small notes for people scanning imperfect paper
This page collects ordinary digitization problems: folds, specks, edge shadows, photocopy loss, brittle paper, and OCR mistakes. It is meant as a practical reference for people who inherit boxes of documents and need to decide what to scan again, what to describe, and what to leave alone.
The examples here are brief because the pattern matters more than the particular document. A bad scan can still be historically useful if the image is preserved honestly and the limits are described.
Start with the artifact index if you are trying to name a visual problem, or the OCR cases page if the text output is strange.