type of scanner nevertheless makes large scanning projects of oversized materials feasible that otherwise could never be justified due to the amount of time they would take using an overhead camera.

See more: Joseph Strauss bridge plans

Collection of oversized art prints

This object is comprised of 30 separate art prints, each of which had to be stitched together from multiple images.

Oversized with extra resolution

This drawing is mounted on an oversized board. We imaged it twice - once with the full board to communicate the full physical object (image 2), and again centered just on the drawing itself at higher than standard resolution, as it is a dense drawing. The image was destined for reproduction, where the full physical object would be cropped in to just the drawing itself anyway.

Oversized item imaged at lower resolution than standard

The decision was made to image this object at a lower resolution than DPG's typical 600 ppi because it was being digitized in order to be reproduced in print and doesn't contain particularly fine details. It was imaged at 400 ppi - standard print resolution is 300 dpi, so 400 ppi images are more than sufficient.

Images at this resolution are significantly faster and easier for DPG to produce for oversized objects, and an object like this that would be considered oversized at the standard 600 ppi can easily be captured in a single image at 400 ppi.

This was digitized for physical reproduction to be displayed in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics building. "An early example of computer-typeset music (MS plotter output) produced by Leland Smith at Stanford University, presumably between 1974 and 1975. The single leaf of music is made up of several smaller sheets printed separately and assembled together."

Vellum scroll

In this case, the scroll was imaged at DPG's standard 600 ppi, which requires significant extra time and care - but we feel it's worth it to capture the fine detail in an interesting historical item like this. An image of the scroll rolled up was captured as well.