Microfiche is made of a transparent film and is commonly used to store information, most of them are in a miniaturized form. Because of the thinness and its small sized film, this is commonly used in libraries or businesses to store millions of information without taking a lot of space. Microphotographs can also be digitalized by using microfiche scanners. Microfiche by the way, is a type of microform which is a common term used to describe several ways that provide the same storage and miniature copies of a document.

As we all know, most museums have documents that need to be preserved. Because of this, they prefer fiches to be their primary way of storing these documents compared to the digital ones. This is because the digital ones do not hold enough data that can be stored in a longer duration of time.

Fiches cannot be viewed by just looking at it with your naked eye. There are some specialized machine which is invented to make this a lot easier. Before, microfiche machines are usually pricey, and can usually be found in some large establishments that store a lot of documents that need to be preserved.

Today, there are different ways to convert a fiche to a digital version. This can be done by using optical scanners. This scanner will scan over the fiche and convert it to a digital version that can be read through a computer.

There are a number of formats a micro photograph can be converted. The most common and widely used conversion is PDF and TIFF. Some experts said that, if you scan a single fiche using a specialized optical scanner, it will create numerous pages in a PDF file or a number of images in a TIFF format.

The good thing about using microphotograph is that it has a specialized machine. This machine is not very complicated and does not require for you to install certain software or wait for updates. This means, that the equipment is always there and can be used whenever you want to.

All fiches are made with a polyester material in which the images or a document is printed. The material used is very stable and if kept in a controlled temperature can last up to 500 years. On the other hand, most CD ROMS nowadays can only last between 75 to 100 years, depending on the material it was made of.

If you are concerned about longevity and safeness of your data, then a fiche is a good choice to store it. Since fiche is not digital, this means that it cannot be damaged by viruses. This helps preserve information for a longer period of time and is secured enough compared to cloud servers or any other type of digital storage. What you only need to think about is ensuring that the fiche where you save your data is properly kept.

There are a lot of ways you can store your valuable documents, but ensuring that it is safe is the most important factor. If you consider using a digital format, then make sure it is all backed up and scanned thoroughly. Either way, if you prefer microfiches, then keep in a controlled environment, to ensure it will last.