On 16 May 2007 21:39:01 -0700, Yeoman <sleepingrass@gmail.com> wrote in soc.genealogy.misc: >Can anyone suggest an appropriate resolution for scanning old >documents? They are from around the 1850s and are written in slightly- >faded quill pen. I want to preserve as much of the detail as possible >without the scans taking up a huge amount of space. Is there a happy >medium between quality and size? This depends on the document. I scanned a lot of records with a 2 megapixel digital camera and most are fully readable while it is near the lower limit. However, there are some small entries (in small letters) and this is not enough. Also, I was using a portable computer to do that My camera is connected directly to the computer which takes a picture each 8 seconds (7 is too short in my opinion) so all I have to do is to turn each page. But the computer is nearly complete. I will repeat that task with a better camera (only the pages with small notes) but it would be not possible to do all the pages with the better resolution because that portable PC is overloaded ! So, whatever they say about cheap storage, the best set up depends on what you are scanning (quality, size and quantity) and on your tools. As for your problem of faded pen, I was able to scan a set of notes (taken from the 1920s to 1950s), something quite light and on thin paper, using a digital camera (which is much faster than a scanner, average is 250 pages/hour, lunch time included) and nearly lateral light (about 20 degrees, the camera being at 90 degrees), with a black paper in the back. Denis -- 0 Denis Beauregard - /\/ Les Français d'Amérique du Nord - www.francogene.com/genealogie--quebec/ |\ French in North America before 1721 - www.francogene.com/quebec--genealogy/ / | Maintenant sur cédérom, début à 1765 oo oo Now on CD-ROM, beginnings to 1765