USP – FAU – Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism

Library Service – Iconographic Materials Section
Responsible: Gisele Ferreira de Brito, Chief Librarian
Date: April 27, 2026

We primarily work with large-format architectural drawings on a wide range of supports — from translucent papers such as tracing paper, silk, and vellum, to opaque materials like cardstock. These documents also involve a variety of techniques, both in the originals — such as ink, graphite, pastel, and watercolor — and in reproduction processes, including heliographic copies, blueprints, and ozalid prints.

The first decisive factor was, without a doubt, its large-format capability. Additionally, the fact that it is a planetary scanner was essential, as it allows for high-resolution image capture with calibration parameters aligned with international standards such as Metamorfoze, FADGI 4-star, and ISO 19264-1 A.

Another important aspect was the availability of local representation and recommendations based on similar equipment used in Brazilian institutions.

For example, large format, anti-glare, relief enhancement, high resolution.

The main advantage of the equipment is the combination of large-format capability and high-resolution output. I would also highlight the automatic framing feature, which greatly simplifies operation by eliminating the need for manual rotation adjustments, making the workflow more efficient and precise.

Our level of satisfaction is very high — and not only within our team. Our user community has responded very positively to the quality of the digital files, which are being used in research, exhibitions, and publications.

This reinforces both the reliability of the equipment and the quality of the results.

Once the digitization workflows were established, the team adapted very quickly. Overall, we consider both the scanner and the software to be intuitive and easy to use, which significantly contributes to productivity.

Our experience has been very positive. The I2S support team, together with the national representatives from Scansolution, has been very attentive and responsive.

I would especially highlight the installation, configuration, and training process, which was very effective and helped clarify many of our initial questions. Since then, we have only needed support on a few occasions, but whenever we did, we received prompt and effective assistance.

Absolutely. The Quartz 2A0 has exceeded our expectations and proven to be fully suited to our needs.

For that reason, we confidently recommend the equipment to institutions and colleagues working with similar collections, especially those involving large-format materials that require high-quality digitization.

National Library of Spain

Major digitization project sponsored by the telecommunications company Telefónica.