What format to scan negatives & documents

[arthur]

I'm going to buy an Epson V500, will be scanning negatives and old letters (from WWII).

Wondering what format I should save scans of negatives.

And what format I should scan in the letters in.

PNG? TIFF? BMP? Your thoughts on the matter would be appreciated. I want to get this right before I embark on this rather large family project.

[venchka]

I save all of my "keeper" scans, those that I hope to print, as TIFF files.

Can the scanner create PDF files of handwritten letters? PDF files are the most portable-everybody can read them. Or JPEGs @ 100 DPI or whatever it takes to look decent on a monitor.

[arthur]

I don't know if it will or not. I'll probably eventually produce a PDF document. But after I scan I want to keep it as high quality as possible. Within reason.

Cause I never want to have to scan them again.