We have (along with many others involved in the Global Plants Initiative) scanned botanical type specimens using an inverted flat bed scanner (Epson10000xl). This is just a normal flatbed graphics scanner turned upside down, held in a frame, with the specimen raised up to the scanner on a platform.

The resolution used which was specified by the project coordinators, was to scan at 600dpi at original size of the specimen, and save the image as a TIFF (uncompressed, but LZW compression will lossless and fine to use) . This provides an image of typical herbarium sheet (A3) at around 200mb. This maybe overkill for most purposes as storage of many images may be an issue, but this does mean you have images that can be used for all future applications.

Thanks

Vicky Purewal and tech info from

James Turner Biological imager

Department of Natural Sciences,

National Museum Wales
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NP

Tel. +44 (0)2920 573 119

From: The Natural Science Collections Association discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 26 September 2013 13:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Scanning herbarium sheets

Has anyone had experience of scanning herbarium sheets using an overhead book scanner?

What do you suggest is the best scanning resolution to use?

Thanks

David Lampard
Curator (Geology and Zoology),
Leisure and Culture Dundee,
The Collections Unit,
Barrack Street,
Dundee, DD1 1PG
Tel: 01382 432384
email [log in to unmask]

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