Manuscripts

We use high-resolution planetary scanners and a range of high-resolution cameras, offering non-contact capture of your precious manuscript collection. Our equipment can capture single page or double-page spreads creating output formats in TIFF, JPEG (JPEG2000), PDF (PDFA) or any other industry-standard image format you may require. We can also create further surrogate files, such as OCR’d multi-page PDFs, MS Word and eBooks.

All files are captured by our highly trained digitisation technicians using overhead, daylight balanced, non-heat producing lighting, before undergoing a formal quality assurance checking procedure. The final step in the process is the delivery of your electronic files by hard drive.

As standard, TWA survey all material prior to any digitisation project being carried out to ensure that it can withstand the scanning process. Manuscripts are often large and incredibly old making them susceptible to damage. If there is evidence of fragility, brittleness, pages being stuck together, rips, tears and/or mould, or any other signs of damage, then recommendations will be made for how to appropriately repair and stabilise your material.

There are many things that need to be taken into consideration when costing your digitisation project, such as:

• Condition
• Foldouts
• Size
• Scale of collection
• Number of pages

Consequently, it’s impossible to give a definitive answer as to cost, but you can get a rough estimate using our digitisation quote calculator below.

Manuscripts, particularly Mediaeval manuscripts, typically contain vivid pigments, which were often achieved through alchemy, using plants, minerals and metals to achieve such vibrant tones. We can capture your manuscripts in all their stunning and colourful glory, achieving a high degree of accuracy, by using a colour key, used to match and manage colour capture. We then use software, such as Capture 1, to help make any manual adjustments necessary.