Often these two appear in the same document. Initially, RET volumes include only introduction, text, and appendices.
Full annotation is postponed.
Both paper and electronic editions may be read, but only the second can be transformed into other forms easily, such as concordances, collations, and specialized kinds of edition. RET editions enable researchers to experiment with the texts and to use the software of their choice. If accompanied by digitized images of the source, however, electronic editions also take on an archival role, preserving something of the original and providing readers a way of checking transcriptions. An image base can assist in understanding books, language, and literature, and help to increase knowledge by an computer-based analysis of the texts. The electronic edition is a sound basis for future work on primary texts.