Contents - Index

Image Formats Supported by Docs2Manage


Tiff 1-bit Black & White - Industry Standard for general Document Management
B&W Tiff image format probably offers the best overall document quality where color and shade are unimportant.  B&W Tiffs are very efficient for storing documents because D2M uses CCITT compression methods that only store the actual black pixels.  B&W Tiff imaging allows D2M to use high-speed scanners efficiently because the image transfer from the scanner to your computer is much smaller (as long as the scanner is capable and set to scanning in B&W mode).  This image type does not have any image quality loss like Jpeg compression.  The only loss is shades that are determined to become just black or white, which can also give the image a speckled appearance.  To combat this, your scanner should be set B&W mode and the highest contrast allowed.  You also might want to adjust the brightness on your scanner somewhat high to achieve better results.

Jpeg
Jpeg is a full spectrum RGB color format that uses a compression scheme that greatly reduces the size of a color image.  Too much compression will reduce image quality.  It is recommended to set to 85% quality, but depending on your needs, moving this higher or lower may be necessary.  For best scanning results, please set your scanner's contrast and brightness in the middle range.

Tiff 8-bit Grayscale
Grayscale imaging maybe the best option when the shade of black is important like in X-rays, some legal documents or for black and white photos.  This type of Tiff is stored using Pack Bits no loss compression and then zipped into the database to save more space.  For best scanning results, please set your scanner's contrast and brightness in the middle range.  

PNG - Portable Network Graphics 
24-bit RGB Color- This can be used in place of Jpeg scanning when image quality loss is not acceptable.  Keep in mind these image sizes can be very large, so you might consider using Jpeg with a 90% or higher quality level, which should not show any noticeable quality loss.
8-bit Indexed color (256 Colors)- This may be a good choice when some color loss is unimportant, but when image quality loss is not acceptable. Like 24-bit PNG images these image sizes can be very large, so you might consider using Jpeg with a 90% or higher quality level, which should not show any noticeable quality loss.
8-bit Grayscale- This will work almost exactly like Tiff 8-bit grayscale, but depending on the documents you are scanning, may have a smaller image size and faster image loading performance during scanning and viewing since the extra step of zip compression is not necessary.
For best scanning results for all PNG image types, please set your scanner's contrast and brightness to somewhere in the middle.

TIP:  Please tests all the image formats available.  Please also note that the image type you use will have the greatest impact on scanning speed.  Only try to use image color level you need.  Hence, if you are only scanning B&W documents, use 1-bit B&W Tiff.    ..