Due to the state of the primary text used in this project, the method of digitization employed was selected to preserve the original document's format and to expedite the digitization process. Therefore, each page was converted directly to a greyscale image and subsequently reduced to a resolution that would be a compromise between acceptable speed and legibility--both speed at the digitization end and the speed at which pages would load in browsers operating at 28.8k and up. Because the text is primarily photographic, the image format conclusively worked quite well. While the end product is not a truly searchable document, the Local History librarian and the webmaster will be working on an index to increase the text's accessibility.

For maximum viewing pleasure, it is recommended you configure your video card to the highest color depth possible on your computer at resolutions of 640x480 or 800x600. All page images were resampled to a 600 pixel horizontal resolution, with a gray palette of 16 entries. The GIF format was used for its compactness and universality. While JPGs would have, on the average, produced the smallest graphic in terms of bytes, the JPG format was not used due to the detail lost in compression. In addition to that, few photographs in the text exist without annotation, and any text would have been rendered illegible under such compression.

We would like to remind you that we have print copies of this book at Middletown Thrall Library, and should you encounter any irresolvable illegibilities in the course of your online reading experience, you are most welcome to come down to our library and view the original texts in their entirety. For more information, please call Local History at (914) 341-5483.