What Equipment Is Needed for Digitizing Documents?

You need a scanner to digitize documents.

Even in a digital world, 83 percent of all documents come in paper form -- costing up to $85 billion to store and manage over the document's lifetime, according to Tufts University. You can go paperless with a scanner.

Identification

At a bare minimum, you need a scanner to produce high quality digital images of your paper documents, according to "PC World." The scanner should come with a universal serial bus (USB_ cable or serial cable for transfer to your computer. You might also want premium portable document format (PDF) -- a format accepted on nearly every computer system -- software to convert it to a PDF document and make the document searchable.

Considerations

Modern digital cameras are usually of sufficient quality to scan a document, according to the University of Washington. A 3-megapixel camera gives an image close to a fax at 200 dots per inch.

Tip

If you use a digital camera for digitizing images, consider using a copy stand to hold the camera in place. The University of Washington suggests using the free software program, ImageMagick, to manage your images.

References

• Tufts University: Business Guide to Paper Reduction
• PC World: Digitize Your Documents
• University of Washington: Scanning and Photocopying Documents With a Digital Camera

Resources

• ImageMagick Homepage