MORE ON THE FADING OF DIGITAL IMAGES

I have read with great interest the comments that have been submitted on this topic over the past few weeks. Most have been technically oriented with explanations, rationalizations and speculations on how fading can or cannot occur, with targets for how it can occur being (1) repeated image manipulation and (2) limitations of different file storage formats. The widely used JPG and JPEG compressed file formats have received most of the attention and rightly so because they are heavily used in archival work because of space considerations.

The implication from these comments is that fading does in fact occur; however, virtually missing for our dialog so far is actual acknowledgment that anyone is willing to admit that they have observed fading other than my own blunt statement at the outset that the digital images I have saved are unambiguously fading and the degree of fading is a function of age. My oldest images are about 30 years old.

I simply ask you again the number one question. Have any of you noticed that digital images you have saved have faded?

This is a yes or no question. If you have, let us know.

I met this past week with Peter Runga, the administrator of Special Collections at the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Special collections is a major repository for rare books, historic documents, photographs, etc. and that unit as well as the Cline Library itself are up to their necks in digitization and digital storage. I asked him about their experience. He groaned and said fading was a major problem. Like me, he is not a techie, but a user. Our anecdotal experiences were identical, but of course the breath and depth of his experience far outweighs mine. Sobering was this exchange.

Huntoon's off the cuff remark: At the rate my images are deteriorating, they will be gone in a 100 years.

Runga, turning sharply and looking me straight in the eyes: 50 years.

We then discussed his observation and these perspectives emerged.

(1) fading of digital image is real and is of major concern among archivists.

(2) Fading is dependent on shelf life – that is how long the image has been stored in a particular storage device regardless of image format.

(3) Modern computers can copy stored images with a high degree of fidelity so information loss is not a big issue when image data are repeatedly moved between servers or lifted by users from such storage because computers can check the copy against the original. However, what gets copied and checked is what remains of the original in storage at the moment it is copied.

 
Taken on November 2, 2007
Uploaded on February 29, 2008

 
Uploaded on April 8, 2008

 
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To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ON THE FADING OF DIGITAL IMAGES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n19a11.html)
READERS ON THE FADING OF DIGITAL IMAGES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n20a09.html)

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