A single project manager
One person owns your project from kickoff through final delivery. Direct line, replyable email, no ticket queues.
Institutions & Large Projects
Museum-grade digitization for collections at scale.
Museums, galleries, libraries, archives, and foundations bring us collections-level projects: managed end-to-end, billed on milestones, conservation-grade throughout. Whether it's 200 paintings or 100,000 negatives, we scope the right pipeline and deliver to your standards.
200 → 100k+
Project sizes we scope, end to end
Standards alignmentCalibrated
FADGIImaging
MetamorfozePhoto
ISO 19264Scanning
Project-managed
On-site or studio
FADGIMetamorfozeISO 19264Dublin CoreSpectrumEAD / MODSMilestone billingDenver studio · on-siteFADGIMetamorfozeISO 19264Dublin CoreSpectrumEAD / MODSMilestone billingDenver studio · on-siteFADGIMetamorfozeISO 19264Dublin CoreSpectrumEAD / MODSMilestone billingDenver studio · on-site
What you get
A real partner for institutional work.
Institutional projects don't run on self-serve forms and ticket queues. They run on people who know your collection, your constraints, and your deadlines — and own the project from start to finish.
Conservation-grade handling
Cotton gloves, dust-controlled prep, anti-static surfaces, filtered air. Chain-of-custody documentation by request.
Standards alignment
FADGI, Metamorfoze, ISO 19264 — we calibrate the pipeline to whatever your collection policy or grant requires. Discussed during scoping.
Metadata in your format
Dublin Core, Spectrum, EAD, MODS, or your CMS's specific export shape. Data delivered ready to ingest.
Milestone billing
Net-30 or net-60 terms available; payments tied to delivery milestones, not arbitrary calendar dates.
On-site or in-studio
Bring the work to our Denver studio, or we set up at your facility for sensitive originals that shouldn't travel.
How a project runs
Four phases, scoped together.
The shape varies — a 200-piece painting collection isn't a 30,000-negative archive — but the structure stays the same.
01
Discovery
A scoping call to understand what you have, what you need, and what success looks like. Format types, sensitivity, deadlines, standards alignment.
02
Sample / pilot
A small batch first — typically 10–30 representative pieces — captured to your standards, calibrated, reviewed together. Fixes are cheap here, expensive later.
03
Production
Full project, scheduled in batches with defined milestones. Status updates at each milestone; samples reviewable along the way.
04
Delivery
Masters in your specified format, metadata in your CMS's shape, originals returned with chain-of-custody documentation if requested.
The pipeline
What "museum-grade" actually means here.
The phrase gets used loosely. We mean it specifically — equipment, calibration, and verification you can hand to your conservator without a footnote.
Phase One IQ4 capture
151-megapixel medium-format digital backs. Reflective and transmissive workflows. Color depth that stands up to a museum's spectrophotometer.
Cruse synchronized-light scanning
For paintings, large flats, and texture-rich originals — the Cruse pipeline captures even, glare-free illumination across the surface, no seams or stitching.
Color verified, not assumed
Each capture session is profiled against a museum-class target. Final delivery includes the verification report so your registrar has the receipts.
Tell us about your collection.
We'll get back within one business day to set up a scoping conversation — no commitment, no quote-mill template.
Looking for individual film scanning, fine-art reproduction, or insurance documentation? Start here →
Camera shop, photo club, or affiliate? See our partner programs →
Frequently asked questions
How small a project will you take on?
Institutional engagements start with a scoping call rather than a minimum piece count. Small, well-defined collections are welcome — a single artist's estate, one gallery's exhibition record. If the work would be better served by our published per-piece rates than by a project engagement, we will say so.
Do you work to FADGI, Metamorfoze, or ISO 19264?
Yes, and the target is agreed during scoping rather than assumed. The pipeline is calibrated to whichever standard your collection policy or grant requires, and the color-verification report ships with the files as evidence rather than assurance.
Can we see a sample before committing to the full project?
That is the normal path, not a concession. A pilot batch — typically 10 to 30 representative pieces — is captured to your standards and reviewed together before production begins. Changes are cheap at that stage and expensive later, which is exactly why the step exists.
What metadata formats do you deliver?
Dublin Core, Spectrum, EAD, MODS, or your collection management system's specific export shape. Data arrives ready to ingest, not as something your team has to reshape first.
Does the collection have to come to Denver?
No. Material that can travel safely is captured at the Denver studio; material that cannot is captured at your facility with the lab deployed onsite. Many projects are a mix, and the split is decided during scoping rather than by a blanket rule.
How are institutional projects billed?
By milestone, against delivery — not on an arbitrary calendar. Net-30 and net-60 terms are available, and purchase orders and grant-reporting requirements are accommodated. Quoted per project; there is no list price that would mean anything across collections this different.
Who is our point of contact?
One project manager owns the engagement from kickoff to final delivery — a direct line and a replyable email, not a ticket queue. Your conservators and registrars stay in the loop at each milestone.
What happens to the originals during the project?
They are handled to conservation-grade protocol throughout — cotton gloves, dust-controlled prep, anti-static surfaces, filtered air — and returned with chain-of-custody documentation on request. Nothing about the physical object changes.