Factors in Microfiche Pricing
One of the services that ScanWorks offers is digitizing microfiche. We are often asked for our pricing. There is no set pricing as there are factors that influence the cost. Let’s spell those out.
- Type of Images: Ideally, the microfiche you are looking to have digitized contains uniform sized images with uniform spacing between them, such as in the example below. When this is the case, we are able to automatically extract the images with our sophisticated microfiche reader. The reader methodically advances from one image to the next and from one line to the next until the entire sheet has been extracted.
When this is not the case, we have to manually advance the machine from one image to the next. As you can imagine, this is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming process. And warrants higher pricing to reflect that.
2. How Many Images: We have seen 2-line, 2-line, and 5-line microfiche sheets. We have seen sheets that are not full and sheets that are completely full. At the max, a sheet may contain 60 images. The greater the number of images, the more time the extraction process takes. So we like to leaf through a microfiche job to get an idea of the average number of images per sheet. The higher the number, the higher the pricing.
3. Whether Images are Grouped: Customers have 2 options to choose from when seeking to have microfiche digitized. The first option is to have all of the images on a sheet of fiche extracted together into 1 multi-image PDF. The second option is to capture each image individually into a single-image PDF. The second option significantly raises the pricing.
4. How the Images are to be Labeled: There are two aspects to labeling. The first is how many characters are necessary to correctly label the images. The second is how easy is it to find the information to be contained in the label. In the example above, the customer wanted the digital file labeled by the case number, for a total of 8 characters. And that information is readily available as it is right at the top of the microfiche sheet. A different customer wanted us to label the digital file by the case number, the Defendant’s name, and the Defendant’s Social Security Number. The case number and name were in the same location as the example above- right at the top of the sheet. However, we had to read through the images to find the SSN, which was time-consuming as you can imagine. The second customer’s pricing was higher as a result.
We hope this post has helped you understand the variables that affect the way a microfiche conversion project is priced. If you are seeking to have microfiche digitized, it would be a good idea to go through the factors listed above and nail down exactly what you desire the end result to look like. With that information, we can provide you with the pricing for your project. We can also provide you with a guarantee that you will enjoy having instantaneous access to your records once they have been digitized. For a quote or further information, please call our attorney-owner, Deb Monaco, at 330-322-2988 or click here.