Lossy compression vs. archiving and OCR (was Re: Many things)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Mon Jan 31 16:14:50 2005

Randy wrote:
> My documents are not perfect but I believe they are the best I can provide
> given the variables of convenience and cost.

As I stated in another post, my comments are only intended to influence
ongoing archival efforts, and are not in any way intended to criticize
the efforts of people who are scanning documents and making them available.

I have found several of the documents on your web site to be very
helpful. Thanks for providing them!

Even though I don't like lossy compression applied to text and line art,
and try to discourage it, a lossy-compression DjVu file of a document
is MUCH more useful than not having the document at all.

I might try to draw the line at JPEGs of text and line art though. They
literally hurt my eyes (by causing eye strain) due to the bluriness
of the edges. Still, if it's a document I really need I suppose I'd
rather be able to get the JPEG than nothing at all.

> These questions face every archivist, if I decided to archive "perfect
> documents" how many could I archive?

None at all. Anyone that thinks otherwise is a fool.

Eric
Received on Mon Jan 31 2005 - 16:14:50 GMT