Equipment for digitisation

Use this guide to choose digitisation equipment, like scanners and software, for back-capture projects. Learn how to evaluate hardware, software, and technical requirements to meet your organisation’s needs.

Last updated: 04 February 2025

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Find a vendor
Hardware
Software
Other equipment
Technical infrastructure considerations
Health and safety considerations
Negotiate a contract
Checklist

When choosing digitisation equipment, start by understanding:

the records you want to digitise
your technical specifications for image quality.

See the sections on selecting the right records and technical specifications for more details. Once you know your requirements, assess hardware and software to ensure they meet your quality needs.

Digitising paper records as part of your business-as-usual process (for example, day boxes) can have lower quality specification than records that will be required as State archives.

Find a vendor

You should meet NSW Government requirements for procurement using the NSW Government Contract SCM0020 ICT Services Scheme G02.

Note that State Records NSW does not endorse specific vendors.

Hardware

When purchasing hardware, consider:

flatbed or automatic document feeding scanners
type and size of material that is being digitised, including colour requirements
the quantity of material to be scanned (files, pages per file, how much in each batch)
ease of use and un-jamming
available budget
bit depth and resolution required
the time it takes to scan under normal conditions
how many pages can be loaded into the scanner at one time
whether both sides of a document can be scanned in one scan/pass
noise levels during scanning
supported file formats (avoid proprietary formats)
compliance with standards
connectivity to a PC
cost.

Test hardware with your records to ensure it meets performance needs, as vendor specifications may differ from real-world performance. One public office which operates an in-house scanning program recommends features like:

ultrasonic double-feed detection
automatic page size detection
skip blank page
simplex (single page) and duplex (double page) scanning
automatic deskew
staple detection
punch hole removal
batch separation.

Note: The speeds and capabilities of scanners published by vendors are often not a good indication of the actual time required for processing. To make accurate estimates you should undertake testing on the records to be processed.

A check of the scanning capability in conjunction with the scanning computer should include:

How is the scanner connected to the computer e.g. SCSI card, USB or serial connection?
Is the scanner compatible with your operating system?
Are the scanner drivers both 32 bit and 64 bit compliant?
Is additional software required to run the scanner or is it locked to a particular software brand?
How much is the annual maintenance fee and what is included?

Digital cameras may be an alternative for bound or delicate materials. Look for high resolution and TIFF format capability.

Software

When selecting software, assess:

ease of use and compatibility with hardware
ability to control scan settings like resolution and bit depth
preview images to help with initial quality checks
metadata automation capabilities
supported file formats
ability to enhance images as needed
integration with other systems, like your EDRMS
text based searching such as optical character recognition (OCR)
cost structure, including training and maintenance fees
if a watermark is applied to the scan.

Image enhancement (for example, sharpening, clipping of highlights or shadows, blurring to eliminate scratches, spotting or de-speckling) should be documented and follow consistent procedures to ensure authenticity. Annotations, such as redactions or sticky notes, should be managed as overlays, not altering the original image.

Other equipment

You may also need additional equipment, like:

desktop applications to open the digital images. For example, large maps or plan may require images to be ‘stitched’ together to create a singular image
v-shaped cradles for bound volumes
overhead stands for cameras.

Technical infrastructure considerations

Ensure your organisation has the technical capacity to handle increased digital storage needs. Key considerations include:

adequate storage for projected file sizes
sufficient bandwidth for real-time access
backup and offsite storage solutions.

For example, a small project might require 1.56TB over 3 years, while larger projects could require 10–15TB annually.

Health and safety considerations

Consider the health and safety of staff when setting up digitisation equipment. Test all equipment before full rollout to ensure it meets operational and safety requirements.

Negotiate a contract

When working with vendors, ensure the contractor can:

recommend the best hardware and software requirements for your needs
make suggestions about the integration of digitisation into your processes
discuss your metadata requirements
set up document definitions so that metadata can be automated
install hardware and software
test hardware and software settings and make refinements when required
advise how to change settings for non-standard items
provide advice if there are initial problems with hardware or software (sometimes this can be provided remotely)
provide software to view digital images
advise on quality assurance measures - see Benchmarks and quality assurance for more information about quality checks of equipment
advise on storage and integration with EDRMS
provide maintenance for a contracted period (check what maintenance includes)
provide product upgrades
provide training at the outset of the project

Checklist

Equipment for digitisation	Yes	No
Have you considered your organisation’s technical specifications and metadata requirements and whether the hardware and software proposed can meet these?
Have you considered your EDRMS (or other storage packages) and whether the hardware and software is flexible enough to integrate with these?
Have you determined what software is required on staff desktops to ensure the images can be accessed and viewed?
Have you considered the effects digitisation will have on your organisation’s technical infrastructure and what might be needed to ensure this is robust?
Have you determined whether the vendors you are considering have an acceptable reputation and track record? Seek references from existing clients.
Have you ensured that the contract outlines all expectations and roles and responsibilities?

Appendix

Appendix 1: Characteristics of scanner technology

The following appendix has been reproduced with kind permission from the National Archives of Australia's guidelines, Digitising accumulated physical records.

Characteristic	Explanation
Style	Flatbed scanners provide a flat glass area for scanning. Some more specialised flatbed scanners may have bevelled edges especially suited to volumes. They may have adapters to enable sheet feeders or transparent media adapters suited to fragile documents or books to be scanned. Sheet feed scanners scan separated pages, typically at a higher rate than flatbed scanners. They are designed for high throughput and are not suited to fragile material or non-standard sized material. Slide scanners are designed for digitising transparent material such as slides and negatives. Drum scanners are used in high-end design and publication applications producing a high-quality image. Wide format scanners are used for scanning maps, plans and larger documents that are manually fed. Overhead scanners are used for specialised scanning typically involving fragile material or material of archival value that cannot be laid flat such as volumes of newspapers or ledgers.
Resolution	Optical resolution is the actual resolution achieved by the scanner using the in-built sensors. Interpolated resolution is software-enhanced resolution that increases the perceived resolution of the image by interpolating extra pixels calculated from the adjacent actually scanned pixels. Most vendors quote interpolated resolution.
Automatic document feed	This is the ability to process original documents in bulk, sequentially digitising rather than hand feeding individual pages. Varieties of automatic document feed (ADF) are: simplex: scanning one side of a document in one pass duplexing: scanning both sides of a document by re-feeding the document through and processing the reverse side duplex (true duplex): scanning both sides of a document as an image in one pass through the scanner.
Original size	This is the maximum page size a particular scanner can accommodate. Typically scanners are A3 or A4 enabled, but consideration for non-standard paper sizes may be needed.
Speed of scanning	Digitising speeds depend on the resolution required and whether the digitisation is in colour or black and white (greyscale).
Capability	Scanners support multiple requirements. One scale to assess the capability of scanners is: low: 250 pages per day medium: 750 pages per day high: 2000 pages per day production level: 15 000 pages per day.
Ports and image transfer supported	Interfaces between scanners, printers and computers for storage are required. Typical interface protocols are: USB (Universal Serial Bus) specification 2 SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) - requires a separate card parallel: connecting simply through a parallel port on computers firewire: a transmission protocol typically found on high-end, high-resolution scanners.

Appendix 2: Using a photocopier for digitisation

Determining your specifications

MultiFunctional Devices (MFDs), such as photocopiers are able to operate as scanners, for business process digitisation. Sometimes the functionality of an MFD will be sufficient for your business process digitisation needs.

The technical specifications for your project need to be determined before procurement commences. This will allow you to determine if an MFD can meet your needs. If you are intending to use an existing MFD you need to check that it can meet your specifications.

Like any purchase of equipment you should also check things like:

the vendor’s credentials and customer testimonials
sales and service agreements
after sales support levels.
You should also meet NSW Government requirements for procurement, including the requirements of NSW Government Contract 9827 - Print and Imaging Devices and Services which covers MFDs, printers and scanners.

MDF features:

digital images can be to a specific network location that enables an EDRMS to pick up the new files and import them.
Users can add metadata a document at the point it is digitised.

MFDs and workflow

You will need to determine what standard settings the MFDs should default to.

Note: Business process digitisation will involve a range of records with different retention periods. It is not recommended that staff continually change MFD settings, depending on the type of records, as this is impractical. However, where you can identify groups of records that require higher specifications, for example and board meeting papers, which are required as State archives, a particular staff member can be made responsible for ensuring that these are digitised with suitable higher settings.

As with other digitisation, you will need to consider what process will be best suited to your organisation’s needs and ensure the technology supports this process. You will also need to determine business rules for using the scanner in the MFD and the management and quality checking of the digital image afterwards.

Staff will need to be instructed or trained in the correct use of the device and their responsibilities for quality assurance, digital filing and what to do with original paper records after digitisation.