Q. What's a raster image?

A.  When you send a fax, your fax machine creates a raster image file and transmits the
file. Your fax machine is a small scanner. Most fax machines scan at 50 or 75 dpi. A
raster image is "viewable" and "editable". The image has no intelligent data, for
example no text "fonts", no entities that can be changed from "circle" to "arc" etc.
Typical file formats include tif, pcx, cg4, rle, rlc, tga. TIFF stands for Tagged Image File
Format. CALS is the Government version of TIFF. This can be a CAL extension, a CG4
extension, or a TG4 extension.

Q. What is DPI and what are the differences?

A.  DPI stands for dots per inch. A scanner passes over a drawing and uses 200 dots in
an inch to measure the Intensity of the reflection. A dot is either black or white in a 2
bit image. In newer image formats such as JPEG and TIFF version 5.0 you can have a
24bit image. In this case, the camera in the scanner uses shades of grey for each
intensity. This is the same for color scanning. So, a 400 dpi scan has more dots in
each inch, and therefore more shades of grey or colors. This does not necessarily
mean that 400 dpi is a sharper image. See below.

Q. Why shouldn't I scan everything at 400 dpi?

A.  Your fax machine "scans" at 75 dpi. Most people find that sufficient. Standard
industry scanning is done at 200 dpi. This is high enough to pick up most specks on a
drawing. A 300 dpi scan adds a smoother "edge" to lines, but there is software
available that can do the same task. Most people ask for 300 dpi scans and then
want them de-speckled, which in effect reduces the specks that the additional 100
dpi just picked up! Also, file size is greater than 2x that of a 200 dpi when you scan
at 400 dpi. Finally, it also takes 2 xs as long or more to scan, so the cost is more.

Q. How much space do I need for my scans?

A.  For a rule of thumb, 15,000 sheets of scanned 8.5x11 papers (200dpi) fit on ONE
compact disk (650MB). An E size drawing at 200 dpi is approximately 200KB or
200,000 bytes. Remember, the more black ink on the page, the larger the file.
A 34x44" size scan can be smaller in file size than a 11x17" size scan if the 11x17"
contains a lot of detailed print on it. Shaded regions are huge file size factors, as are
pictures, and thick black lines.

Q. I need 100,000 pages scanned by next week.

A.  We get this request about every other month. Hi-Tech uses the most advanced
equipment to scan documents however the documents are never in the condition
needed to automate the process. In the imaging world, the documents come in
stapled, torn, dog-eared, folded and unsorted. These conditions require document to
be unassembled, scanning preparation, manual scanning, and finally, reassembly. It
takes many more 'man hours' to get the documents to the scanner and back into the
box to scan them.

Q. I have these rolls of film with images on them.....How long will it take?

A.  If you want them on a disk. Fine, if you call us please we will ask you the following
questions: Is it blipped (are there little notch marks between each frame), is it 16mm
or 35 mm film? (Is it about as wide as a dime or a quarter) And how many frames are
on each roll (how many feet long or how many wraps are there). Each factor affects
time.

Q. I have microfiches with images on them.....How long will it take?

A.  We would like to know how many images are there on each Microfiche. How many
such microfiches do you want to get scanned and how soon do you want them.
Typically we have a capacity to scan 50,000 images a day.

Q. I have some aperture cards I want them to be scanned, how long will it take?

A.  Do they have Hollerith encoding (little punched holes) on each card, do you want an
index record (a list of what the punched holes mean in English), do you want each
image cropped? (Cropping is cutting the filming marks off of each image). Also, when
the card was created a picture was taken at a specific "reduction ratio" so it could fit
on the film. If you don't have any size in a column (punched holes at the RIGHT end
of the card), do you have a standard scale you want us to use?

Q. We have 5,000 pages we want to scan into Word Documents

A.  Hi-Tech uses OCR software to convert the scanned image into a text document, be
it .DOC or .PDF extensions. We can create a full text search database. The price
depends on the amount AND type of document not just size. A technical manual
costs just as much as a legal document because they both have peculiar
vocabularies which delay editing. Tables and charts are hard to recreate.
Handwritten documents are obviously the most expensive. Expect to send us
samples for an accurate quote. Prices are PER PAGE. Scanning pages, cording pages
are automated. Editing, correcting and cleaning are manual.

Q. What is indexing?

A.  Indexing is basically entry of numbers or alphabets through which the scanned
documents or images could be linked with or could be identified with

Q. Which software do you use for indexing?

A.  It can be done in Excel, Access or any other customized or tailor made software. It
could be even done online.

Q. What is the QC process for indexing?

A.  If it is done offline we can use double Keying and verifying method, and if it is done
online then we can verify and rectify it at the spot i.e. is online verification.