Recommended Best Practices for Image Capture of Musical Scores
Source: ismir2002.ismir.net
Topic: Musical Notation
Sort Desciption: Musical notation must be scanned at a resolution sufficient to. capture all significant detail. For a collection with little variation ...
Content Inside: Digital Image Capture of Musical Scores Digital Image Capture of Musical Scores Ichiro Fujinaga Peabody Conservatory of Music Johns Hopkins University 1 E. Mt. Vernon Pl. Baltimore, MD 21202 +1 (410) 659-4100 ich@jhu.edu Jenn Riley Digital Library Program Indiana University 1320 E. 10th St., E170 Bloomington, IN 47405 +1 (812) 856-5759 jenlrile@indiana.edu ABSTRACT Musical scores have small details and complex markings, and are difficult to digitally capture and deliver well. All capture decisions should be made with a clear idea of the purpose of the resulting digital images, but master images must be flexible enough to fulfill unanticipated future uses. In order to provide a framework for decision-making in musical score digitization projects, best practices for detail and color capture are presented. Recommendations for file formats for archival storage, web delivery and printing of musical materials are presented. 1. INTRODUCTION Music information retrieval research deals with resource discovery. However, the quality of the data itself is a critical part of the retrieval system, as content-based retrieval cannot work on inferior content. Musical scores are difficult to properly digitally capture and deliver for several reasons. They contain small details such as staff lines, dots, and bars that are essential to the meaning of the notation. They come in a wide variety of formats (printed and manuscript) and sizes. This paper is intended to provide an overview of the decisions that must be made when undertaking a musical score digital imaging project and provide some best practices for making these decisions. 2. THE PURPOSE OF SCANNING The first step in planning any imaging project is to determine the purpose of image capture. Some formats, such as original manuscripts, rare imprints, and pages with important pencil markings or annotations, should be captured with the intent of reproducing the current appearance of the page as is. For many o ...
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