Negatives & Transparencies
TownsWeb Archiving’s negatives scanning service uses expert digitisation technicians with a wealth of experience in scanning negatives and transparencies. Our technicians are fully aware of the challenges this unique material can present.
Digitisation protects your negatives and transparencies from loss or damage and makes them quickly accessible.
TownsWeb Archiving is able to capture most items, regardless of deterioration, and can create output formats in TIFF and JPEG (JPEG2000), or any other industry-standard image format you may require. We can also create further surrogate files for the creation of thumbnails, for example.
Find out how much your project could cost
Visit our digitisation studio – See how our Negative & Transparency Scanning service works
Hear what our clients have to say about our digitisation services

I can safely say that with TownsWeb I happily recommended them to other companies for similar scanning and digitisation [projects] because I know they can be trusted. They can be relied upon to get the job done… they get it right, first time, every time.
Project Manager

Thanks to the digitisation carried out by TownsWeb, we have been able to extend the reach of our collections, for example by using the high quality images on our website. This makes the material available for those that cannot physically get to our museum due to its rural location, but also globally for research and educational purposes.
Museum Curator & Project Leader

TownsWeb offered us a complete end-to-end service, from scanning and transcription, to web design and content management software. Their work was completed quickly and to a high standard, and we are extremely pleased with the results.
Museum Curator
Digitisation Frequently Asked Questions
We prepare your delicate items using dust blowers to remove surface dust and use high-resolution flatbed scanners or lightboxes to digitise transparencies and negatives up to A3 size (approx. 42x30cm), and a range of high-resolution cameras and lightboxes offering non-contact capture.
Negatives and transparencies are regularly stored in individual envelopes on which information is often recorded, such as dates, descriptions and catalogue references. These references can also be captured, front and back, so important data is not lost. Our technicians are experienced in the careful removal of items from sleeves and we have worked with organisations to catalogue and repackage archive collections. These collections are particularly delicate and so we only ever use expert transportation and packaging for the stable transit of your items.
All files are captured by our highly trained digitisation technicians using overhead, daylight balanced, non-heat producing lighting before undergoing a formal quality assurance checking procedure. The final step in the process is the delivery of your electronic files by hard drive.

Capture the data within your Negatives & Transparencies
Digitisation places your negatives & transparencies in the perfect format to capture the valuable data contained within them, offering great potential for system integration and online access and discovery.
Capture the data within your collection with handwritten transcription, identifying any handwritten or cursive script within images and converting this to searchable and machine readable textual metadata through a process of scanning. Using bespoke transcription validation software we can guarantee highly accurate results, carrying out any preprocessing measures required and outputting to any format.
Learn more about Handwritten Transcription
Publish your Negatives & Transparencies online
PastView is the perfect platform for publishing your negatives & transparencies online, offering great potential for access and discovery. Manage and publish your collection with:
- High Resolution Zoom: Revealing every minute detail through large scale manipulation
- Featured Collections: Gathering specific images into their own collections to showcase them
- Digital Downloads: Making select items uniquely accessible in order to generate revenue
- Watermarking Security: Safeguarding and protecting your images from copyright infringement
Would you like more information?
If you would like to learn more about our services or request a free quotation, please feel free to contact us.

01536 713834

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