Aperture card scanners in Ontario can streamline the digital transformation process. Digital formats eliminate physical storage requirements and enhance access to information. In addition, digitizing eliminates the wear and tear on an aperture card. The information contained in the aperture card’s microfilm is better protected for many years to come.
When first introduced, aperture cards were a welcome innovation. All types of organizations routinely stored their technical and engineering drawings on microfilm aperture cards. But, digital methods soon highlighted how cumbersome aperture cards could be. As a result, aperture card scanners in Ontario offered a more efficient and productive digital solution.
What is an aperture card?
Aperture cards are used to archive large documents such as engineering drawings. They look like a punch card and have a 35mm sized microfilm chip mounted on them. The hole punches represent machine-readable metadata associated with the microfilmed image. And, the microfilm houses a reduced version of the stored image.
With the world going digital, do aperture cards still serve a purpose? In some instances, they provide a means of archiving important documents. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense used aperture cards extensively. However, they, along with other government agencies and private sector companies are moving to digital formats by using aperture card scanners in Ontario.
Although the trend to digital archiving is apparent, aperture cards do offer some advantages. Primarily, they last a very long time. In fact, many sources cite a lifespan of 100 years or more.
In addition, aperture cards can be read by a human instead of solely relying on a computer. Technological obsolescence is not an issue either. As computer hardware and software evolve rapidly, aperture cards remain the same and require no equipment upgrades.
In part two of this post on aperture card scanner in Ontario we will discuss the inherent issues with analog technology.