Guidelines: Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials
Still Image Working Group

The Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Third Edition (linked below) are revised guidelines developed by the Still Image Working Group in 2022. This document is an update of the 2016 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files. The latest revision of the guidelines expands on the earlier works and incorporates new material reflecting the advances in imaging science and cultural heritage imaging best practice. Relevant information specific to defined imaging tasks has been grouped into individual chapters. The Guidelines include shared best practices for still image materials (e.g., textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).These guidelines are intended to be used in conjunction with digital image conformance evaluation targets and software. Together, these guidelines and appropriate testing and monitoring systems provide the foundation for a FADGI-conforming digitization program. Please see the Still Image Guidelines Resources page linked below for additional documentation and software resources.

2022 Revised Guidelines

The revised Guidelines are in draft form and open to public comment. The FADGI Still Image Working Group encourages members of the cultural heritage digitization and archiving communities to provide feedback on the draft revision. The public comment period will close on Friday, August 5, 2022. The Working Group will then finalize the revised Guidelines and publish by January 2023.

DRAFT Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials - 3rd Edition. (PDF)

Provide Comments on the Current Revision

Use the online form to submit your comments, or send an email to [email protected].

Please view the 2022 revision comments page here. This page will be updated as comments and questions about the working draft are received.

Resources

2022 Still Image Guidelines Resources page

Download OpenDice and AutoSFR software and manuals.

FADGI General Resources Page

Previous Versions of the Guidelines

2016 Approved Version

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2016) (PDF, 2.78 MB)

2015 Draft Document

DRAFT Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2015) (PDF, 1.05 MB)

2010 Document

The 2010 version of the Guidelines drew substantially on the National Archives and Records Administration’s Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Records for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images (June 2004), but included additional recommendations of the working group, particularly with regard to equipment and image performance metrics, quality management, and metadata.

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2010)  (PDF, 5.43 MB)

Working Groups

Still Image Working Group
This group is involved in a cooperative effort to develop common digitization guidelines for still image materials.

Audio-Visual Working Group
This group works collaboratively on common and sustainable technical guidelines, methods, and practices for digitized and born digital sound recordings and moving images.