Re:Forward Compatibility (Score 1)

That would work, but personally I wouldn't print directly. Being a perfectionist, I'd be painfully aware that 25 years underground and then through a scanner, will inevitably mean the pictures lose quality. It's more paper-friendly than my way, but lossy nonetheless.

I would propose converting the pictures into hexadecimal text, and print out those, quite small sized text. The reason being, optical mark recognition is already probably quite capable of reading that back out, and I doubt it's getting any worse in the next 25 years. Anyone should be able to see that it's hexadecimal, a note with the paper to explain wouldn't cause harm though.

Trusting in the capsule, the information could last hundreds of years if printed on the right paper, if disinfected and protected against moisture.