Sorry, but this is simply babbling nonsense. The paper copies and PDF weren’t generated from decades-old data. The alleged long-form would have been a hard copy that had to be copied onto a current form. It wouldn’t be in any kind of data form. This is really a new low in fogger-styled excuses.
[shrug] Whatever. I just know from having been involved in document processing at the time that it was common for warehouses of important paper documents to be digitized, processed, and destroyed - leaving only a mangled image file as I described. Any printed copies would be rendered from that data (perhaps run thru a few layers of modernization software, producing “haloing” and related artifacts) and printed on new green-hash “security” paper, or .PDF files generated with a similar background.
Believe me or not. I’m trying to help; ignore the past at your peril.
Right. No fancy digital mumbo-jumbo is involved when copying a document from microfiche onto security paper.