Photostat copy records have been around since the early 1900s, when the industrial revolution drastically accelerated the scale of production of goods. As businesses scaled up and began supplying their goods far and wide, they needed multiple copies of documents. Hand-transcribing documents in large numbers soon became difficult, so they looked for some form of mechanization to quickly and affordably create copies of records. And thus was born the photostat machine!

The technology was simple—a large camera photographed paper documents and exposed the images on sensitized photographic paper, resulting in a negative print, i.e., a black background and white letters. This negative could be copied again in the same manner to make a positive print.

Are photostat copy records relevant today?

Photostat copying was standard in government organizations and other institutions for many years until the desktop photocopier we're familiar with replaced the photostat machine.

Many government offices, especially county recorders and clerks, are still custodians of many record books that were printed as photostats. Historical or educational archives, legal or land records, contracts and agreements were often stored as photostat copies for future reference. Though these were printed decades ago, the ability to keep those records accessible, searchable, and legible is still crucial for many institutions. Government employees, citizens, or investigation authorities may need to access these legacy records for various departmental or individual priorities.

But are these old legacy records still legible after all these years? Would the ink fade, the pages turn yellow, or the printed characters remain legible? How do we preserve the valuable information held in legacy documents on photostat? 

Challenges in preserving information on photostat copies

Preserving legacy records on photostat copies is not an easy task! They can be digitized using advanced scanning equipment, but there are many characteristics of the photostat process that affect the quality of the scanned images:

• Firstly, very old photostat copy records may not have been stored in protective or ideal storage conditions and may have degraded with time—this includes papers turning yellow, fragile, splitting along the folds or tearing along borders. Handling old and fragile records is not easy, and you can easily lose the information on these papers if you don't handle them with care during digitization.

• The ink on photostat copies was not consistent—so you may have text of different degrees of darkness from page to page, making it challenging to get a clear scan.

• Since photostat copies were printed on both sides, you may have ink bleeding through on the other side, making the text on that side of the paper not legible.

• Old photostat pages (negative prints) typically contained notations on the margins, including page numbers or even hand-written references. These margin notations were usually in the opposite polarity, i.e., white background with black text, but when they are scanned, the polarity is reversed (black background with white text) to create a positive copy.

• Some old photostat copy records have dual polarity—that is, a negative and a positive copy printed on the same paper—these pose a significant challenge during scanning.

How do you ensure legible scanned images of photostat copy records?

Clearly, digitizing photostat copies isn't as simple as it sounds!

At Revolution Data Systems, we have experience scanning and extracting the relevant information from millions of photostat copy records and making them digital-worthy.

We start by scanning photostat copies on state-of-the-art scanners. Then, we reverse the polarity to make negative copies turn to positives (white background with black writing), which is easier to read than reverse printing (white on black reproduction is harder to read). Most scanners have a setting that reverses the image, but we go way beyond this because there is a lot of important data that disappears if you simply reverse the image.

We use advanced enhancement software to create superior quality images. Our software provides the most legible images possible by enhancing and adjusting light and dark contrast of an entire page or specific area of a page. Our software automatically deskews, crops, and enhances digital images to present them in the highest quality. After auto-enhancements are completed, we run the scanned images through manual stages where they are inspected and tweaked by operators to make sure every single letter is made as legible as possible. 

We also use advanced data capture and OCR technology to turn the information on these scanned images into computer-readable text. This ensures that the data is available for further processing on various technology platforms and can be indexed and made searchable for easy retrieval.

Benefits of digitizing photostat copies

• Prevent degradation and information loss: It is important to preserve legacy records and keep them legible. For example, land records may have certificates with stamps and seals that are on photostat. Organizations need these original records for critical contracts, agreements or court proceedings. Digitizing these photostat copies will prevent further degradation and avoid the loss of valuable historical information.

• Reduce costs: Digitizing large volumes of legacy records saves printing costs. If these records are scanned and reprinted with black backgrounds, your expenses for toner and ink will be substantial. Scanning photostats, reversing their polarity, and maintaining them as digital copies avoids printer-copier costs and reduces your carbon footprint.

• Free up valuable storage space: Digital copies can be affordably stored on cloud storage and don't incur physical storage costs or take up expensive office space.

RDS: Transforming legacy photostat records to create paperless information archives

RDS provides professional scanning services to digitize high volumes of photostat copy records. 

The world has gone digital. Digitizing your legacy documents is now an expectation from researchers that need access to the information stored in your vault. As a result, scanning has become the primary step to move toward digitization. 

RDS understands the need to capture essential information from paper and make it available in various software platforms used for vital records and land records in government offices. We automate data extraction from legacy records, so you can unlock the true value of the information contained in scanned images, translating them into actionable data for further processing.

RDS works with your teams to make data usable, automate processes to improve efficiencies and create a paperless, digital-ready environment for your office.

Contact our photostat scanning experts to understand how to preserve valuable legacy information locked in photostat copy records and move a step forward in digitization.