It all starts with a story …
At i2S, it all began in 2007, after a contact for our Dutch distributor who wonders himself if the i2S book scanners respond well to new guidelines « Metamorfoze »? We put in place a battery of tests and developments to meet this exciting challenge and needs of our distributor. Sewing up we crossed the barriers to meet in terms of image quality with the requirements of this Directive. This enabled us to win a number of tenders, all focused on image quality.
After these experiences, we design a new scanner, the Quartz A1 , taking into account the early specification « Metamorfoze « . Today, i2S is the undisputed leader in the segment of high-quality scanners for heritage collections.
The guidelines « Metamorfoze » and « FADGI »
Metamorfoze: This is the Dutch spelling of the Greek word, « μεταμόρφωσις » meaning transformation. Halfway between biology and « Metamorphoses » of Ovid, this term covers the Netherlands an extensive grant program dedicated to scanning. This program aims to conserve and digitizing Dutch cultural heritage writing . As Ovid trying to recreate in his poems, myths and the world he knew, « Metamorfoze » seeks likewise to digitally transcribe, the world of paper left by the Dutch heritage.
The guidelines « Metamorfoze » has three level-based document types:
- Metamorfoze intended to works of art (photos & amp; tables)
- Metamorfoze Light for manuscripts and books;
- Metamorfoze Extra Light for newspapers.
With a threshold « good or bad » and units based on human vision: L*a*b*, espace couleur eciRGBv2
Beyond « Metamorfoze », two international standards share the same goal and the same vision in terms of image quality, FADGI* the other side of the Atlantic and therefore, « Metamorfoze » in the Netherlands.
In 2004, the US initiative emerges with a will for the players to go upmarket in the market scan and digitize the heritage funds of more professionally. Following this work the « Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative » FADGI * was born.
Project protagonists of both sides of the Atlantic will now take the initiative to unite around these two « standards ». The goal: to test and validate image quality books digitized by scanners. The two « standards » share the same goal and although differences exist, they converge.
After a meeting between various American and European players, in 2012, Philippe Bayle, Mr. LE Quality i2S picture is invited to join the international group born of the merger, and whose vision is to transform both standard norm international ISO.
Why is it important for our clients?
In parallel, at i2S, we engage in a political awareness of internal teams to these standards of image quality and train these specifications to design and produce high-end scanners. As expressed by Philippe Bayle, « Let him take some of noise level down … as a certain resolution efficiency, quality in terms of color, tools to calibrate all, for this to be repetitive, easy to duplicate, calibration profiles for example, we save in a module that we can recall when we want, etc. « . Quality, it has a cost but for customers it is very important that they know that our solutions meet the highest standards and now they know it and especially in the Netherlands, the country « Metamorfoze » ! position on this high quality market segment is natural for i2S or the image quality has always been our concern. Being in the heart of the development of its standards, i2S has the capacity to propose solutions that will de-facto be compatible with these future requirements.
Our customers who are not equipped to assess the capabilities of technology solutions offered to them on the market are often content to look resolution scanners on brochures or on websites. These guidelines allow them without knowledge and specific expertise to make a first selection of the necessary equipment related to their scanning needs and the type of documents to be digitized.
In the market for digitization, i2S is one of the few companies able to meet these guidelines and therefore one of the few allowed to scan as part of approved projects « Metamorfoze ». This official recognition of our expertise is that digitization i2S is always conducted to the highest degree of quality. All i2S Scan systems have been designed to be compatible with those standards to the maximum requirement. David Dassié, Commercial Director, says with confidence « … now customers can acquire the scanners range Supra Quartz and eScan Open System features the 70MP camera EAGLE « Metamorfoze Compliant » .
Today, i2S has an international reputation, the industry leading player present in over 80 countries, i2S collaborates with more than 500 regional and national archives, 300 universities, 1000 public institutions and over 150 « service bureaus ». They trust us and at i2S, we pay them well, because every day we metamorphose us for more innovation.
*FADGI : les ligne directrices (guides lines) FADGI (Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative) define numerical ranges for the performance of the capture of digital equipment used in federal institutions such as the Library of Congress in the USA.
So much research focuses on the practical analysis of the guidelines that are used in many non-governmental circles. The guidelines define four quality levels: 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars and 4 stars. To achieve a certain level of quality, digital recording equipment and must demonstrate consistently exceed a variety of quality measures.
The « Digital Transitions Department of Cultural Heritage » (le Département Transitions numériques du patrimoine culturel) focuses on producing solutions that meet or exceed the criteria « four stars » FADGI evaluation. This requires an exceptionally high efficiency of sampling errors very low chroma, high uniformity of light and almost zero defects in the color registration.