35mm microfilm

[Claude Setzer]

> My main problem at the moment is getting certain microfilm formats
converted
> to digitial. There is a lot of valuable material on microfilm which is
> physically decaying. We have some valuable material from Baroda here that
> needs attention. Does anybody know of a state-of-the-art place where 35mm
> microfilm material can be digitised without bankrupting the libraries and
> museums we work for? Unfortunately, Kodak and Agfa don't make equipment
for
> 35mm microfilm material, only for 16mm, and they don't offer the service.
We
> have found a way of doing the job, but it requires a complicated routine.
We
> are looking for somebody who can do it more efficiently.
>
> Thanks for any help.
> Yours,
> Gunthard
> gm at e-ternals.com

I do not understand why 35 mm would be any different than digitizing other
things. A 35 mm slide scanner is a standard piece of equipment and the
software can easily give contrast inverted image to make it appear as black
on white text. Then it is an image just like one from paper, although
probably poorer quality.

You can obviously put that in jpg format for image file, but maybe you are
asking about converting to text or even native text. If native text is the
problem, I may suggest a product we call "manual OCR" which is a special
(Indian font) word processor that makes itself into only one line and floats
just below the text that was scanned. Thus, you can very easily and
efficiently type and edit at speeds much faster and more accurate (for a
good typist) than any Indian font ocr available today.

Please see information on the Indology web site. Go to "Virtual Archive of
Indic etexts" page, then got to "Sanskrit Texts by Vedic Engineering," then
to "full details of texts, fonts, and software   available."

Perhaps we can help you. Please let me know details of your situation: how
many pages of text (what texts they are), what language(s) and exactly what
you want done to them.

sincerely,
Claude Setzer  cssetzer at mum.edu