Large-format documents or paperwork like images, drawings, blueprints, and maps are essential parts of every business. Everyone uses them from federal/state government agencies to municipalities to architects and engineers. However, storing these dimensionally large documents is a matter of concern as it will consume a lot of space. Furthermore, efficiently handling, managing, and preserving them for years after years can be a rigorous struggle. Sooner or later, these documents will endure tears, wrinkles, and ink fade, resulting in plummeting use.
Thus, scanning and digitizing these documents stand out as the best solution as it will not only avoid these hassles but ensure better access, cost savings, and longevity. This article on "Large-Format Document Management - A Step Forward To Digitization - 2022," will explain you how to digitize and manage the Large-Format Documents.
Invensis, a global IT-BPO provides cost-effective and flexible automated document management services for your organization. We provide end-to-end strategic and tactical services for the entire data management cycle.
The issue of storage and maintenance of large format documents primarily arises due to their dimensions. Keeping the documents flat instead of folded helps a bit in freeing up the cabinet space. There’s no doubt that physical documents are susceptible to wear and tear in their shelf life. In addition, commonly used document papers like photo paper, vellum, mylar, and bond will degrade and devalue over time depending on the storage setting.
With today’s rapid technological advancement and fast-paced digitization, offices have no valid reason to keep their file cabinets clustered with hard copies of large documents. That’s because:
Of course, there are more reasons why every office should take a step forward with digitization and go paperless this year. You may ask why? Check the section below to find your answer.
By digitizing your large-format documents, you can quickly find and share them via simple keyword searches. Every scanned document gets stored on the digital platform with metadata, enabling you to sort the file by job ID, date, name, or other identifiers. Moreover, you can sit back at any physical location to securely access your file.
After digitizing your physical documents, it becomes easier to locate, use, and share them with your clients, employees, or team members. Thus, it helps you eliminate the time wasted searching for documents in the cabinet.
Large-format documents like blueprints are susceptible to fading and other degradations. The risk of such damage and degradation increases when you physically handle these documents. With digital solutions, you record those documents permanently while eliminating the chances of data loss.
By storing and preserving large-format documents in your office, you take up a lot of its space. It means you’re indirectly paying for that space. With digital documentation, you’ll significantly decrease the on-premise paper storage need. Furthermore, you can get the most out of that space by doing something productive.
Keeping digital soft copies will be the best solution if you want the large-format documents readily available for long-term use. You can easily store and backup your data in multiple cloud locations at minimal or no additional cost.
When you produce new documents, try scanning, adding, and storing their digital copies in centralized locations like a document management system or a cloud storage solution. More on this topic is covered in our previous blog "How Document Management System is Benefitting Organizations."
In terms of scanning, documents that are dimensionally bigger than A4 size are considered large-format documents. That’s because special scanning equipment becomes essential to digitize these documents at that point.Although there are plenty of paper size standards, Architectural and ANSI sizes are the two most commonly used large-format documents. Following is a table representing the paper dimensions of the various large-format documents: FOR ANSI SIZESFOR ARCHITECTURAL SIZESANSI ClassPaper DimensionsARCHPaper DimensionsANSI A8.5″ x 11″ARCH A9″ x 12″ANSI B11″ x 17″ARCH B12″ x 18″ANSI C17″ x 22″ARCH C18″ x 24″ANSI D22″ x 34″ARCH D24″ x 36″ANSI E34″ x 44″ARCH E30″ x 42″Now, check the few examples of large-format documents: MapsCertificates or AwardsArchitectural BlueprintsPages from large booksEngineering drawings/diagramsPaintingsSchematicsNewspaper SheetsLarge non-standard book pages
Any agency or individual can possess large-format documents. However, the places where you’ll find the most use of these material types are:
Building and planning departments, along with engineering, public works, and community development departments are the primary users of large-format documents. They use these documents for planning projects and infrastructure to serve the local communities. Building blueprints, as-builts, and plans are common in these departments. The more the population and size of the city where the department is situated, the more will be the quantity of these documents required.
If the county recorder at your place hasn’t gone digital already, you can find piles of oversized books and documents in the office. These books contain crucial documents like birth, marriage, death records, patents, deeds, subdivisions, etc.
Like clerks and county recorders, firms specializing in title insurance may have a huge stockpile of documents or records concerning the land and property of the clients. These records can be huge and need to be digitized.
The standard scanning procedure is very different from the large format scanning process, especially when it comes to the type of equipment used. Plenty of consumer-grade scanners are now built to deal with letter and legal-size documents (8.5” x 11”), and a premium-quality oversized scanner becomes essential to scan large-format documents. It helps to eliminate the need for editing and attaching multiple digital files to form a single image or file.
However, the scanning pipeline also needs to be a bit more labor-intensive. You’ll have to scan large-format documents like a blueprint or an engineering drawing. In that case, the standard storage method (rolled) and size of these documents will add the need for extra care, labor, and handling requirements for scanning. It’s one of the primary reasons scanning such documents is more time-consuming and labor-intensive than scanning any other document type.
After you digitize the large-format documents, you’ll receive those scanned soft copies back in electronic format. Here are some file types and other aspects you should check for the digital output:
This is a simple image with high resolution. It is precisely what you imagine after hearing the word “digital file.” It comes in different formats: JPG, TIF, and PDF.
An image is created with DPI or PPI, which stands for Pixels Per Inch. The more the PPI, the better the image resolution. 300dpi is considered the standard scanning resolution.
It’s the way you want the digital image or file to be displayed:
Invensis provides best-in-class digital storage solutions to help contractors, engineers, and architects with a seamless storage process. Our experts ensure 24/7 assistance to your project right from the beginning to the end, offering an end-to-end solution.
Whether you’re working on a new construction project, office space renovation, or file storage requirement, we are there to help. Our professionals always await the chance to work with you on projects requiring a digital storage solution. Our Document Management services not only save space but maximizes productivity and capacity.
Things become easier, quicker, safe, secure, and more convenient when your physical documents are digitized. So, all set to save some space and get digitized with your large-format documents? Join hands with Invensis, as it’s only manageable when you collaborate with a company experienced enough to handle oversized documents.
To store your important official documents online, follow these steps:
Here are a few ways to scan and digitize your large-format documents:
To efficiently and quickly scan multipage documents, use a scanner that comes with an Automatic Document Feeder. These ADF scanners consist of a paper tray that automatically scans a stockpile of papers one by one.
Large-format documents are paper records that are dimensionally bigger than standard-sized pages. Blueprints and engineering drawings are a few examples of these documents.
The primary use of cloud storage is to keep your files accessible no matter what. A cloud storage solution can ensure to encrypt all your files with magnetic tapes and keep them safe for the next 30 years.
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