To Compress or Not to Compress?
(that is not the question)
The other title I thought of for the article was "What's in a
Gig" but the point still comes back to compression. One of the
questions we always field from the people we talk to about
scanning records is "how much space will this take on my
server?" We had one IT professional indicate that he was going
to buy a server with an extra terabyte of storage space for the
90,000 pages he wanted us to scan for him. When I told him we
would only need about 3 GBs, and not the 1,000 that he wanted to
buy, his nose crinkled up. Realistically when you scan a
"normal" 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, it should come up in the
Properties tab as a 30 to 35k document. Yes, a document will be
bigger if there is a lot of content on it, or you are scanning
at 300 dpi (dots per inch), or in color.
So let's begin with why compression is important. The obvious
reason would be the size of the storage device you will need.
Yes, storage is cheap, but the time it takes to manage storage
is not. Think also of the network traffic. Have you ever
received an email with a one megabyte attachment? Have you ever
tried to forward that email with the one megabyte attachment? If
you tried to email a six-page uncompressed document It would
almost be impossible because of the large file size.
In the business world today, one area of growth is the advent of
the Multi Function Device (MFD) or Printer. All of these devices
purport to scan documents. A lot of them appear, initially,
somewhat inexpensive. Actually the cheaper the purchase price of
the MFD, the less likely it will be able to do a good job of
compressing your scanned images, rarely offering what is known
as "Group IV compression" which is the best compression there
is. Group IV is also the most "lossless," which means that
almost no image data is thrown away in the compression process,
and your resulting image is of high quality.
Also, don't forget that an MFD is only a capture device. User
rights for viewing, printing, emailing and capturing audit
trails typically don't come with these units.
So, if you want more info on how to finish the job, email me at
mzecy@americanmicrokc.com with "finish me" in the subject
line. Until then, keep your images small and make sure you know
who's looking at them!