Datapro managing director Peter Repp said the Brighton-based firm, part of the Xeretec Group, was able to take historic books and digitally reproduce them as reprinted books or on CD-ROMs.

Repp said that through the Naval and Military Press, Datapro was now able to access books from The Tower of London or Sandhurst Military Academy and reprint them as and when required.

One of its first major projects was the reproduction of Fortescue's History of the British Army, which spanned 20 volumes and included numerous colour maps.

As most of the books are rare and delicate, the firm uses Planetary Camera technology. This allows the opened book to be scanned without the pages being touched by the scanner.

The software separates the left and right pages and also compensates for curvature of the pages. Scanned pages are then converted into files and reproduced in either mono or colour using Xerox DocuColor 6060 or 2060 digital printers.

Story by Andy Scott