Archiving Formats

Recommendation:

• Scanned raw data should be stored in an open format, possibly ASCII based, (to ensure longevity and sustainability) under lossless compression using public compression standards.

  Example formats are: pnm (portable anymap) [[16] ], TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) [[19] ]; example compression schemes are CCITT G4 [4] for bitonal, LZW [12], ZIP [21] for gray, color)

It is proposed that the archived raw data be made publicly available whenever possible. This will support distribution and hence longevity of the primary data. The more copies that exist, the greater will be the likelihood that data will survive unforeseen events.

At least the archived raw data should be made easily available for re-engineering when enhancements of any type are possible.