Scantronics are experts in scanning services and provide a full bureau service for all clients that need to outsource the scanning and conversion of any quantities of documents large or small, our advisors will assist you with your requirement and provide advice and assistance to ensure that your project runs smoothly. ... ...

Document Scanning FAQ s

Most small companies are awash with paper documents and office space being a premium and staff time costly, turning this paper into PDF documents can show real cost saving in time and money DOCUMENT SCANNINGScanning Bureaus such as Scantronics can can provide all types, sizes and volumes of document scanning & conversion services according to thei customer’s needs output formats include but are not limited to TIFF, PDF, searchable PDF, JPG etc.You can store your documents to the most suitable form for you , which can be Tape, Hard Drive CD/DVD or any other media. Below I hope you will find many of the questions that you have about document scanning answeredHow many scanned documents can I fit on a typical 650Mbyte CD-ROM?This will vary according to the amount of information on each page but a typical amount would be up to 10 archive boxes of scanned documents on each CD-ROM ( 30,000 - 35,000 sheets of A4).What sizes of paper can be scanned?Any size of paper from small receipts up to large drawings of 36” wide (A0) and any length can be scanned.Photographs and colour scanning?Scantronics scanning equipment can handle black and White, greyscale and full colour photographs for scanning.What file format will the document images be supplied in?Typically files can be scanned into either TIF or Adobe Acrobat PDF format although we can supply images in most other formats such as JPG, GIF and BMP if required.How do we find and view the documents on the CD afterwards?Scanning Bureau's index documents to your requirements for easy retrieval and can supply Document Management or free search software if required, these solutions enable you to find scanned documents on a CD/DVD based on a particular search field such as client reference number.What is the difference between TIF and PDF format for document archiving?TIF format files is the cheapest form of document scanning and archiving and is suitable for large volumes for archive such as invoices, drawings etc.PDF format has additional features such as full text and keyword searching, bookmarks/hyperlinks and document annotation and security options, . This therefore adds slightly to the scanning charges.In general if your documents are meant for constant access post scanning then PDF is more suitable for document archiving. Otherwise TIF format is more suitable for long term low access document archiving.?Can you convert paper documents into MS Word or Excel?There are have highly accurate programs to convert documents into MS Word or Excel. These enable us to scan, OCR convert and then verify/error check any original typed informationYou can store your documents after scanning or, as an alternative option, securely shred them and issue a BS accredited secure disposal certificate.How many drawings can I fit on a DVD-ROM?When scanning drawings, this will vary somewhat according to the content of information on each sheet but a typical amount would be around 5000 A0 sheets on each DVD-ROM.How do I find my scanned drawings?You can index all the scanned drawings on typical fields in the title block such as drawing number, part number, revision/issue, date, etc. You can then search upon any one of these fields.?What are PDF format files?This is a proprietary format file produced by Adobe and has been widely adopted over the last few years as an excellent format for the web distribution or archival of paper documentation.What options are there for PDF conversion?There are 3 main formats for PDF conversion:Image only – A raw image format like a TIF fileImage + Hidden Text – As above but fully word searchableNormal – Fully OCR converted and compact formatTony.bryan@scantronics.co.uk