ICC8 | Berlin | 10 - 12 Feb 2020
Enabling the World's Flow of Knowledge
ICC8 | Berlin | 10 - 12 Feb 2020
Enabling the World's Flow of Knowledge
The Watercolour World Project
The primary objective of The Watercolour World is to digitise and collate public and private watercolour collections of record and make them available, via The Watercolour World website, both in the UK and globally. The goal is to save the images for posterity before they degrade too far to rescue.
- Funded by the Marandi Foundation
- Joint patrons: HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
- Founder: Fred Hohler
- Chairman: Sir Charles Saumarez Smith
- Chief Executive Officer: Andra Fitzherbert
Key statistics for the project
- More than 100,000 paintings feature on the website
- The images document more than 31,000 geographical locations around the world.
- PFU (EMEA) has provided six ScanSnap SV600 scanners that The Watercolour World’s digitisation teams are using to document images.
- More than 7 per cent of the paintings documented have been scanned using the SV600.
The Watercolour World website
The images captured for the project are available for anyone to view for free online.
Users are able to search by many criteria including artist, date and location.
PFU (EMEA)’s involvement in The Watercolour World
TWW is a real-world case study showing how PFU (EMEA)’s world-leading technology enables the world’s flow of knowledge.
This epitomises the Sanpo-Yoshi principal of contributing to and enriching society, which is part of “The Fujitsu Way” – by providing art access for all.
Why is the project important?
Watercolours are historically important. Before 1900, they were the primary source of visual records.
The project will also enable a wide variety of interest groups to access the archive for free: artists, scientists, historians, schools & sociologists.
Watercolours are particularly prone to sunlight damage or degradation over time, meaning many must be carefully stored, hidden from public view.
The project is ideal for bringing an international resource to the public with particular value for future generations.
Why did The Watercolour World choose to use the ScanSnap SV600?
The SV600 allows TWW to:
- Save time, resources and costs associated with traditional capture techniques.
- Visit collections and scan on-site with a highly portable scanner.
- Achieve consistency of process and high quality output.
- Reduce reliance on digitisation specialists.
- Scan paintings in their frames, even through glass.
- Scan within safe light limits to protect the integrity of the original paintings.
About the SV600
The ScanSnap SV600 contactless scanner provides a new perspective on document scanning. Easily scan newspapers, magazines, documents or books directly without cutting or damaging them.
- One-button overhead scanning technology.
- Scans an A3 size area in less than 3 seconds.
- CCD optic with fast LED illumination within safe limits for artwork.
