Microfiche Types
Com
Fiche
Computer Output Microfiche
or COM fiche are produced by computers
sending data to specialized printers.
Accounting reports, payroll records, tax
rolls, and almost any computer generated
report that requires an archival retention
period of over seven years have been
committed to COM fiche. Standard
microfiche are either reduction ratio's of
42x or 48X - 208 or 270 pages of data
respectively.
Jacketed
fiche
These are actually 4x6 inch plastic
sleeves designed to hold strips of either
16 or 35mm film. This allows the grouping
of related data into one logical record.
Council planning departments, Payroll and
Human Resource departments typically used
this method to allow filing and retrieval
of an individual's records. There are also
duplicated jacketed film that have a
bluish tint to them, these are copies of
the originals and are often poorer quality
images.
Step-and-Repeat
This type of fiche is often for manuals or
operational handbooks. The images are
arranged permanently in a grid pattern
(there are no plastic sleeves). The cards
have a header at the top, which contains
identification information.
Step-and-repeat card may hold more than
300 images.
Combination Fiche
This is a microfiche that contains both
35mm and 16mm images. Typically used in
planning departments.