What is Document Imaging?

Document imaging is an essential element of doing business today. As a means of creating electronic copies of important papers, diagrams, and pictures, document imaging helps to ensure that business paperwork can be saved and archived safely. Here are the basics involved with document imaging, including storage and distribution of the saved images.

Paper document imaging is very simple. All that is really required is a quality scanner, a USB cable to connect the scanner to a computer, and then scanning software that will allow the saved image to be named and stored. While document scanners used to be somewhat expensive, good quality units are available today at very reasonable prices. This makes document imaging possible for both businesses and in the home.

Once the software is loaded on the hard drive, and the scanner is recognized by the system, simple place the document face down on the scanner screen and press the start key to initiate the scan. Working in a manner similar to a copy machine, the scanner will create an image of the document, working from one end to the other. When the page is completed, it will be possible to use the software to name the scanned document and then store it on the hard drive of the computer. Alternatively, the scanned document can be loaded on a CDR or uploaded to a server for storage and retrieval.

Advantages of document scanning are plentiful. One, creating an electronic copy of valuable documents ensures that even in the event that the original is lost, it can be recreated by printing out the electronic copy. Second, valuable archives from years past can be captured and preserved, since document imaging creates an copy that will not fade, yellow with age, or turn brittle over time. Last, document imaging makes it very easy to share copies of paper documents with remote locations.

For example, if a sales associate is out of the country and needs to see a copy of a client contract, there is no need to accrue the expense involved with making a paper copy and mailing it by a courier service. Instead, the scanned document can simply be emailed or placed on a network the associate can access. What used to take days now only takes a few minutes to accomplish with document imaging.

Document imaging has changed the way many companies store important documents, as well as made it much easier to retrieve data when needed. Whether the documents consist of pictures, contracts, or building schematics, the images of important papers are preserved and available whenever they are needed.