Parabaik and palm leaf manuscripts are important in the rich and old tradition and cultural history of Southeast Asia. The methods of substitution being used are recopying by hand, typing, microfilming, photocopying, offset facsimile copies, printing in book form and digital reformatting. Copying by hand onto new palm leaf or parabaik has been the traditional method of preserving manuscript texts. Manual copying is a laborious and monotonous process that can lead to dropped letters or lines. This is also true with typing of texts.
Users prefer bound photocopies of the manuscripts which can be borrowed or photocopied.
Offset facsimile editions can be made of rare manuscripts. However, problems with offset plates and quality paper are problems that have to be dealt with properly. Carefully collated and edited editions of traditional text and manuscripts can be printed in book form to preserve information. Microfilming is the choice of Southeast Asian librarians and archivists because of the stable technology. However, film supplies are expensive and hard to acquire locally.