Metamorfoze, the Dutch national program for the preservation of the paper heritage, started in 1997. The program is financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and is jointly coordinated by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek – the National library of the Netherlands – and the Dutch National Archives. The aim of the program is to preserve paper originals that are threatened by autonomous decay.This autonomous decay is caused by acidification, ink corrosion or copper corrosion. It causes the originals to discolor, become brittle and finally to disintegrate. To protect the originals, analog or digital derivative copies are made that can be used instead of the originals. The originals are withdrawn from use and stored in climate controlled storage rooms. The derivative copies are made following the Metamorfoze Preservation Imaging Guidelines. In this paper I'll focus on the basic principle of the guidelines and the most important technical aspects.