Volume 24, Number 1
2000

Life-Expectancy Standard for Office Images Proposed

NCITS (National Committee for Information Technology Standards, www.ncits.org) has approved a new project (Project #1422D) to develop a national standard to set requirements and test methods to evaluate electrographically printed and photocopied documents produced using office equipment. The purpose of this new standard is to enable users to predict the image permanence of document collections and plan and manage collection maintenance.

The proposed standard will specify the requirements and test methods for the substrate (paper), toner, and fusing process. NCITS participants include representatives from Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Pitney Bowes, Lexmark, and others. In the first stage of their work the NCITS committee will complete a study to identify existing standards and identify gaps that a new standard might address. NISO (National Information Standards Organization) will maintain a close liaison to this activity.

(Reprinted with permission from Information Standards Quarterly, April 2000, p. 10)