Do you need help?
• Getting independent advice on buying the right equipment for your digitization project?
• Implementing image quality evaluation (ISO 19264, FADGI, and Metamorfoze) in cultural heritage digitization
• Optimizing your digitization workflow
• Using multispectral imaging in your research?
I can help with all of these.
In case you have not heard of me before, I am Dietmar Wüller, founder of Image Engineering in the mid-1990s. I created the first independent digital camera test lab during that time and also started working on ISO standards.
In the early 2000s, together with a small team of photography students, I ran three major cultural heritage digitization projects.
We digitized around 400 manuscripts from the Catholic Dom and Diözesan Library in Cologne, with more than 200,000 pages. These manuscripts date from the sixth to twelfth century, and each one is worth millions of euros if sold. https://digital.dombibliothek-koeln.de/hs/Handschriften/topic/view/334547
These are what the printed books of the first 50 years of book printing (1450 – 1500) are called. The most famous example is the Gutenberg Bible. In 2005/2006 we digitized 385 of the Incunabula in the Cologne City Library’s possession (https://ub.uni-koeln.de/sammlungen-und-schwerpunkte/inkunabeln).
In the early 2000s we also digitized the manuscripts of Heinrich Heine a well known German poet. http://www.heine-portal.de/
For those projects, we already used what are called „object-level targets“ nowadays. Back in the day, it was a miniature version of the Color Checker and a gray scale to ensure correct exposure and colors. The system was checked and tested for more than that. We were already able to test resolution, shading, and distortion based on ISO standards. However, we did not have a combined target that could be used daily to ensure system quality.
That is why, around 2007, a group of people, including myself, got together and invented the Universal Test Target (UTT). Originally, we had hoped to make it a consumable product and sell it for around €30. However, that quickly turned out to be impossible because the target has to be significantly better than the best material you plan to digitize. Otherwise you may be measuring the target and not the system quality. To achieve the required quality, today’s target is made using three different printing processes. The background, including the colors, is a well-calibrated and characterized inkjet print. The resolution structures are produced on photographic material, and the grayscales are made using 20-color screen printing technology.
Regarding quality evaluation for digitization systems, there was a split around 2010. In Europe, the Metamorfoze guidelines, which originated from the Dutch Royal Library, were popular, while in the US, we used the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI), which was initiated by the Library of Congress. This created confusion for manufacturers and institutions looking for guidance. Therefore, I recommended forming a working group within ISO TC42 to unify the two groups and the rest of the world. The group began its work in 2011.
Today, we have published the terminology standard ISO 19262, the technical report on best practices ISO TR 19263, and the quality standard ISO 19264. I was the project leader and editor of ISO 19262 and ISO 19264 and I am currently leading the JWG26 working group under ISO TC42.
Is there a better way to implement a standard than with the help of its author? Especially when that person is independent and not affiliated with any system manufacturer.