Fall Inside NIRMA Issue

Continued from page 9.
fiche are being scanned.
Aperture Card
Another type of roll film, blipped film, has indication
marks below the frames for reading purposes. There can
be up to three levels of blips. A single blip will be a
consistent size while a double or triple blip will have
small and large blips. The largest blip will usually denote
a folder, larger blips will indicate the start of a
document, while the small blips are read as pages within
that document. There are also non-blipped frames
which can serve a variety of purposes depending on
how the reels were set up.
Fiche
Fiche are flat sheets containing multiple frames in
columns and rows. These frames can be laid out either
horizontally or vertically. Fiche, like roll film, comes in
the common sizes of 16mm and 35mm, but can also
contain more unusual sizes. The size of the film usually
depends on the purpose of what is printed on the fiche.
Common Fiche Sizes:
• 105 mm x 148 mm – Standard
• 105 mm x 148 mm- 105mm Fiche
• 77 mm x 127 mm – Standard
• 16 mm and 35 mm Mixed Jackets
• 85.7 mm x 187.3 mm – Ultra Fiche
• 76.2mm x 127mm - Mini Fiche
• 117.5 mm x 148 mm - AB Dick
• 127 mm x 203.2 – Jumbo
COM Fiche, or Computer Output Microfiche, are
fiche that were created by printing directly from a
computer to a fiche creating a uniform appearance.
Jacketed Fiche are fiche made with film strips or
single frames that have been inserted into a protective
sheet, or “jacket”. These sheets have multiple rows with
one side open, making it easy to add or remove film to
modify the fiche. Most film within a jacketed fiche are
16mm, 35mm, or a mix of the two.
As archives often have multiple formats, the FlexScan
has been designed to handle multiple formats and sizes
of fiche to make the process easy for any user. It also
has an optional automatic fiche loader that can scan up
to 720 fiche per hour, eliminating the need to hand feed
and allow the user to audit the scans while additional
An aperture card is aptly named as it consists of a
card with a rectangular opening where a frame is
mounted. The common sizes for these frames are
35mm and 16mm. These can be either one-up or twoup.
A two-up card will have two apertures vs. the oneup
cards that only have one aperture.
Hollerith cards are a form of aperture card with added
Hollerith hole punches that contain information about
what is displayed on the film. This information is usually
also printed on the card itself.
While the Flexscan can’t read Hollerith punches, it
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