Digitising Microfiche

Cool, I hope it all works out and you can get the prints you want 🙂

TonyT
I did buy that microfiche printer you pointed out above. It was an inexpensive way to get all the optics required for my purpose.
Mind you it did cost a bit more, to have it moved the 2700km between where it was, and my place. But all up so far a couple of hundred dollars.

Thank you to powerandpassion for assisting in this process.

Since it is going to be a long and wet winter weekend, I will be cleaning and aligning optics.
Then the tricky bit, repurposing the unit to do what I want it to do.

As an example $10

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Canon-Microprinter-MP90-on-moveable-Stand-/172209353957?hash=item28187a34e5:g:PlwAAOSwLqFV96AR

Maxim08
Thank you for insight in the matter. I also scan my documents etc. into TIFF files and then convert them into PDF once I have OCR’d them. You might as well work in the native file type of the end result, as I transform my documents into bi-tonal form for processing.

I have also been doing this for years. The scanning of the microfiche is just an extension of this process. It is most useful when someone on the forum asks a, “Does someone have any information on XYZ”, type of question. For example the thread on Gemini or Messenger cockpit drawing question, or your recent question on Palmer type 77 wheels. I thought yes, I do have something on that.
Just tapped it into the search of the computer, with in seconds I have results from my indexed drives. In both cases the provided information has proved useful and could have been difficult to source otherwise.

Currently working on some old RCAF EO documents, some really great info is coming out. I appear to have forgotten a few things from when I was working on aircraft in the mob. (maybe a few things I never understood?)

Scanning the UK CRL would make finding part numbers easier. In particular obsolete items that are no longer included in current part number/NSN search engines.

I agree with you that the Irfanview viewer program is great and it forms a major part of my image processing for OCR conversion.

The one conversation I have had with an imaging company was that the PDF was their standard service. At the time I had incorrectly estimated how many images I had, the bill was looking at $5500. That was based on 94 images per sheet, then I looked closer and found it was 270!

I will be taking TonyT suggestion and looking on the net for surplus reader/printers coming up for sale. I am prepared to put a few hundred dollars into the problem.

Looking forward to anyone else’s experiences in this area.

aircraft clocks, while a little dated, I was involved for quite a few years doing ‘backfile conversion’ (ie scanning) of archival information including hundreds of thousands of microfiche and microfilm images. First thing to note is that PDF is a digital wrapper around a native file format. Most black & white documents are scanned as Group 4, bi-tonal, TIFF images. This is a highly compressed ‘non-lossy’ (ie does not lose information like a JPG) image format. Viewers for the PC platform are plentiful and free one of the best being ‘Irfanview’. Mac’s have trouble with these TIFFs assuming that they are colour images. Various versions of IOS deal with TIFFS better than others.

The money in scanning is in document indexing. Many companies use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to generate words that then become ‘full text searchable’ within the PDF environment. The theory is that searching the text makes finding what you want easy and inexpensive but assumes that the OCR software connects the dots (literally) and can then recognise the words. The downside is that less than perfect filming of the original document, surface damage to the microfiche caused by actually being used, and how many generations removed from the original the ‘fiche is can cause poor OCRing as can tables and information printed sideways or on an angle.

What you could do is have the company quote on scanning into just the native format. You will then end up with a digital equivalent to what you currently have but forgoing microfiche’s major benefit over microfilm of random vs. linear access. The native files can always be post-scan processed and OCR’d at a later date if desired.

Mind you, despite all of the above I have dealt with service bureaus that know little of what is actually happening once the ‘fiche is in the automatic scanner. They may only know one way of handling these records and not open to the above cost reduction.

BTW, even though I am no longer involved in ‘that’ business, I still scan all archival material and save original docs for special occasions. My workshop has a large screen (55″) TV that I display engineering drawings on when I’m working. Leaves more bench space and I don’t need the bifocals!

Regards
John

Check on eBay for microfilm or microfiche printers, you can pick them up cheapish now as most people have gone over to computer based readers, it is basically a laser printer linked to a scanner. We used to use them at work, but my aircraft manuals are now web based.