Scanning Large Documents: The always up-to-date guide
Many scanning companies or office supply stores have no problem scanning standard-sized documents for you.
However, large documents, such as newspapers or architectural drawings, need specialized scanning equipment. For one, they don't fit on regular flatbed scanners. Secondly, they can be tricky to handle. They may be stacked in large boxes or binders or rolled up in cylindrical tubes. Handling these documents takes up more resources—both people and time.
Documents such as engineering drawings, building plans, schematics, and maps which are larger than the standard A4 size (8.3″ X 11.7″) are referred to as large format documents.
These documents contain vital information that must be preserved. But they are often old and fragile, and because of their odd sizes, they are prone to damage if they are not stored properly. Unrolling them from tubes, removing them from special binders or moving them to and from archives can lead to wear and tear and even result in a loss of precious information.
Besides, large documents may need special storage cabinets and more storage space, making it expensive to maintain high volumes of these documents. The best way of preserving large format documents is to scan them and store them in digital formats.
But before you start digitizing your large format documents, remember that oversized documents need special scanning equipment, careful handling, and more intensive document prepping.
We've put together a guide to help you understand what's needed for large format scanning, how to pick a specialist scanning company and how to ensure that your valuable documents are secure during the digitization project.
What paper size is considered a large format document
While there are several popular paper size standards, ANSI and ARCH are two of the most common large format documents.
The American National Standards Institute or ANSI has issued a standardized set of paper sizes for American businesses.
Taking the Letter (8.5" x 11") format as a standard 'A' document size, ANSI defines any paper ranging from size B through to size E as large format documents.
If you translate these sizes to the international ISO classification, they correspond to the A0, A1, A2, or A3 document sizes by the ISO standard.
So any document size larger than 8.5" x 11" qualifies as a large format document.
ANSI ARCH is a subset of the ANSI series, and like in the ANSI sizes, two sheets make up the next sheet size. However, the ratios of 4:3 and 3:2 are similar to computer screen ratios, so they are easier to work with once digitized.
Here's a tabular look at the specifications for ANSI and ARCH:
ANSI Class
Paper Dimensions
ANSI A
8.5″ x 11″
ANSI B
11″ x 17″ (2 ANSI A sheets)
ANSI C
17″ x 22″ (4 ANSI A sheets)
ANSI D
22″ x 34″ (8 ANSI A sheets)
ANSI E
34″ x 44″ (16 ANSI A sheets)
ARCH
Paper Dimensions
ARCH A
9″ x 12″
ARCH B
12″ x 18″
ARCH C
18″ x 24″
ARCH D
24″ x 36″
ARCH E
30″ x 42″
What are the most common types of large format documents?
Large format documents are common in many sectors. Whether it is public works and city planning department of government bodies, records pertaining to land and property in a county recorder's office, and even libraries that preserve rare, old manuscripts—numerous large format documents are retained, preserved, and retrieved to carry out vital business functions or support government services for citizens.
Let's look at the most common types of large format documents:
Architectural layouts
Blueprints & building master plans
Engineering diagrams
Large non-standard book pages
Newspapers
Maps
Schematics
Photographs, paintings or posters
Certificates or Awards
CAD files
Medical images such as X Rays, CT-Scans, MRIs
Construction documents such as plans for electrification, HVAC, waste disposal, refugee areas, emergency exits, firefighting & protection systems
Wondering where to scan large documents such as these? You’ll need to reach out to a reputed and experienced scanning services provider who has specialized equipment to scan large documents.
Scanning large documents: The process explained
A professional scanning services company follows a set of special procedures to scan documents.
But is the process different when you have to scan large documents? Yes, it is.
For one, we need specialized scanners to scan documents larger than the regular A4 size. For example, if you are scanning architectural plans, the machine must have a scanning surface that's large enough to accommodate the paper and scan it in a single pass.
Many of these documents are old and fragile and need extra care in handling and prepping.
Moreover, we cannot separate sheets from some old documents such as bound books—so we need special overhead scanners to scan multiple pages of such documents.
Large format scanning requires knowledge of how to treat different types of large documents, skill in handling valuable originals carefully without damaging them and experience in managing large volumes of documents securely and digitizing them accurately. But not all scanning providers know how to scan large documents accurately and securely.
That's why you need a scanning services partner like Revolution Data Systems to handle a complex large document project.
Let's look at the main phases we follow in large document scanning.
Phase 1: Project planning & pickup
Once you have decided to work with us to digitize your large documents, our project manager first assesses the scope and complexity of the scanning project and estimates the project timeline and budget. When the plan is approved, we arrange for secure pickup of the documents you want to scan and bring them to our secure scanning facility for storage until the scanning project starts.
Many businesses that store and manage PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and other sensitive information are concerned about data security and information privacy once documents are handed over to a scanning company. And rightly so.
We follow a chain of custody—so there is a clear audit trail of each document, who handled it, where it is currently stored, and how it can be quickly retrieved when needed.
We take responsibility for the security of the documents you hand over to us.
Phase 2: Document prep & scanning
Before we get on to the actual scanning, we need to prep the documents so that there is no obstruction or glitch in the scanning process.
We have trained technicians who manually prep the documents, removing any attached objects like pins, straightening folds and smoothing creases to ensure a good quality scan.
Our preppers will also add patch sheets or separator sheets that tell the automated scanning software program where to separate sheets of a document.
Our team first sets up a document prepping station. Armed with staple removers, patch sheets, scotch tape and more, our technicians ensure that your documents are perfectly prepped for an accurate scan.
They tape down small documents, repair damaged pages, and finally group papers of the same size before stacking them face-up, separated by a patch sheet.
If your documents contain stapled or punched pages with many post-it notes or attachments, we may categorize the job as heavy prep, requiring a significant amount of labor before scanning.
Aging historical records, worn-out papers, and torn pages require special care—our experts patiently and painstakingly prep such fragile documents for scanning.
Ideally, the originals will be sent for secure shredding after converting physical records to digital format. However, you may need to retain some documents in their original physical formats based on their retention schedules or to comply with regulations. We call this re-prep. Re-prepping or re-assembling is an additional charge.
At RDS, we offer 60 days of free storage of original documents and secure shredding after the storage period so you can avoid the tedious re-prep process.
Specialized scanning equipment is used for large format scans. Maps, drawings, and blueprints need high-resolution scanning, so we ensure that the equipment can scan at high resolutions.
Phase 3: Indexing, QC, shred-or-store
We have a stringent QC process during which skilled technicians check the digitized output files, flagging files for low image quality and sending documents for a rescan if there are clarity issues which can't be corrected through image processing. The digitized files are indexed. We use advanced data capture technology to translate scanned images into machine-readable text. Metadata ensures that the digital documents are searchable via a document management system with search functionality.
Once our project team has ensured that all documents have been successfully scanned and indexed, they either return the originals to your premises or send them to an off-site storage area if you prefer. We can also offer a secure shredding service for expired documents that you do not want to retain in physical form.
How to scan large format documents
Now that we have an overview of what is large format scanning, let’s get into the details. How many documents do you need to scan? How soon do you want to complete your scanning? What is your budget? These are some important factors to consider before deciding the best way to scan your large format documents.
Mobile scanning apps: These days mobile phones have high-quality cameras. If you want to scan just a few documents, like certificates, you can use popular scanning apps to convert oversized documents to PDF files. Take a photograph with your smartphone, and you're done!
Office supply stores: You may choose to scan at office supply stores. However, remember, many of these only have standard-sized scanners, so they may scan oversized documents in several passes and then put together separate images into one digital file using image processing software —this will turn out more expensive and may not give you optimum quality. Also, it leaves room for manual errors.
Rent a large format scanner: You may opt to scan the documents in-house, renting a specialized large format scanner for a short period to complete the project. However, your in-house staff probably doesn't have the skill, expertise and experience to handle a large format scanning project. Besides, you'll take them away from their core functions. Lastly, you will be under pressure to scan all the documents you can think of in one go—what happens next time you want to scan a large document?
Large format scanning services provider: If you have a huge volume of large format documents to be scanned, then it is best to leave the job to the experts. Leading document scanning companies are equipped with the most advanced wide format scanners that provide accurate conversion of your blueprints, engineering drawings, schematics, etc. In addition, they will index, organize, and save the digital documents in the preferred format to make them easily shareable while complying with confidentiality and security regulations.
Which industries typically require large format scanning?
Large format document scanning services help industries and sectors that traditionally relied on high volumes of odd-sized paper documents and manual processes.
Construction & engineering
Whether it is complex engineering layouts, architectural drawings, site plans, maps, or blueprints—the E&C industry regularly works with large format documents.
Scanning these documents is a fundamental step to making the latest versions of approved project documents accessible to remote teams, surveyors, and the vendor ecosystem. In addition, speedy workflows help construction teams complete projects on schedule, avoid expensive manual errors and save on the costs of creating and shipping paper documents across locations.
Government & public sector agencies
There is an urgent and imperative shift toward digitization for local government bodies. Digitizing citizen records is vital for government agencies to meet the changing demands of citizens, businesses and corporate partners.
Scanning government records helps agencies comply with regulations and meet long-term record retention policies.
Government agencies work with several large format documents such as legacy land records, plats, maps, legal files, city master plans, town planning schematics, and large infrastructure project drawings. Digitizing these is a complex task requiring specialized large format scanning services from a company like RDS that can comply with stringent data security and compliance policies for government projects.
Libraries
Local libraries are the custodians of historical and cultural records such as books, newspapers and other information archives. Often, these documents are in large sizes or wide formats. The best way to preserve valuable paper records is to digitize them. Most libraries are now investing in large format scanning projects to safeguard their paper archives and preserve our information heritage for future generations.
Legal: Law firms, law enforcement & justice departments
Document scanning helps the legal and justice sectors maintain confidentiality, security, and trust, which are fundamental to their profession.
Large format legal documents, including agreements and contracts on legal-size paper, old land documents, certificates, odd-sized old birth records, etc., require specialized scanning equipment and careful handling.
Digitization enables cloud storage which helps save expensive office space and reduces paper and printing expenses for legal firms and justice department offices. RDS has the specialized equipment and expertise needed to scan large volumes of historical, fragile documents while complying with stringent data security compliances.
Architectural firms & urban planning departments
Just as the engineering and construction industry deals with large format documents, architects and city planners work with maps, building blueprints, layouts, schematics and drawings, which are large-sized and require specialized scanning equipment. RDS provides onsite scanning services, including backfile conversion to scan large volumes of documents to help architects and planners work more efficiently and securely with digital copies. Reach out to RDS for scanning blueprints and other oversized documents.
Output formats available for digitized large documents
After scanning, we can save the output images of large scans in any electronic file format of your choice.
Here are some file types you may want to consider:
PDF or PDF /A
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a standardized file format to store documents with text formatting and images. It is a universal format, which means you can use any software, hardware, or operating system to view PDF files.
TIFF
The Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is ideal for rasterized graphics as it does not degrade the quality of the original image. It is typically used in desktop publishing, medical imaging, and for sending documents via fax and email, as there is no degradation in quality.
JPG
The JPG or JPEG format (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is ideal for saving and sharing photographic quality images, especially for sharing or viewing online (rather than for paper publishing).
PNG
PNG (Portable Network Graphic) is ideal for raster images and is popularly used to display high-quality images on digital screens, as it can handle graphics with transparent or semi-transparent backgrounds.
Are large-format scanning services right for me?
If you regularly work with large documents, you will be familiar with the challenges of storing them.
Are you struggling with the question of how to scan a long document?
Do you want to get rid of those specialized storage cabinets and save big on storage space?
Do you hold valuable legacy records and want to minimize handling of the original paper?
If you answered yes, then large format scanning is right for your organization.
Saving large documents in a centralized digital repository is more resource-efficient than handling paper. Digitization helps preserve valuable originals while making information accessible to anyone who needs it.
Partner with RDS: Whether you want to scan blueprints, layouts, or medical images, we have the expertise to handle complex large-format scanning projects. We have experience across various industries—so we understand each industry’s unique needs for security, speed, and cost-efficiency.
Connect with RDS and speak with our scanning experts to scan your large-format documents and convert them to high-resolution digital files.