What resolution should I scan a missing print set at?

[Jason T]

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 7:33 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> Hi all, I have a PDP-11 print set (MP00196, M9301 Bootstrap/Terminator) which
> is not online. I wish to scan my copy, and donate the scan to all the
> repositories.  What resolution should I scan it at?
>
> I looked at a couple that are available as TIFFs, and they claim to be 600 dpi
> - that can't be right, is it? If it is, no problem, I'm happy to do it at that
> resolution, but I just don't want to do silly overkill.

I happen to be in the middle of doing a DEC print set now myself
(assorted 11/04-related docs.)  I find 400dpi B/W is sufficient for
most 11x17 schematics, as long as the original is in good shape (i.e
not a photocopy of a fax of a mimeostat.)  When it doubt, you can
alway go with 600 for specific pages if the 400 scan lacks detail.

We've reached the age of disk and bandwidth being cheap enough that I
don't sweat the size any more, if it means preserving high-quality
images forever.

TIFFs with CCITT G4 compression can be fed into PDFs nicely.  If you
have the real Acrobat, make sure to set the "Convert to PDF" import
settings to the same compression or you may find Acrobat mangling your
images (I use ZIP for grey and color.)

j