5. Digitisation

In March 2000, ten researchers and technical experts from HUMI institute of Keio University in Tokyo and from NTT spent two weeks in the British Library creating digital images of the Bibles, under the direction of Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya.

This is the camera used for the Gutenberg digitisation. It is a single-shot digital camera. This meant that the books were only exposed to light and kept open at the same page for very short periods.

HUMI designed a book cradle to the British Library's specifications, ensuring that it could be adapted to suit the needs of all the books which they digitised. Here the cradle has been adapted to suit the King's copy, printed on paper.

This is the Grenville copy, printed on vellum, being prepared for photography.

The images were immediately processed and given a final visual check - all completed in about 30 seconds per page. Having the final check done at this point ensured that we did not have to return to pages which had already been photographed. All problems were solved on the spot. The British Library is grateful for the support received from its Japanese partners.