If you ever worked with microfilm, I am sure that at one point you searched for microfilm printing services. Even if it’s new to you, I am sure you are thinking if its possible to print the frames from your microfilms on actual paper.
To offer good microfilm printing services we can accept :
- 16mm and 35mm microfilm rolls,
- Microfiche
- Aperture Cards and Jackets.
We can capture all your frames and convert them to digital files, in order to prepare them for printing. Our company uses high production printing machines, that can print your microfilm images to A4, A3 and up to A0 paper sizes.
Do you need such a service ? If you are wondering can you print microfilm, just send us your details and we will get back to you.
Why would you need microfilm printing
The world we live in is not binary. Yes, printing is on the fall and digital is growing. But there are still moments when you need information on paper. We will try to go through those cases in which you need to print microfilms.
Giving paper handouts from microfilm rolls or Microfiche
It is well known that information found on microform can vary. From genealogy documents to research papers and different studies. Not once, in universities, schools and even in business you need microfilm printing for easier access to a document. This way, everyone involved will have paper access to documents on microfilm.
Rebuilding physical documents from microfilm
Since microfilm is used for archiving, this means the frame on the rolls will be actual documents. Sometimes, when archives go wrong ( flooding, fires etc ) or just when you want a paper duplicate, you need to print microfilm to paper. Especially in government institutions, there can be situations when documents need to be printed.
Copying land and construction documents
Land and construction documents are often found on microfilm. This is because they need to be preserved over time. A lot of times, there will be a need to access those documents. Having a digital copy of them is good, but people still like working with paper. Therefore, in many cases you will see large documents printed from microfilms.
What kind of microfilm rolls can be printed
Generally, most if not all microfilm frames can printed to paper. But we will take you through some of the most common ones.
16mm Microfilm Images
As you probably know, 16mm microfilm images are usually documents up to A3 in size. You will sometimes get A2 documents or even bigger, but they are usually split into A3 images. So most common situations these are regular documents, such as office, medical and just your ordinary business documents. In most cases these contain text.
35mm Microfilm documents
As you probably know, 35mm microfilm is used for larger documents, up to A0 in size, or sometimes even bigger. Usually, these contain maps, land documents, construction documents or old newspapers. But a lot of times you will also get standard A3 and A4 documents on them. We recommend that larger documents are printed on printers and plotters that can print up to A0 in size.
Microfiche Cards 105mm x 148mm
We can print your documents from most microfiche cards. From large format drawings, to newspapers or even books. Our team will process most reductions, from 12x up to 48 x.
Jackets with Microfilm
Jackets with Microfilm and Aperture Card Printing
It doesn’t matter how many rows your jacket has, from 1 to 15 or even more, we will convert them to digital files and then print them on Paper. Also, if you have large format drawings on aperture cards, send them to us, and we will deliver quality prints from them.
Grayscale and Bitonal Microfilm
Images can be microfilmed in grayscale or bitonal. For text documents which don’t contain drawings or images, bitonal is recommended. It is the ideal solution in those cases.
Grayscale documents are those documents which contain also images, drawings or other elements that contain shades of color. In these cases, microfilms should be printed in grayscale, in order to preserve the accuracy of the original image. Otherwise, there is a risk that some elements might dissapear.
Microfilm printing finishing options
Besides the actual printing, we will offer you a lot of printing finishing options. This range from binding, binders, folders or folding of large documents.
Binding – We can bind your documents with a plastic comb or other types of bindings. If required we can also bind them like a book or like a brochure. For these requirements, we first have to analyze if the documents are suitable for this.
Binders and folders – We can create binders and folders with your documents. We respect the logical order of your documents because we want to make them easier to be found. Also, we attach an index sheet at the beginning, where we write what the folder contains and what rolls we include in that folder.
Large format folding – Drawings and plans of larger size we can fold to A4 and optionally to A3 in size. We can also supply you with the microfilm scans and we can reprint them in color if you require.
Why choose our microfilm printing services
- We can convert 16mm and 35mm microfilm rolls, whether it’s bitonal or grayscale
- Printing of all kind of documents, from A4 size to A0 or even non-standard sizes
- Finishing options for your microfilm prints, like plastic comb binding or folding large format sizes
- We can also supply the scans of your microfilm if you require so you can have both a physical and a digital copy
To see how we print and scan microfilm check our video. If you want to learn more, check our article on microfilm printing explained and also please contact us.
