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Day: April 7, 2021
Aperture Card Scanning Houston – #1 Do’s and Don’ts
What is an Aperture Card? And Why Scanning?
An aperture card is used to store images that have been reduced in size from the original. There are many different types of cards in use today. Yes, they are still in use today.
Not everyone has seen or knows what one of these cards looks like. Some cards only have the cutout for the image itself, while others contain a lot of information about the images. Some cards have holes (Hollerith) that the machine reading the cards can interpret for the user. Here are some examples of aperture cards:
Standard Card
Hollerith Cards
As you can see, the standard card shows just image window on the card, while the Hollerith cards have more information to capture from it. This information can be captured during scanning in order to speed up the indexing of the cards depending on your software. Some of the fields you may need to capture for indexing are the image title, date of the image, the revision number, or any other info on the card. Some cards can be color coded to denote specific departments or locations.
How to Scan Aperture Cards
To scan, or image, an aperture card you will need specialized equipment. This scanning machine can be a manual process with the operator scanning each card and changing them out of the machine themselves. It can also be an automatic practice with the operator placing a stack of cards into a “hopper” and the machine feeding them through the process. Each type of scanning process has good points and bad points. What it all comes down to is speed (your deadline) and cost.
The manual process takes much more time and man-hours. However, being able to check each image for clarity, accuracy, and any other issues does make for a better image quality. If your images are sensitive and need special care, manual scanning is the right choice.
Automatic scanning is a much faster process, yet does not slow down (or change settings) when images need extra attention. Images that are darker, or lighter, than the images before and after it will have a washed out effect if too light. They will come out too dark to read if too dark. This process does not take into account these gradations of brightness. It does get through 3x as many images in an hour than the manual scan does though. This makes it the go to process whenever this is not an issue. The cost differential is also a major reason why auto scanning is the preferred method.
Do’s and Don’ts
One of the most overlooked aspects of aperture card scanning is the thickness of the cards. Each card manufacturer might have specs to follow when making the aperture card, however, this does not always equate to standardization across the industry. We have had cards with extra tape on them. We have had cards made from the same manufacturer and still have them with different thickness.
All of this is to say, pay attention to the thickness because your scanner knows. Your scanner can tell the difference between the cards. if you have set your gauges on your equipment to a specific depth of scan, when the differing cards go through the machine, you will get a card jam.
Another issue you may find with aperture card scanning is sticky cards. This can be for many different reasons but the end result is the same, cards that stick together and cause a jam in your equipment. The older the cards are, or the longer they have been in a less than desirable storage location, the more likely the cards are to stick together.
The paper stock combined with the adhesive from the image film make the cards tend to merge into one giant block of card after a while. Fanning your cards out before you scan is the best defense against sticky cards. Just a simple card shuffle will do. Be careful not to get the cards out of order though. Since most cards are architecture drawings or engineering schematics, the order of the cards may matter quite a bit.
At The Document Group, we have over 10 years of experience scanning aperture cards, microfilm, microfiche, negatives, and slides. Let us help you turn those outdated media formats into something that is digital, searchable, and easier to use. Call us today!
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2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK'S Sporting Goods in Houston. Your personal
commitment to making sure our event was successful was very much appreciated. It was a great benefit
to know that I could depend on the team at The Document Group to help with the preparation and
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Last fall, the Houston Local Organizing Committee received numerous bids for
printing services. We chose The Document Group for their proven track record with high level sporting events in Houston, in addition to their pricing and their customer
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This is to recommend the services of The Document Group. They have provided scanning services for our company since August 2018, and they have been an excellent organization to
partner with. They have provided exceptional service with fast turnaround times for our scanning projects - even the more complicated ones. They've been flexible with any shifts in our package volume, and their
rates are also competitive. Their staff members are professional and friendly, and they are quick to respond back to questions.
At our recent NBA All Star game and several of our ancillary events, we had the good fortune to work with The Document Group in different capacities. They provided directional signage for both inside and outside the Toyota Center as well as transportation signage that was placed at different hotels as well. The Document Group was easy to
work with, they met all deadlines, and their professionalism was very impressive. They worked on multiple facets of our overall event and delivered exce llent results on each occasion. Their installation and design team were friendly and flexible when necessary.
Microfilm/Microfiche…Is It Still Relevant?
Microfilm/microfiche…is it still relevant?
Microfilm / microfiche has been around for a number of years. You can still find it in libraries around the country. It was an admirable idea when it was first created. But the times are changing. New developments in technology allow for massive amounts of data to be stored in tiny receptacles you can fit in your pocket.
Microfilm got it’s start much longer ago than you may think. The first use of microphotography to capture text was in 1839. We have come a long way since then.
Today, many industries still use microfilm because of the headaches involved with converting it to another format. You can find this media in universities, libraries, and all over corporate America. Corporate companies are the most likely to need microfilm conversions. This may be due to the need to access more information in a timely manner. Who wants to have to break out the old film reader machine and dig through boxes or cabinets of films or fiche?
That is why we do what we do. At TDG we can help turn those films or fiche into jpg, pdf, tiff, or any other picture format you need. We use the newest equipment to quickly and accurately capture those images. Each type of media is different and calls for different equipment to handle the conversions. While there are multifunction scanners out there, any device with multiple uses is bound to be slower than that of an automatic scanner.
However, having a multifunction scanner (like we do at TDG) allows you to capture film negatives, slides, microfilm, microfiche, and any other media too small or thick to go through traditional scanners. While most manual multifunction machines are definitely slower, they have advantages in other areas.
Metadata – What is it and why should you care
Metadata – What is it and why should you care
Many people have no idea what metadata is, why it matters, or what is can do in the real world. In it’s simplest form, metadata is the information about a computer file. Now, it is not the content of the file, say your recipe list in a Word document.
Metadata is the information you cannot see. The hidden information that most people did not even know exists. This information can send you to jail, or keep you out of jail. This information is part of every single electronic file created on a computer. Every single file has metadata.
Metadata is captured at the time the file is created. Things like the username who created the file, the time or date the file was created, or if the file has been printed. All of this and much, much more is a part of every file that is created.
Being involved with the legal industry has allowed me to see, close up, the effect metadata can have in a legal case. Legal teams can use metadata to establish a timeline of facts. Being able to accurately determine when an email was sent may be the smoking gun that destroys an alibi or establishes one in a criminal matter. In civil cases, metadata is just as important for many reasons. The ability to search and find data quickly and efficiently has been the biggest boon to attorneys in my opinion. Imagine having to still go through boxes of paper with no definitive knowledge of when it was created.
Types of Metadata
- Descriptive – these include title, subject, genre, author, and creation date, for example.
- Structural – shows how information is put together (page order to chapters, for example).
- Administrative – showing such information as when and how the resource was created. Two types of administrative metadata are those that deal with intellectual property rights and preservation metadata.
- Statistical – also called process data, this may describe processes that collect, process, or produce statistical data.
Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.
Steve Wozniak
The Bad News
Now comes the bad news. Metadata can be edited or even removed from a file with a metadata scrubber. While most users are not aware of this capability, many IT professionals are well aware that this exists. If you have ever watched CSI on TV you may have seen someone ask “if the timestamp has been altered” on a video or picture. This is an example of metadata at work. Time stamps are notoriously bad for being able to be changed.
When an attorney wants to use time-stamp metadata in court, they will want to ensure that the police seized the original digital camera that took the pictures. They can then argue the pictures on the camera haven’t been modified if the internal clocks match the pictures. They can also show that the clock inside the camera wasn’t set incorrectly. He can also try to corroborate the time stamps with the images themselves by using an object in the image itself like a watch or clock on a wall.
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How The Top Legal Printing Service In Houston Supports Your Law Firm
The Document Group was founded by litigation support experts with over 20 years of experience; today the Houston commercial printing company is renowned for exceptional litigation support services. The Document Group offers comprehensive and tailored litigation support services, from legal printing service in Houston to trial preparation.
Litigation Copying From The Top Houston Printing Company
While electronic records have become the norm, paper and ink are still extremely valuable in organizing litigation cases. When you need litigation copying done, The Document Group provides safe, secure, and accurate services.
All of our projects are personally processed by our trained Account Managers or Customer Service Representatives, who ensure that your instructions are followed to the letter. We back up our work with over 150 years of combined experience in the field, and the industry best quality control practices. We do everything in our power to ensure your originals and copies are returned to your firm on time.
Fast, Accurate Document Scanning
Of course, document scanning is still one of the most common services for litigation support that we see at our Houston commercial printing company. We offer comprehensive scanning services; in fact, we even have mobile equipment that we can bring to you. Our team also works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in order to meet rush jobs that cannot wait.
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You are the experts in litigation and we are the experts in electronic discovery; we work hard to provide your lawyers with all the benefits of top-of-the-line electronic discovery services. Our core services focus on providing what you need: comprehensive discovery, customized reporting, cost effective eDiscovery, complete confidentiality, and industry best practices for digital security. Our professionals investigate every electronic source of information from emails to web browsing activity while finding evidence of file tampering and unlocking password protected files.
Targeted Database Hosting Solutions
Not every law firm has a dedicated IT staff that can create and manage information databases. Having electronic information that can be accessed, sorted, and used efficiently and quickly out of a database is a blessing for organizing complex cases. The Document Group provides turn-key database solutions in addition to all of our Houston printing services.
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Safety And Security – Houston's Record Retrieval Company
Your legal staff is extremely busy preparing for trial, so let The Document Group handle your record retrieval needs with our safe and efficient retrieval services. We’ll handle all your record retrieval needs whether it is from people, businesses, or government agencies. Plus, we use all of the latest technology and best practices to maintain the strictest confidentiality.
Safe And Secure Record Retrieval From The Top Houston Printing Company
Our experts know all of the regulations and laws protecting sensitive information, and we treat all of our clients’ requests with the utmost importance. We work hard to guarantee everything we obtain is completely admissible.
Every employee at The Document Group signs a HIPPA agreement to keep all of the records obtained so that they remain confidential. We work with clients from a wide range of industries who need confidential records retrieval, from law firms and insurance agencies to information brokers and investigative agencies.
How The Document Group Provides Exceptional Records Retrieval Service
Records retrieval can be an art all onto itself, especially with older records and items that haven’t been digitized yet. We leverage our knowledge of civil rules and procedures, plus the latest retrieval technology and procedures, to get the information that our clients need in a timely manner. Our company has established long term relationships with many records custodians which enable us to get exactly what you need, in the format that you need it. If you utilize our professionals for records retrieval, you will quickly see why we offer a superior product.
Five Easy Steps For Record Retrieval
Getting the information that you need doesn’t have to be a hassle. There are just five easy steps between you and the records that your company needs:
- Submit your request through email, over the phone, with a fax, or through the form on our website.
- The requests are issued to the providers via authorization request or subpoena request.
- We run all of the follow-up, and provide you with an up-to-date status of each order; we understand why many requests are so time sensitive.
- After retrieval is complete, our document intake department checks the records to ensure completeness and accuracy, and will work to correct any issues found before returning the records to you.
- We deliver the final product on paper or through electronic media. Everything is handled by secure courier and is password protected. We can even take the records and directly convert them into presentations or graphics for use in trial preparation and in the courtroom itself.
At The Document Group, we are more than a commercial Houston printing company. We help our clients with all of their litigation needs from records retrieval to trial preparation. Contact us today for a free quote!