Procedure for Scanning Documents
Wherever possible, documents are scanned at 100 percent of their original size (i.e. 1:1) at 600 ppi resolution and using 24-bit color (i.e. 8-bit RGB color). The master scans are saved as uncompressed TIFF files (which generally range in size from 70MB to 130MB) and archived.
Images for our research purposes are edited and then cropped where necessary. They are then converted to 300 ppi and resized if required, so that their longest side is about 2500 pixels. They are then edited and sharpened as appropriate. The final images are saved as jpgs at the highest quality setting. The file size of these images varies, but generally they are around 2MB.
In the case of letters, blank intervening pages and trailing blank pages are not scanned. For example: If a three-page letter has writing on page 1 and page 2, but not on 3, then only pages 1 and 2 are scanned. If, however, it has writing on pages 1 and 3 then blank page 2 would not be scanned. In the case of other documents such as notebooks, ALL pages are scanned
All items which were part of the letter (more precisely the 'letter packet') when it was posted are also scanned or photographed e.g. original envelopes, enclosures etc.