Non solo TIFF e JPEG: riflessioni sui formati elettronici per la digitalizzazione del patrimonio archivistico e librario e sul nuovo standard PDF/R

Abstract

This paper aims at providing some reflections on the choice of file formats to use for imaging in archives and libraries digitisation project.

To date, this choice almost always falls on the TIFF format in the case of master images produced by scanning (or possibly on one of the RAW formats in the case of acquisition by camera) and on the JPG format in the case of derived images.

However, the scientific community wonders whether these choices are still right and whether there are other file formats that, on the one hand, give better guarantees with regard to long-term preservation and, on the other hand, allow better usability. In this regard, the adoption of the new PDF/R format, which recently gained recognition as an ISO standard and which is proposed as a replacement for the TIFF and JPEG formats, deserves careful consideration. Being a profile of the PDF format, it has very good usability features; moreover, it also has excellent long-term archiving properties, thanks to its compliance with the PDF/A specification. In this paper we will first provide an overview of the indications provided by the main national guidelines, then we will analyse the alternatives to TIFF and JPEG as file formats for the creation of master and derived files, respectively; finally, we will analyse the new PDF/R format, highlighting the features that make it the preferred file format for digitization projects in archives and libraries.