Document imaging can involve photocopying and microfilm or microfiche output, in addition to scanning into digital images.

1. Document Imaging and Scanning Have Almost Become
Synonymous
Document imaging can involve photocopying and microfilm or microfiche
output, in addition to scanning into digital images. However
document imaging and scanning have become so closely associated
as to become synonymous.
The reason could be that scanning is the primary step in
transferring paper-based information into the electronic content
repositories of modern organizations. Under today's Enterprise
Content Management systems, electronic content is the lifeblood
that drives business operations.
How Does Scanning Transfer Info Into Electronic Workflow?
Scanning software alone cannot put paper-based information into the electronic
workflow. What scanning does is to create a digital image of a paper document. This
image can be a "pure" image like the image of a photograph; or it can be the image of a
text document.
While the images of text documents can be read by humans, they are just images to
computers. Computers capture images in a bitmap format while text is based on ASCII,
Unicode, and other character standards. The two formats are very different. Images of a
page can take up to 50 times the space required for an ASCII text page.
To make the text machine-readable, further processing is required. Such processing
involves using character recognition technologies like OCR and ICR. With these
technologies, the images can be converted into true text documents that can be
indexed.
Indexing is the step that makes the document an integral part of the electronic content.
Indexing involves categorizing the document based on the full text or meta information
attached to the document. Indexed documents can be retrieved through searching by
the words in the text or meta keywords.
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2. Why Transfer to 'Electronic Workflow'?
What is the significance of transferring paper-based documents into the electronic
workflow? The answer is that the benefits are many.
Firstly, electronic content can be retrieved in a few seconds with a few keystrokes at
your computer workstation. Retrieval of paper documents would involve going to the
file room, identifying the particular filing cabinet, retrieving the right folder, locating the
particular document, taking it back to the workstation, and then putting it back into the
folder/filing cabinet/file room.
Considering all the hassle of retrieving paper documents, people might just avoid it
while making quick decisions. The result would be low-quality decision making.
Decisions would be hunch-based instead of informed.
Next comes the distributed accessibility of the content, particularly relevant in the case
of global enterprises. Electronic content can be accessed from anywhere in the world
with an Internet connection.
Security and safety are also improved when electronic content is used. It is easier to
control access to electronic info using access rights and password-based access.
Electronic content is also less prone to damage from humidity and disasters such as fires
and floods (backups can be stored in a different location without too much hassle).
Cost is another factor favoring electronic content. With electronic copies available,
much of the original paper documents can be shredded once they are scanned. This
saves on filing cabinets and expensive file-room space.
Conclusion
With the innumerable advantages of moving paper-based content into an electronic
workflow, modern enterprises have universally adopted this strategy. The primary step
for such paper-to-electronic information movement is scanning. Document imaging and
document scanning have now come to mean almost the same thing these days.
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