Often, we convert these digital files to other electronic formats including PDF, GIF, JPG, and numerous others. Then we assemble the original tiff files or the "derivative files" and create electronic publications, document management systems, web pages, or other digital solutions.

Just the first step

Many service bureaus confine their business to document scanning. At EIS, we view document scanning and file conversion as only the first step in the development of a business focused solution.

Before we begin scanning your records, we will want to meet with you and understand how the scanned images will be used so that we can scan them correctly and at least cost. If you are unsure of your digital solution, we can present different options that best meet your needs.

We offer a broad range of services

EIS offers a broad range of scanning and conversion services, including:

On site scanning - For sensitive documents, EIS will set up scanning services on your site and enforce special security measures.

Archival scanning - For fragile, valuable and one of a kind documents, EIS will set up scanning on your site and follow a "white gloves" protocol where each document is handled with great care and scanned one at a time on a flat bed scanner.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) services - We can extract the text from scanned documents using advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies. We offer different levels of this service. We can completely resurrect a document and provide an electronic version that contains the text, type style, type attributes and formatting of the original. Or, at much less cost, we can perform unedited OCR, where the scanned documents are processed by the OCR software but are not manually checked and edited. This "quick and dirty" approach is often appropriate for "clean" documents that OCR well and the extracted text does not need to be letter perfect.

Conversion to PDF files - For documents that will be incorporated into an electronic publication or document management solution, we often create Adobe PDF files. PDFs are smaller than most image formats, preserve the "look and feel" of the original document and can include readable text that was extracted from the original document. This permits the user to search for text within a PDF document or across an entire volume of PDF documents.

PDFs and the underlying Acrobat infrastructure provide a wide range of features, functions and capabilities. Many of our digital solutions are based on this technology.

EIS provides a wide-range of scanning and conversion services, including.

Document Scanning - EIS scans documents and creates high quality image files. On every scanning assignment, we take great care to make sure the images we create are clear, crisp and optimized for the application that will use them.

Archival Scanning - EIS has developed a special expertise in scanning rare, one-of-a kind archival materials. We exercise meticulous care in the handling and scanning of irreplaceable artifacts. We diligently find the correct scanning settings and procedures to bring out the best image from older, faded or damaged materials.

We have scanned archival materials for organizations including Northwestern University, Northwestern University Law School and the Chicago Historical Society. Images we produced during these and similar assignments have been distributed via web sites, CD-ROM publications and in print. Some of these images have been incorporated into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Microfilm Scanning - Microfilm or microfiche may be the best medium to use when archiving documents if you never want to see those documents again. Film is fast, inexpensive and easy to complete. But, film is also hard to review, time consuming to search and difficult to disseminate. To complete these research and distribution tasks, digital files are best.

EIS often scans microfilm or microfiche to create electronic image files and, subsequently, create an electronic archive. This archive, called a Digital Access Volume or DAV, provides access to the images and includes important features to assist users locate desired information. Information on a DAV can be located using indexed, keyword and full text searches.

We have created DAV's from microfilmed materials that have been collected for major court cases under supeona and freedom of information act requests. Parites to the legal action received the DAV's and used them to review the evidence and prepare their respective cases.

OCR & Clean-up - EIS scans legal contracts, periodicals, professional journals, out of print books and other documents and then recreates the text that appears in these materials. Using advanced OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technologies, we can recreate the text that appears in these materials in every detail – the font, the attributes of the font (e.g. bold, italics, underlining, etc.), the page and paragraph formatting are all identical to the original.

We also offer less complete, and less expensive, OCR services. We can provide "as is" OCR. We run the OCR software but do not manually review and correct the results. The end result of this work is 95%+ accurate and a fraction of the cost of a complete job.

Derivative File Creation - Different business applications often demand different file types. Internet applications benefit from smaller, more compact image files that are easier to transmit. High quality, color printing demands crisp, high resolution image files. Often, one set of scanned images is used in many different applications by several different software applications.

To satisfy different image requirements, we often take the original scanned files and convert them into different derivative file formats. For example, we may scan a document and create a Tiff file and then subsequently create several new image files from this original (e.g. JPG, PDF, GIF, PCT, etc.)