K. Martinez, J. Cupitt, D. Saunders, A. Abbood and H. Chahine
New imaging techniques have been developed in the European VASARI and MARC projects to produce high quality digital images directly from paintings. Scanners have been designed which move a CCD camera over the painting area to create a series of patches which are mosaiced into complete images. The resulting images can have a resolution of over 10k x 10k pels, with 32 bits per pel representing calibrated CIE Lab values. Their quality is sufficient to replace conventional photography while improving accuracy. Applications Include archiving, scientific analysis, publishing and education. Digital image archives allow different source images to be compared more easily, for example infra-red, X-ray and visible records. Due to standardisation, visible images are also easier to compare between different restitutions. Records of fading and surface change can also be made over time.