Tag Archives: Scanning

A photo of an iron mountain.

If your company or organization has thousands of microfiche you have probably wondered if you ought to be paying monthly storage fees with a document storage company or just have the microfiche converted into digital image.

The largest document storage service in the world provides storage for microfilm and microfiche, audio and videotapes, film, X-rays, blueprints, vital records, and courier operations, the collection, handling, disposal of sensitive documents for corporate customers; and information destruction services, information governance and digital solutions, and fulfillment and technology escrow services.

However the storage and record retrieval fees add up over time and require a contract. A shortcut is to get your microfiche records converted into a TIFF or PDF. Generation Imaging can scan your microfiche and even index them by the title bars or document fields per image. After the microfiche is scanned, you can upload them to your server, computers, or cloud and do with them as you wish. Best of all, no more monthly maintenance, retrieve, or delivery fees. You will have all of your microfiche images in your hands for instant retrieval, all for a low project cost. CONTACT US

What is a Microfiche Scanning Company?

September 26, 2011

Damian Hospital

Microfiche scanning No Comments

Not All Microfiche Scanning Companies are the Same

Is hard to believe that so many companies or governments still use microfiche cards for archiving. In our microfiche scanning company we transfer thousands of microfiche to digital formats all the time. It is good to know that a microfiche scanning company can transfer your microfiche to pdf, jpeg, or tiff images, and this is not very expensive if you find the right scanning company. We have helped hundred of companies and individuals that decided to transfer their archived data.

The microfiche scanning company you select to scan your microfiche cards will help you choose from the many options available for you digital scanning system. We help out customers from the very early stages of their microfiche conversion project. We believe that planning is extremely valuable for the scanning company and for the customer. Therefore, we take the time to test and inform customers at the very early stages. For example, our scanning company provides free test scanning for every project. This process gives a customer good feedback and assures that the communication good between the customer and the scanning company.

Experience and reliability are also good qualification of an efficient microfiche scanning company. You want to feel the work is guaranteed. Make sure that you can speak to your microfiche scanning company representative and the project manager. When you have a question or concern, getting quick response from your microfiche scanning company is essential.

Most micrographics companies sell hardware, software, or perform paper document scanning or microfilm services, or even sell microfiche scanners. It is rare to find a company which focuses on microfiche conversion specifically. CONTACT US

What is Computer Output Microfilm (COM fiche)?

September 13, 2011

Damian Hospital

Microfiche scanning No Comments

What is Computer Output Microfilm (COM)?

Computer Output Microfilm (COM) is a system that converts stored data directly to microfilm or microfiche. I know around ten people who used to sell Bell & Howell Computer Output Microfilm systems as far back as the 1960s to the 1980s. It almost seems to be a prerequisite for salespeople in the micrographics industry from that era.

COM recorder

Computer Output Microfilm systems are still used today, mostly by organizations who need to store payroll, accounting, insurance, inventory, or employee data. Yet because most of these organizations have outputted the Computer Output Microfilm to microfiche, they have to manually search for a record and use a reader printer to save out a particular file.

Old diagram of COM creation (microfilm)

A more feasible option is to convert Computer Output Microfilm to digital image via Generation Imaging’s microfiche scanning services. Generation Imaging specializes in microfiche to PDF, TIFF, or JPEG conversions.

Using high quality/high production microfiche scanners, we convert the COM microfiche to digital. Generation Imaging provides this COM fiche scanning service to end users as well as other service bureau’s. Clients can choose from Adobe PDF format, Group 4 TIFF (tagged image file format), or greyscale JPEGs. PDFs and TIFFs can be wrapped in a multi-page file. Generation Imaging offers an optional OCR (optical character recognition) image processing and other indexing services (by folder or filename).

The end result of this entire process is a digital image which you could easily search the file containing records by name, account number, date, and/or social security number. Obviously this saves time and efficiency.

COM Fiche

Definitions of COM

1. Computer Output Microfilm: microfilm containing data, which is created by a recorder from computer generated electrical signals.
2. Computer Output Microfilmer: a recorder which converts data from a computer into language and records it on microfilm.
3. Computer Output Microfilming: a method of converting data from a computer into language onto microfilm.

You can substitute “microfilm” with “microfiche“.

Do you have microfiche to convert to pdf or digital image?

If so, please contact us today for a free microfiche scanning quote. Let us digitize microfiche for you. Generation Imaging has wholesale scanning prices, and is run by a specialized experienced team. With over 30 years of experience, we have seen all types of microfiche. We have top notch customer service and a quick turnaround. CONTACT US

3 Reasons to Convince Your Boss to Digitize Microfiche

September 9, 2011

Damian Hospital

Microfiche scanning No Comments

Convert Microfiche to Images

If you work with microfiche and pull records as part of your job, you may have fantasized about a more efficient way of doing that. Perhaps you even use a microfiche reader printer or microfiche viewer to locate documents. Well, there is a way, and it is called microfiche scanning.

Converting analog media to digital image (i.e. microfiche conversion) has many benefits. Here are three obvious microfiche scanning benefits:

Immediate retrieval of your documents on your computer- I mean, seriously, you can have a little contest with your co-worker to see who can bring up a fiche document the fastest; you just use your mouse and she has to go digging through filing cabinets and use a microfiche viewer or reader. Microfiche scanning allows this quick retrieval.

No more losing microfiche- No longer will you be worried about your documents getting lost due to a misplaced fiche or small frame falling off. As someone who has working with microfiche for three decades I can attest to how one must pay close attention to where one leaves a microfiche card. With microfiche scanning, all of the images will be saved and you can make unlimited backups and copies, so you will never lose a card again.

Quick response to resolving issues- Imagine if you work at an insurance company or school and someone is requesting their records. In some cases your organization has been forced to give a 5-day turnaround time because someone has to find the fiche and use an old, faulty reader printer to print out on paper or create an image. With microfiche scanning all you would have to do is…use your mouse and keyboard to type the fiche ID or use your eyes to find a folder. Which method is more efficient?

OLD School is not FAST

Free Microfiche Service Sample Test

December 7, 2010

Damian Hospital

Microfiche scanning No Comments

At Generation Imaging, we are doing all we are able to to assist our customers take care of their microfiche conversion projects. As a part of our efforts, we have now established a free no obligation testing process, where we take a sampling of your microfiche conversion project and perform a microfiche conversion simulation test, identical to what we’d on the real job.

In other words, if you send us your entire project, we will scan a representative sample of the project by selecting microfiche to digitize and email the images for your approval.

This check has many benefits. It gives our buyer a good understanding of what the final microfiche conversion product will be, it allows us at Generation Imaging to correctly time the process for each particular project, and offers our prospects the opportunity to make changes to assure that the final product will be exactly as wanted, and is totally free.

Another vital issue we consider valuable to our clients is the cost of finishing the microfilm conversion project. It will likely be difficult to discover a microfiche conversion center that may match the prices or services supplied at Generation Imaging. We have thought about all variables to assure that we are able to provide top quality and greatest service. To do this, Generation Imaging makes use of top of the line microfiche conversion equipment, capable of producing optimum quality images at top speed. In addition, we are in a position to produce any kind of image file format at varied resolution. CONTACT US