Forms with microreproductions of documents

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microform</span>

Microform

<p><b>Microforms</b> are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either <a href="/en/Photographic_film" title="Photographic film" class="wl">films</a> or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1020198016" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}</style><span class="frac" role="math"><span class="num">1</span><span>⁄</span><span class="den">25</span></span> of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Forms with microreproductions of documents</div>
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<figure class="mw-halign-right wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:Microform_scanner.JPG" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Microform_scanner.JPG"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Microform_scanner.JPG/300px-Microform_scanner.JPG" decoding="async" data-file-width="1500" data-file-height="1110" data-file-type="bitmap" height="222" width="300" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Microform_scanner.JPG/450px-Microform_scanner.JPG 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Microform_scanner.JPG/600px-Microform_scanner.JPG 2x" alt="Microform_scanner.JPG"></a><figcaption>Digital scanning of microfilm (See <a href="#Digital_conversion" title="Microform" target="_blank">Digital conversion</a> below.)</figcaption></figure>

<p>Three formats are common: <b>microfilm</b> (reels), <b>microfiche</b> (flat sheets), and <a href="/en/Aperture_card" title="Aperture card" class="wl">aperture cards</a>. <b>Microcards</b>, also known as "micro-opaques", a format no longer produced, were similar to microfiche, but printed on cardboard rather than photographic film.</p>



Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect ;height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1⁄25 of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used. Three formats are common: microfilm , microfiche , and aperture cards. Microcards, also known as "micro-opaques", a format no longer produced, were similar to microfiche, but printed on cardboard rather than photographic film. 