Family Historian User Group

Can somebody advise the best image format for scanning to FH. I have tried the usual (jpeg, bmp, tif) and am not sure which to settle on. I have hundreds of photos, certificates and scraps of paper to scan and link to individuals but am reluctant to start unless I get this right first. Clearly I want to use a format that minimises file size, but will still allow a print at sometime in the future - has anybody been through this. I've read Scan Tips etc but nothing relates specifically to FH.  Any suggestions appreciated.[smile]

ID:42

Personally I use JPG.  Even though in theory it is not the best format for documents.  FH does not support gif or compressed Tiff format. So as long as you are scanning for reference rather than editing JPG seemed the best choice.  JPG is a 'lossy' format which means if you keep editing the image you lose quality, but otherwise it is fine.  I normally scan documents at around 200-300 dpi, depending on the originals text size.  This gives a resonable re-print quality if you reprint to the same size or less.

Thanks Jane - what would you use for a line drawing (family tree sent to me) - still a jpg ?
Steve[smile]

Yes a JPG, mostly because of the lack of support for compressed Tifs and Gifs.

PNG would probably be the best format for monochrome images, as an archive master, as it gives compression with no loss of detail.

For colour masters, JPEG format probably wins out, due to space constraints, although the quality setting used when creating/saving the master is important. I usually use a setting of around 80, or so, and all at 24 bit colour.

From these archive masters you can create lower quality images, either at lower resolutions/colour depths, or with higher compression and loss, for use in web pages/genealogy programs.

I personally scan documents at 600 dpi, and photos at 1200 dpi, and burn these masters onto CDs, for archival.

Thanks Fuego - I'll give your suggestions a try.[smile]