If you want to keep family photographs or even scanned images of documents and books available for use by future generations, you'll be interested in an article by Bill LeFurgy that has been published in the Library of Congress' web site. Digital Preservation-Friendly File Formats for Scanned Images describes the better file formats to use. The article is essentially an introduction to a longer paper with the title, Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for the Library of Congress Collections.
Quoting from the article:
"From a preservation standpoint, some digital file formats are better than others. The basic issue is how readable a format remains over the course of time and successive waves of technological change. The ideal format will convey its content accurately regardless of advances in hardware, software and other aspects of information technology.
"Over the last several years, the Library has developed a web resource to help guide preservation-optimal choices in selecting file formats. Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for the Library of Congress Collections outlines a number of sustainability factors that have a bearing on how effective formats are expected to be with regard to long-term preservation."
I also noticed that LeFurgy suggests:
"Application of these factors to current format choices has led to identification of different flavors of TIFF and JPEG 2000 as preferred choices for scanned digital images. Also in the mix is PDF/A-1, PDF for Long-term Preservation."
You can read the entire article at http://goo.gl/Ohcxt
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