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While the DRS accepts digital materials in any formats, the following recommendations indicate those formats that are most amenable to future successful outcomes.
Still Image Formats
| Content | Preference | Format | Format Use | Notes |
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| Still Image | Preferred (in order of preference) | TIFF uncompressed in any color space supported by TIFF | X |
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| TIFF has been commonly used at Harvard for digital master images, and is considered an archival format suitable for long-term preservation. For more information about the TIFF format see Adobe's TIFF resources |
| JPEG 2000 JP2 profile with lossless compression | X | X | Some projects depositing content into the DRS have chosen to use JPEG 2000 for digital master images instead of TIFF. JPEG 2000 can offer storage savings - file sizes tend to be smaller and there is an opportunity to use the same file as the preservation and use copy. While JPEG 2000 is becoming more acceptable in the library community as a preservation format, there are still advantages to TIFF over JPEG 2000 for preservation. TIFF uncompressed is a simpler format internally and has more general tool support. For more information about JPEG 2000 see the JPEG 2000 website; delivered by Image Delivery Service (IDS) |
| TIFF with CCITT T.6 (Group 4) compression | X |
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| JPEG 2000 JP2 profile with lossy compression | X | X | Delivered by Image Delivery Service (IDS) |
| JPEG JFIF; TIFF with associated alpha component; TIFF with PackBits (lossless), LZW (lossless), Modified Huffman or Group 3 Fax compression | X | X | Delivered by Image Delivery Service (IDS) |
| GIF | X | X | Delivered by Image Delivery Service (IDS) |
| Accepted | JPEG (non-JFIF) | X | X | (suggested alternative: TIFF uncompressed or JPEG 2000 JP2 profile with lossless compression); delivered by Image Delivery Service (IDS) |
| TIFF with JPEG (lossy) compression | X |
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| (suggested alternative: TIFF uncompressed or JPEG 2000 JP2 profile with lossless compression) |
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Video Formats
Harvard Library Media Preservation Services will provide reformatting services to produce these formats.*
| Content | Preference | Format | Format Use | Notes |
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| | |
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| Video | Preferred | Codec: JPEG 2000*
Wrapper: QuickTime, MXF (MXF OP1a, OP1b operational patterns or AS-07) | X |
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| Recommend lossless compression |
Codec: Uncompressed*
Wrapper: QuickTime | X |
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| 8 bit or 10 bit |
Codec: DV*
Wrapper: QuickTime | X |
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| For digitized DV tape |
Codec: MPEG-2
Wrapper: QuickTime | X |
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Codec: H.264*
Wrapper: QuickTime |
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| X | Any of the 21 different profiles; delivered by Streaming Delivery Service (SDS) |
| Accepted | Codec: Avid DNxHD*
Wrapper: QuickTime, MXF (MXF OP1a, OP1b operational patterns or AS-07) | X |
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Codec: Apple ProRes*
Wrapper: QuickTime | X |
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Audio Formats
| Content | Preference | Format | Format Use | Notes |
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| | |
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| Audio | Preferred | Waveform Audio (WAV) | X |
| | |
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| MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) |
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| X | Delivered by Streaming Delivery Service (SDS) |
| Accepted | Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) | X |
| |
| X | Delivered by Streaming Delivery Service (SDS) |
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Word Processing Formats
Deposit the native word processing file together with a derivative PDF (PDF/A if possible) and make both deliverable. The PDF provides an alternative “fixed” preservation copy, providing mitigation for future obsolescence/rendering risks; while the native word processing file provides a truer version of the original, for users who are able to still read the format.
Documents should not have DRM, including passwords or encryption.
| Content | Preference | Format | Format Use | Notes |
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| | |
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| Word Processing | Preferred | Portable Document Format (PDF), PDF/A or PDF/X | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |
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| Microsoft Word Binary File Format (DOC) | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |
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| Office Open XML Document (DOCX) | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |
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| Rich Text Format (RTF) | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |
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| WordPerfect Document (WPD) | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |
| EPUB | X | X | Delivered by File Delivery Service (FDS) |