Archive_Specifications.md

Archive Specifications

Scope and Protocol Version

These specifications apply to recordings and drawings created beginning July 13, 2025 unless a metadata row documents a deviation.

The corresponding metadata identifier is:

acquisition_protocol_version = standard-2025-07-13

The identifier records the governing protocol. It does not imply that every published file has identical encoded dimensions, orientation, codec, audio, or post-processing history.

Capture Configuration

The owner-confirmed default workflow since July 13, 2025 is:

• Device: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, model SM-S918U
• Application: Framelapse 2; observed current version 11.7
• Logical camera: Rear (Main), 1.8x
• Nominal capture interval: 0.2 seconds
• Capture orientation intent: Landscape
• Capture resolution class: 2160p UHD (4K)
• Still-image size: 4000 × 3000

AE/WB lock, autofocus, and stabilization are owner-reported for certainly the majority of this period, not confirmed as universal per-record facts. Deviations must be recorded prospectively and must not be filled retrospectively by guess.

Capture versus published encoding

Capture orientation and stored pixel orientation are separate properties. metadata.csv fields width_px, height_px, and orientation describe the published encoded file. Many canonical files are stored as portrait video, including records that historical evidence identifies as rotations or crops of landscape sources.

Do not infer a rotation, crop, or transcode solely from dimensions. Such a transformation should be asserted only when supported by provenance evidence.

Acquisition evidence and canonical assembly

Framelapse source fragments are retained unchanged as acquisition evidence. One verified chronological InShot assembly remains the canonical media object for each drawing record. Dynamic browser previews and physical-reference photographs are noncanonical access or evidence layers linked through persistent identity.

A 2160 × 3840 portrait H.264, 30-fps InShot processing profile is documented as a candidate. It does not become a canonical protocol boundary until one complete natural drawing passes fragment-order, join, duration, stream, hash, and manifest verification and receives explicit creator approval. Existing 60-fps canonical records remain unchanged.

Timing and Calibration Status

The current protocol documentation does not yet provide a complete calibrated time base for motor-control or physical-trajectory measurement. In particular, the following may be unknown for a recording unless separately documented:

• original frame-capture interval
• real drawing-session duration
• time-lapse acceleration factor
• source-frame timestamps
• removed pauses or edit decisions
• dropped-frame history
• camera model, lens, and mount geometry
• pixel-to-physical coordinate mapping or homography

encoded_frame_rate is playback rate only. It must not be treated as original drawing-time sampling.

Drawing Surfaces

9 × 12 in

• Strathmore 300 Series Bristol
• Smooth surface
• 100 lb (270 g/m²)
• Acid free

11 × 14 in

• Strathmore 300 Series Bristol
• Smooth surface
• 100 lb (270 g/m²)
• Acid free

14 × 17 in

• Strathmore 500 Series Premium Bristol
• Plate surface / ultra-smooth
• 100% cotton
• Acid free
• 2-ply
• Introduced in the Standard collection on August 19, 2026
• Manufacturer packaging describes the paper as archival quality

30 × 40 in

• Strathmore 500 Series Illustration Board
• Heavyweight vellum surface
• 20-ply
• White

Other support sizes and materials may appear when identified in the canonical filename and metadata.

Open 30 × 40 support review

Fifteen canonical records currently encode support = Paper and dimensions = 30x40, while the documented standard surface above is Illustration Board. This is an unresolved semantic conflict. Downstream users must not silently relabel those rows, and the archive must not claim the difference is an acquisition exception until the curator verifies the physical support or corrects this specification.

Drawing Instruments and Ink

Ballpoint

• Pelikan 337 Giant Ballpoint Refill
• Black and Blue
• Medium, 1.0 mm
• Document-proof ink conforming to ISO 12757-2

Documented acquisition exception: 2026-08-23.1932.BallpointPen.Ink.Paper.14x17.Rec03.mp4 uses the standard Pelikan black refill until approximately 00:04:59. Visible refill handling marks the transition to an unmarked, unknown-brand black refill for the remainder of the recording; the brand is not inferred.

Fountain pen

• Pilot Custom 823
• 14-karat gold nibs used in Fine, Medium, and Broad sizes
• Aurora Black fountain pen ink

The nib size used in an individual recording is not consistently documented and must not be inferred from line appearance alone.

Additional tools and media are recorded at the individual-record level.

Audio

Audio presence is a stored-file property, not a required part of the acquisition protocol. has_audio records whether an audio stream exists. It does not describe the stream's contents or establish redistribution rights for music, speech, notifications, or other incidental sound.

Exceptions and Evidence

Known departures from the protocol should be documented in the affected metadata row. A deviation claim should identify its evidence in notes and, where applicable, provenance fields.

When a property is not documented, it must remain unknown rather than being reconstructed from visual appearance alone.