Acquiring images (2000)

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I would dearly love to store scanned docs in an Access Db. Storing images seems to add more than a meg for each image, over and above the image size. Storing the image address is no good as I need to link images with client

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Storing images in an Access database is definitely not a good idea. Whatever the original image format was, Access always stores an uncompressed bitmap image, I think. As you noticed, it causes humongous database bloat.
If you design a good naming/numbering scheme, you can store your images in a hierarchical folder structure, and only store codes in your database from which you can reconstruct the path and file name of the images. I have one database that works with thousands of images this way. The database itself is between 1 and 2 MB only.

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Still doesn

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I suspect this is more that what you are looking for, but we have used a product called Alchemy from Information Management Research to actually do an imaging solution integrated with Access. We currently have about a million documents that are linked to some 80,000 people. The scanning itself is also driven from Access, and there is OCR activity to create automated links. However it is a fairly high-end document imaging and retrieval system, both in function and in cost. Another much simpler product that I believe actually uses an Access database is a small photo organizer that came with my Sony laptop. It gives you some basic capability, but doesn’t appear to store the images in the database.

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I never cease to be amazed at the depth of

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I think the Sony app is a run-time app that probably uses Jet 3.0 or 3.5 to store image info, but not the image itself. There is an mdb file associated with it, at least it’s in the same folder chain as the app. I suspect there may be some free or share ware with similar capabilities. There’s a company called ACD Systems that has several products they sell for a reasonable fee as well they can be reached at http://www.acdsystems.com[/url%5D – I have no idea what technology is behind their products, but I have used some of them pretty successfully.

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I found a way to store JPEGs efficiently in access.
See Stephen Lebans sample

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As a WAG, try creating a new form and dropping a new “other” control onto it. Scan thru the list of controls that are registered on your computer, and see if the Kodak scan control ist there. I *think* it’s supplied by default from Windows (not sure about its genesis, though). If it’s there, you have your answer… Also not really sure about how to find Help with the Kodak scan control. I’ve only used it enough to know that you *can* control the scanner using it.

HTH.

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If you find the scan control, there should also be a thumbnail and image edit control.

Not sure what the deal is post Win 95, but they used to come with the OS, or as a free download.

For the win 95 ones I got help files from the net somewhere (sorry can’t remember where)

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Thanks.
I looked and sure enough there is a scaning control. The one I have is not Kodak, it’s called ‘ScanTool Control’. But unfortunately there is no way of getting it to see my scanner.
Any idea how to get that Kodak one?

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Sorry – no…. I am pretty sure it came with the OS (Win98 SE). Also read some bumph somewhere that the Kodak control had evolved from the Wang control that originally came with Windows.

A quick google search for “Kodak scanning control” found many sites including this one which may help:
http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,26174,00.html

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I’m running Win2k Pro, and the Kodak Imaging application (installed in AccessoriesImageVuekodakimg.exe), including the imgscan.ocx appears to have been part of my Windows installation.

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Thanks Charlotte.
I have Win 2K Pro with Office 2K developer, but it’s not on my system. I found it on another computer & copied the imgscan.ocx across.
Do you know how I get Access to see the ocx?
Are you aware of any documentation or help files? Cause without that I

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Well, I can’t tell you why it wasn’t installed on your machine in the first place, but a Google search on Kodak and ImageVue turned up this method for unhiding the setup in Add/Remove Windows Components: http://www.crsdata.net/technicalsupport/cpcimagefix2000.htm%5B/url%5D. I tried it on my machine and Imaging showed up big as life the next time I selected Add/Remove Windows Components.

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Everything I read tells me I shouldn’t even think about storing images in a database. And yet… I’m studying the world-renowned “Northwind Trading Company” sample database that comes with Access. That database has a form that displays portraits of company employees. I confess that I’m so far not smart enough about Access to see how they did that. So…how’d they do this with bitmaps and not end up with a bloated database? I can only presume that Kaiser Bill’s people used nothing that did not ship with the application…?

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In my Access 97 version of the NWind database, the employees table has 9 records. The pictures are 192 x 223 pixel bitmaps in 4-bit color (16 colors). So total storage for these pictures is
9 x 192 x 223 x 4 bits = 1,541,376 bits = 192,672 bytes ~ 188 KB, plus unboubtedly some overhead.
If I delete the pictures and compact the database, it shrinks by 198 KB. This roughly conforms to 188 KB plus overhead.

Now, imagine a more realistic situation:
100 employees. For each a full color (24 bit) 400 x 300 bit picture (not beyond the capacity of a digital camera). Doing a calculation similar to the above, you end up with 34 MB picture data, plus say 5 % overhead, totalling 36 MB.

I think you’ll see what happens when you start storing scanned color documents.

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I found out from the Kodak site that

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Isn’t WinXP supposed to have its own scanning software built in? Maybe you’re trying too hard to find something outside of WinXP. Have you posted the question in the WinXP board? Someone there might be able to help.

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I found a way to store JPEGs efficiently in Access.
See Stephen Lebans sample

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