RGB LASER system for recording digital data on color microfilm for long-term preservation

Part of the huge amount of digital data generated every day has to be preserved for decades due to legal reasons or even for centuries for future generations. Because the readability and lifetime of electronic storage media is limited, digital data archives have to be reformatted or copied on new media at least every ten years. In contrast, microfilm has a life expectancy of several hundred years and its content and format is always readable. While b&w microfilm is well established for long-term preservation, colour microfilm has been limited mainly due to the lack of high-quality, productive and easy-to-use equipment. An RGB laser system - the so called Eternity - has been developed by Pro Archive to provide users a unique tool for high-resolution and high-speed recording of digital data on colour microfilm. The Eternity is based on red, green and blue lasers at its core. These lasers produce images onto either 35 mm or 105 mm wide colour microfilm with an ultimate resolution of 7,580 dpi. The Eternity enables long-term preservation of digital colour documents that outperforms existing storage and preservation methods with respect to safety, longevity and total cost of ownership.