Many genealogical, historical and other documents are being digitally presented.

Many of those are being offered in the "PDF" format.

PDF means “Portable Document Format” in principle what is being produced where.

PDF Documents are platform interchangeable between Windows, Linux, Mac, Palm, Symbian, etc.

Within normal circumstances (there are always exceptions to the rule) the result will be the same after printing,

regardless the origin of the source of the print. This is what makes this format basically extremely well suitable for distribution.

The PDF format is only used by Book2CD in a last resort. The technical proces at Book2CD is as follows:

1. A book arrives.
2. The books condition, owner and other relevant data are being saved in the database.  
3. The book is being scanned with our BookScanner. (Often in TIFF G4 format =fax format).
4. This digital book is being checked for irregularities.
5. The book is being recognized with ABBYY FineReader OCR software.
6. Then the result is being saved in the PDF model "Text below image"
    This means the original image is being placed above the text.
    The recognized text is being placed behind the image, irregularities in the recognized text are less disturbing:
    the reader is looking at the image of the scanned page.
7. The PDF document is provided with bookmarks.  
8. CD label gets designed, a backup is made and put on the site with a short description.  
    The nice point of this way of working (number 5 and 6) is that the FineReader makes an optimal use
    of the PDF segmentation technology. In practice this means that the requested text is being found on its page
    and the result gets highlighted.

This is very easy to do with one document, but what if you need to browse through 50 PDF documents?

This questions has many answers.

The most simple answer is to use the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Reader.

How does this work?

1. Download the reader.

2. Install it.

3. Start the reader.

4. Select at the bottom on the right "Advanced Search options"

5. Select the location of the PDF files with “Search in”.

6. Type in the box above the search option field ("Results") the search subject.

7. Type in the search option the search value.

8. Press Enter.

9. Results are being displayed in the "Results" box.

10. From here one can "jump" (click) to the specific document on the desired page.  

A more "professional" approach is to use the Microsoft Indexserver.

An extensive explanation about this can be found here: http://www.xefteri.com/articles/apr192002/default.aspx

This clearly explains in english how to set up the Indexserver.

In our own way we are experimenting with this. Check out our homepage at the menu option: "search"

A search with the name "Lups" gives of course as a result all the CDROMs of “Ons Erfgoed”,
but also a few more titles, which ones would that be?

The disadvantage of this method is it only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer and not for instance with Netscape.
That is why its still named "experimental".

In the future there will be a direct link between the catalogue, descriptions and so forth...

In case there is more interest or the need for indexing data files I advise to use Documind,

when you use this package even your email attachments are being indexed! (www.documind.nl)

Its not my intention to give a full overview of all the possibilities of indexing files, but to direct to free products,

that are very easy to use without too much technical knowledge

Facsimile is an often used term for a publication which is as much similar to the original as possible.

The book or document to be reproduced is usually chosen because of its value.

In the course of time all techniques of gravure, relief printing and planography have been used for facsimile.

For the first edition of facsimile products the original was cut out in copper.

Very little used is the highly laborious typografic facsimile, for which the letter of the original is being cut out and being cast.

It may be clear that this a very expensive technique, by which the original needs to be reproduced as original as possible.

Such an edition can hardly be called a reprint any more.

So these are re-issues that are a 100% digital copy of the original book or document.

>From the middle of the 19th century fotographic techniques are used.

The cost for re-issueing books are being lowered much more, which creates a larger number of facsimiles in this period.

Photoprint facsimile is being produced from plates; photolithography brings the image through photographic way onto stone.

>From 1910 we have the offset press, which means a breakthrough for countless facsimiles.

Some editions are not being supplied with the complete original binding because of the cost aspect.

In that case we are talking about a reprint.

Boek2CD invented a new(?) term: eFacsimile. As the leap was made from "typographic facsimile"

to "photolithographic facsimile", we now make the leap from lithographic to digital.

The scanning of the original source material seems to go in the same old way:

A scan is being made from above, which now is being saved digitally instead of on celluloid.

This digital scanning then is being recognised as good as possible on a readable text, to be able to browse
the book by keyword. To be able to call it a facsimile the original letter has to be visible of course.

For this we chose the file format of the PDF format. (Text below image).

That way you always look at the original letter as it was created by the author or printer.

The recognized text is saved invisibly behind the image.
If possible the page numbers of the digital book are adapted. In this case we venture to say this is a eFacsimile.

To add the facsimile addition to this digital book, the digital copy is burned on a CDROM which gets a unique print

which refers to the original material. The same happens to the CD box.

This way at the end of this process an eFacsimile is born!

Book2CD  allows to print out digital books for private use. In this "Print on Demand" segment several businesses are active.

If you really want to make a special edition of your digital book? Maybe an eFacsimile without the "e"?

Feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help you out there.