The protocol is derived from the state of the arts; the sources used are Graphic Atlas, created by the Image Permanence Institute, and the information given by conservators Gawain Weaver and Paul Messier.
These protocols offer easily reproducible methodologies only in part as they require the use of fixed instruments, such as microscopes, with relatively high costs that not all archives can support. The methodology used in this project differs in the use of portable instruments. It also considers the forms of degradation as unique characteristics of the single process and therefore fundamental in identification.