Data Integration for Showcasing and Document Dissemination through Linked Open Standards
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has made its digital preservation plan available, including details for various presentation and publishing formats. However, specific instructions for Adobe InDesign files (ind, indd, indt) are not explicitly provided in the available search results.
Adobe InDesign is a popular software used for creating graphically rich documents, slide shows, magazines, books, brochures, newspapers, and other sophisticated texts. Versions of Adobe InDesign, such as CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, and CS6, use the .indd and .indt file extensions.
NARA's digital preservation approach emphasises the use of standardised, documented file formats and the creation of preservation metadata. For Adobe InDesign files, general best practices for digital preservation include:
- Migration to open or standardised formats: Convert InDesign documents to more sustainable, stable formats such as PDF/A (an archival PDF standard) for long-term access.
- Capturing associated assets: Preserve linked fonts, images, and other media alongside the InDesign files to maintain context and usability.
- Emulation or virtualization: Retain software environments or use virtual machines to allow future access to the native InDesign files.
- Metadata documentation: Record technical metadata about file versions, software used, and preservation actions.
If digital preservation of InDesign files is required, institutions often rely on converting files to PDF/A for preservation viewing while archiving native files for possible future editing, supplemented by meticulous documentation. NARA or other archival institutions typically recommend such approaches for complex proprietary formats when native software dependency poses long-term risks.
Besides presentation and publishing files, this category also includes file formats associated with rendering files, such as printer control language and page description language files. Adobe Director, another software in this category, uses the .dir file extension, while its cast files use the .cst extension. The NARA Format ID for Adobe Director is NF00678, and for its cast file, it is NF00688.
The Linked Open Data TTL for various presentation and publishing files, including Adobe InDesign documents and Broderbund The Print Shop Letterhead, are available on NARA's website. The file extension for Adobe InDesign Document is .indd and .indt, while for Broderbund The Print Shop Letterhead, it is .let. The file extension for Adobe Director is .dir.
To obtain the official NARA guidelines specific to Adobe InDesign files, direct consultation of NARA's digital preservation policies or contacting their digital archives specialists would be needed, as current public references do not detail this.
[1] NARA's Digital Preservation Plan [2] NARA's Linked Open Data Framework
Technology plays a crucial role in data-and-cloud computing, as demonstrated by the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) digital preservation plan, which lists the use of Adobe InDesign files (ind, indd, indt) among various formats for presentation and publishing. However, specific instructions for these file types are not found in the published search results, prompting the need for direct consultation or contact with NARA's digital archives specialists for more detailed guidance.
