Creekside Digital Small Order Form (801KB PDF)

Creekside Digital loves small orders! For orders up to 20 rolls of microfilm, we're pleased to offer flat-rate pricing for 16mm and 35mm rollfilm scanning. That means no guessing how many images you have or how much your order will cost!

If you have more than 20 rolls of film, submit a Request for Quote through this website or contact us for more information — we'll be glad to discuss all the options and we'll review our volume-based pricing with you.

For OCR, add $29 / roll. All small orders are scanned at 300dpi / 256-color grayscale and output in your choice of PDF or JPEG files on DVD. Prices do not include return shipping and handling via USPS Priority Mail.

      

1. Fill out our Small Order Form in your web browser. Pricing will automatically be calculated for you.
2. Print out the form and sign it.
3. Mail the completed form and your microfilm to:
   Creekside Digital
   Attention: Small Orders
   1023 Timber Trail Road
   Towson, MD 21286
   

4. We'll process your payment via major credit card.
5. We'll convert your microfilm to digital images in the format you requested.
6. We'll mail your microfilm and DVD(s) containing your images back to you.

• How long will it take to scan my microfilm?
        Typically, once we receive your film, it takes about one week for orders up to ten rolls before we ship your film back to you. For orders over ten rolls, plan on one-and-a-half to two weeks before we ship your film back to you. We ship all small orders via USPS Priority Mail unless expedited (see below). Creekside Digital will contact you if your order will be overly delayed for any reason.
• I'm in a hurry. Can you expedite my order?
        Yes. Please contact us for details.
• Can you run some free sample scans of my microfilm before I decide whether or not to pay for it ?
        Creekside Digital only provides free samples on orders larger than 20 rolls.
• I have microfiche / aperture cards. How much will it cost to scan them?
        Creekside Digital does not convert microfiche or aperture cards at this time -- only 16mm / 35mm rollfilm.
• Can you only scan part of my roll of microfilm? I only need a few frames on it.
        Unfortunately, no. Most of the effort goes into setting up the scanner to get the best possible images from your film, so with small orders, partial scans aren't possible. You can always go back later and delete / remove the unwanted images yourself.
• What image format should I choose?
        Most of the image files we create for small orders are multipage PDF files. Essentially, you get one big PDF file for each roll you send us, with each frame on your film represented as a page in the file. PDF is a great format because it is very common and uses a viewer which is available for free (you can get it here) to allow you to easily view, search (with OCR), save, print, and email your images on any computer. JPEGs are another widely-used image format, but they are only available one-image-per-file and typically require a graphics program in order to view or edit them.
• Can you provide other image formats? How about higher resolution scans?
        Yes. We've found that 300dpi PDFs and JPEGs will work well for over 90% of our customers, but we can provide you with just about any image format available today, including uncompressed grayscale TIFFs at very high (400 / 600dpi) resolution. Please contact us if you need a different image format or resolution.
• What is OCR and why would I want it?
        OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, is a process that extracts text from the images we create from your microfilm. Creekside Digital uses it to create an invisible layer of digital text behind your images, yielding searchable PDF files (meaning that it can be copied / pasted, and you can type in a keyword such as a place-name or surname found on a newspaper page, and Adobe Reader will find it for you in your microfilm). Note that while OCR works very well with typewritten text, it is limited in its ability to recognize handwritten text and does not work at all with cursive writing. OCR is only an option when you choose PDFs as your image format.

Got other questions? Ask us!