I am scanning and transcribing hundreds of old letters that consist of multiple pages plus envelopes. When I started this project 5 years ago I scanned into multi-page TIFF files, but the files are huge. I want to index these files in DTP along with the corresponding transcription files (.doc). Now I am wondering if I should continue with PDF files instead of multi-TIFF. Does DTP handle both kinds of files. I need to be able to add extensive metadata as well.
ps - I could conceivably re-scan or convert file formats for the work I have done as I have only about 120 complete.
Assuming that your physical copies of the letters will be kept, and you want a scanned image for convenience and not for high quality printing, then I’d recommend you scan to PDF. Play with the DPI settings on your scanner to get the lowest resolution that gives you an acceptable image. For many handwritten documents you may get good images with less than 300dpi resolution. You won’t be OCRing those files, so resolution only matters for readability. This way you can reduce the storage of the scanned documents.
Converting existing TIFFs to PDF - get a trial edition of Acrobat.
You are right, I need the PDFs for reference and the TIFF images for archiving. Sometimes I need to convert to JPG to print – it’s a JOB keeping track of everything. Thanks for the help, I will give Adobe conversion a try.
Problem solved! Discovered that XnView (thought it was Windows only, but Mac beta is avail) can convert my multi-page TIFF to PDF/JPG, just about anything. I can use a low-res copy for reference and maintain my hi-res images for archiving. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!