>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'm working on a system where the user wants to scan documents and store them in a database. I'm guessing at this point that scanning will be to a TIF or JPG, but am wondering if they may be able to scan to a PDF. What would be the best field type to store these scans?
>>>>>
>>>>>You have a few options.
>>>>>
>>>>>1. Only store a path to the file in SQL Server (this is the same suggestion as using VFP tables)
>>>>>
>>>>>2. Use VARBINARY(max) field
>>>>>
>>>>>3. Use new (SQL Server 2008) FileStream option.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks. Which option would you recommend?
>>>
>>>It all depends on the requirements. The first option is the easiest to implement and it requires less storage in the database, but it adds burden on supporting / managing files in the file system.
>>>
>>>For SQL 2008 I'd recommend the option 3, although I personally haven't worked with it.
>>
>>Same here - I would go with 1 or 3 (I haven't tried 3 yet) - but you sure don't want to use option 2.
>
>Thanks Viv,
>
>what's the problem with VARBINARY(max)?

It *does* work but it takes up a lot of space to do it & it's not real fast. I have an app that's been in use for 10 or so years that uses varbinary field to store some images and like I said it works but it sure eats up a lot of disk space....of course diskspace is cheap these days so I dunno maybe it's not such a problem anymore...:)