Re: Has anyone looked at digital archiving?

[stanislav shalunov <shalunov () INTERNET2 EDU>]

Graham Toal <gtoal () UTPA EDU> writes:

> Look at 2-d barcodes, if you trust your paper.

These are even harder to read than microfiche or microfilm, which just
need analog magnification.  If one were to try to increase density of
storage on paper, just printing n-up is always a simple option, which
requires nothing very complex.  The main advantage of 2D barcodes is
easier OCR.  But at what cost---you can't read them with naked eye or
a lupe at all.  If OCR is greatly important, then using a standard
font with no delicate features is a sensible tradeoff toward
increasing machine readability while retaining naked eye readability.
(I don't think it's a good tradeoff, though.)

No 2D barcodes have been around for 40 years, of course.  What format
would you recommend?  PDF417 for its being widespread or something
else?  How would you archive the program that reads the bar codes?

--
Stanislav Shalunov              http://www.internet2.edu/~shalunov/

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