Best way to preserve writing on the back of scanned photos
Asked 3/24/2021
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2 answers
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I’m digitizing old family prints and want to preserve handwritten notes on the backs. For short details like names or locations, standard metadata fields seem fine, but some backs contain longer notes and sometimes text in another language. What’s the best archival approach: should I scan both sides as separate images, or store the back’s information in metadata on the front image? If metadata is used, which fields are suitable for longer or non-ASCII text?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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I think a reasonable archival practice is to digitize both sides and maintain reference data (such as file name) for the other image separately at the "object" level.
Putting the information from the back in the metadata from the front will make it harder to be aware the information exists.
An ordinary picture of the back exposes the information. The front and back as consecutive files provides very browseable access...you might not even need to do anything with involving metadata.
Tagging the images with "front" and "back" respectively, might make search and filtering easier.
Originally by user95237. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user95237
5y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A solid archival approach is to scan both the front and back as separate image files and keep them linked at the object level, for example with matching filenames or sequential files. This makes the existence of the back obvious when browsing, instead of hiding important information inside metadata. Tagging the files as “front” and “back” can also help with searching and filtering.
If you also want text metadata, EXIF provides useful fields:
ImageDescriptionfor a short title or noteUserCommentfor longer comments, including text that needs non-ASCII/2-byte character support
So the practical best practice is: digitize both sides, keep them clearly paired, and optionally copy/transcribe the back’s text into metadata such as UserComment for easier searching.
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