Current Challenges in Digitization Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present and welcome Who we are – What we do Background Ivo Iossiger Ivo IOSSIGER President Director General

Digitization Brings Documents Online paper content digital images digital files digital content Books, magazines and newspapers are precious collections of knowledge and reference Allow users to search and access valuable content through most recent online technologies The new trend : "What is not online, does not exist !”

Content, knowledge are imprisoned between pages of books. The Problem Content, knowledge are imprisoned between pages of books. Millions of documents are written in various languages. How to digitize by preserving the book or the unique copy. Why do we exist – Level of pain

Manipulate the large variety : Challenges of Books Manipulate the large variety : page formats paper types binding types soft or rigid covers Turn one by one all pages of a book and present them to a camera. Reproduce accurately the aspect of every page page layout calligraphy images

Enhancing images of pages Challenges of Pages Enhancing images of pages remove typical artifacts (borders, split pages) remove transparency of print from the opposite page (unbleed) correct rotation of page (deskew) correct page curvature of bound documents enhance contrast and clear page background

Challenges of Text Recognize text and make it accessible for full text search, copy and paste.

How to reduce costs per page ? Challenges of Costs Equipment and production tools are more performing and reliable engages fixed costs Human Labor is expensive and slow engages variable costs Logistics and workflow are sophisticated and diverse Why do we exist – Level of pain How to reduce costs per page ?

The Solution Everybody is Looking for How to digitize a large number of books as quick and as cheap as possible with preserving superior quality ? automatic solution without operator superior productivity beyond humans insure digitization of all pages produce high quality images unattended faster reliable Increase VOLUME, Keep QUALITY, Decrease PRCE

The Solution of the Past An operator turns pages all day long ... an endless task forbidding and tedious task limited performance by concentration and tiredness irregular quality due to individuals contradiction between performance and motivation

The Solution of the Future

Technology and Production Challenges Image Scanning Image Treatment OCR Indexing Structuring Providing Online Paper Content 4DigitalBooks ABBYY Digital Library Digital Content Digitizing Line Recognition Server Page Improver Text Search

Challenges of File Formats -17 -16 -11 -9 -8 -4 -1 time you are here Image & Text 1993 PDF (Acrobat 1) 2001 PDF hidden text (Acrobat 5) 2005 PDF/A 2008 PDF is an open standard (Acrobat 9) 1992 JPEG 2000 JPEG 2000 Image 1992 TIFF 1998 XML Text Which formats will survive ? - The most popular and widely spread !

ratio GS RGB BW Challenges of Storage bitmap image A4 at 300 dpi : 8.5 MB 25.5 MB 1.0 MB % % % lossless quality (recommended for multiple edits) TIFF .TIF 1:1 100 300 12 TIFF LZW .TIF 2:1 ~50 ~150 ~6 TIFF CCITT G4 .TIF 100:1 ~1 loss on quality (not recommended for multiple edits) JPEG .JPG 5-10:1 ~20-10 ~25-12 JPEG 2000 .JP2 6-12:1 ~16-8 ~20-10 Archive or reference files are NOT intended for multiple edits. Therefore all these formats are good for long term preservation.

Challenges Joining Digital and Paper Born Content PDF Image PDF Text PDF Image over Text (large size) (small size) PDF hidden text abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz Paper Born OCR abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz accurate subject to read & print search to original OCR mistakes copy & paste Word Text PDF Text (small size) (small size) Digital Born read & print search copy & paste abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz

Challenges Selecting Source Material - Microfilm or Digital computer output microfilm COM digital media lifetime 20 y NEEDS MIGRATION abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz microfilm printer analog media lifetime 500 y STORAGE possible image enhancement and restoration abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz microfilm microfilm scanner microfilm camera book scanner 5-10% quality loss analog media lifetime 500 y REFERENCE no quality loss

Challenges to Bring Files Online