Scanning docs

[Don Tillman]

   Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 15:05:12 -0700
   From: Jim Patchell <patchell at silcom.com>

   How 'bout it gang.  Peter is scanning a bunch of documents
   primarily from acutronics, which include ap-notes and circuits.
   These documents are black and white.  Both text and drawings.
   Which format would be best for posting on the internet?

Here are some quick basics...

If the source is still in business, get permission before placing the
material on the web. 

PDF is great for documents that are composed like a book (chapted
headings, page numbers, etc.) and are likely to be printed out in
pages, but otherwise it's a drag.

JPEG is for photographs, paintings, and stuff that's of similiar
content with lots of color shading.

GIF encodes colors with a lookup table, so it's great for drawings,
schematics or logos.  GIF format can also assign a transparent color
for doing non-rectangular images.

BMP is Microsoft specific and not appropriate for the web.

TIFF is for some specialized printers and not appropriate for the web.

Before you place the images on the web, do what you can to reduce the
file size.  JPEGs can be often created with less resolution and the
grainyness might not be a problem.  GIFs can often be created with
a smaller color lookup table.

So the answer is likely to be to use GIF format with maybe 4 levels of
gray.

  -- Don