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PFU to document paintings for the digital age

PFU (EMEA) Limited, a Fujitsu company has partnered with The Watercolour World to help it digitise and document paintings on to a single geographically-indexed and fully searchable library. With the help of PFU EMEA's ScanSnap SV600, the UK based charity is creating a visual view of the world before photography and helping to make watercolours accessible for everyone.

The Watercolour World was founded with the objective of digitising and collating public and private watercolour collections from across the world and making them available via the charity's website. To date, the online, free to access archive, has in the region of 80,000 watercolours spanning 18,000 locations, many of which have been digitised using the ScanSnap SV600.

Designed for quick and easy image capture that delivers high-quality output, the ScanSnap SV600 can scan images through glass, meaning paintings don't need to be removed from their frames, avoiding the risk of damage. The ScanSnap SV600 also features a light range that is powerful enough to capture the images in high detail and is within safe limits for the watercolour medium, so will not harm the delicate paint. The SV600 is also highly portable, which enables the digitisation teams to take it to collections, galleries and homes to capture the images.

Andra Fitzherbert, Chief Executive Officer of The Watercolour World said, "watercolours are fragile, often hidden away and liable to fading. The Watercolour World was founded to document these important paintings in both public and private hands, and aggregate them on a geolocated website, before they're lost forever. The online archive we've created, with the help of PFU, enables visitors to search and zoom into many documentary watercolours. Already this has helped the scientific community to identify changes in landscapes over time, and we are excited to see how the power of our digital age harnesses the information that can be found in historic watercolours."

Mike Nelson, Senior Vice President, PFU (EMEA) Limited added, "watercolours have helped to create a visual record of the world before photography, providing vital information for historians and scientists.

"As with all of our ScanSnap range, the SV600 was developed with the intention of helping users to transform their scanning experience and create accurate digital images. We're proud to be partnering with The Watercolour World to help it digitise and record these paintings for posterity, enabling everyone to see what life was like before 1900 and in doing so, providing insight into how our world has changed since these original images were painted."

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