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Document Preservation

An encyclopedic cluster on long-term digital document preservation: archival file formats (PDF/A, TIFF, JPEG 2000), file integrity and fixity checking, format obsolescence and migration, preservation metadata, and the standards and reference models (ISO 19005, ISO 14721/OAIS) that underpin trustworthy digital archives. It centers on durable, vendor-neutral practices for keeping scanned and born-digital documents readable over decades.

2 live pages · long-term capacity 26–42

Entities

format

PDF/A · TIFF · JPEG 2000

standard

ISO 19005 · OAIS Reference Model · ISO 14721 · SHA-256 · Dublin Core · PREMIS · XMP · ICC Color Profile

technology

veraPDF · PRONOM · Microfilm

concept

Checksum · Fixity · LZW Compression

organization

Library of Congress · National Archives · Digital Preservation Coalition

Connected clusters

In the archive

Pages in this cluster

Planned coverage

  • PDF/A Conformance Levels: A, B, and U Explained — Explains the PDF/A-1/2/3 parts and the a/b/u conformance levels without version-specific dates that are uncertain
  • PDF vs PDF/A: Which to Use for Long-Term Storage — Compares ordinary PDF and PDF/A on font embedding, encryption, and external references for archival suitability
  • How to Convert Documents to PDF/A for Archiving — General, vendor-neutral workflow for producing conformant PDF/A from office documents and scans
  • How PDF/A Validation Works — Explains conformance checking and the role of open validators like veraPDF, without claiming specific pass rates
  • Why TIFF Is Used for Document Archiving — Covers TIFF as a lossless master format, multi-page TIFF, and its role in preservation masters
  • TIFF vs PDF for Scanned Document Archives — Compares image-master (TIFF) and access-copy (PDF) roles in a preservation workflow
  • Lossless vs Lossy Compression for Archived Documents — Why preservation masters favor lossless (LZW, ZIP, JPEG 2000 lossless) over lossy JPEG
  • JPEG 2000 in Digital Preservation — Describes JPEG 2000's lossless mode and adoption considerations for archival imaging, neutrally
  • Verifying Document Integrity With Checksums — How MD5/SHA-256 hashes detect bit-level corruption in stored files
  • What Is Fixity Checking in Digital Preservation? — Defines fixity, why archives re-verify checksums over time, and how it detects silent data loss
  • File Format Migration Strategies for Long-Term Archives — Migration vs emulation, and planning format migrations to avoid obsolescence
  • Preventing Digital Format Obsolescence — Why proprietary/undocumented formats become unreadable and how open, documented formats mitigate risk
  • Preservation Metadata: Dublin Core, PREMIS, and XMP — Roles of descriptive, structural, and preservation metadata standards in archived documents
  • The OAIS Reference Model Explained — Plain-language overview of ISO 14721 OAIS concepts: SIP, AIP, DIP, ingest and access
  • Scanning Documents for Long-Term Preservation — Choosing resolution, bit depth, and color capture for archival scans as durable practice, not fixed numbers
  • Storage Media Longevity for Digital Archives — Why archives rely on active management and multiple copies rather than any single durable medium
  • Why Color Profiles Matter in Archived Documents — How embedded ICC profiles preserve accurate color reproduction over time
  • A History of Document Archiving: Paper to Digital — Narrative from paper records and microfilm to born-digital preservation
  • Microfilm and Microfiche in Document Preservation — How microforms preserved records before digitization and their continued archival role
  • Checksum — Concise definition of a checksum/hash and its use in integrity verification
  • OAIS — Concise definition of the Open Archival Information System reference model (ISO 14721)