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Scanner guide to scan photos and documentsFind the best scanner price & deals Compare products and buy. Read these scanner reviews and tips and impress your spouse. Want to impress your spouse ? Just scan the picture of your spouse and put it on your desktop. Liked the idea. For this, You'll need to know how to use a scanner, of course. No sweat. Place the desired picture on the scanner glass, push a single button without even starting a software, and hey presto—the picture's scanned and ready to be put up as your new wallpaper!
Scanners have become so readily available, and user-friendly that almost anybody can use them. They've become a great multipurpose tool for the office and the studio. From enhancing Web sites to digital data management, scanners make it all possible. Color Scanners have become popular because people like to digitize the analogue life we live—the average person wants a color scanner for photos, graphics, or plain document scanning. A small to medium business enterprise might look for a scanner that can do fast black-and-white scanning, which can later be OCR-ed into editable text. Graphic artists or desktop publishers—and professional imaging studios—might seek an ultra high-end, specialized, feature-packed photo scanner. Selecting a scannerHow do you go about choosing a scanner? Is a 36-bit scanner better than a 48-bit scanner? What about resolution? Do you need 600-dpi (dots per inch) or will 300-dpi be sufficient? Well, most home users should find a 300 dpi scanner sufficient. However, power users need to have a minimum of 600 dpi. Speed is also another factor which you should consider. A scanner may be sleek and have support for high resolutions. But if it scans at a snail's pace, your investment's not going to be wildly useful. Hence, before buying, always scan a document to check the speed and look for the ability to reproduce color adequately Go for a USB scanner rather than one that's parallel port-based, as this will give faster speeds. Also, make sure you buy a scanner that you gives you a reasonably good image editing and OCR software bundled with the product, so you can save some money on software. The warranty should also be carefully checked, especially whether it's 'carry in' or not. Scanners have not really been an integral part of a regular home PC user, and the last couple of years have not seen any major technological enhancement. Most of the home and SoHo segment have been buying scanners mainly for scanning photographs, and the falling prices of digital cameras has affected this segment. The only major technological enhancement perhaps has been in the interface, where the shift has been from Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) to Parallel to USB 1.1. Of late, some scanners even ship with USB 2.0. Entry-level scanners available in the market today cost US$ 70 and up. The Benq S2W 4300U and HP ScanJet 2300 are available at a rock-bottom price of around US$ 70. With very few players (and Epson opting out of the race) the competition in this segment is severe. Another problem with such scanners is that of heavy wear and tear during transportation, which leads to malfunctioning of devices to a great extent. HP is the undisputed leader, with around 50 per cent market share. Canon and Umax follow HP. With all vendors understanding the market reality, the focus now is shifting towards multi-functional printers (MFPs), or AlOs (all-in-ones) as some vendors prefer to call them. The focus is to provide a low-cost solution and save precious desktop space for users. Market indications are that low-end inkjets and scanners would be phased out over the next few months, and the home and SoHo segment are likely to go in for these multi-functional devices instead. Remember these Checkpoints• Upgrading your system RAM is probably a good idea if you are going to be scanning high-resolution images. This will have a significant impact on overall scanning performance.
• Consider buying a transparency adapter if you plan to scan negatives, slides and transparencies directly. Automatic document feeders (ADFs) are a boon to people with large text scanning needs. • To get good results with 35-mm slides or negatives, you should look for a special scanner that has been designed for them. • Ensure that your printer is good enough to reproduce the high quality scans that the scanner produces. Technology insightThe scanner, which used to be a luxury not so long ago, is now well within the reach of most people. Prices have fallen, due to competition between manufacturers and also due to the advancement of the technology used. This has put it high on the shopping lists for many home users. Today, scanner prices begin at about US$ 80 and offer pretty acceptable performance in terms of quality and speed. USB has helped ease the pain of installing the scanner, and increasing speed due to the higher data transfer rates it supports. The main components of a scanner are: a light sensitive Diode, a light source, the lens, and the stepper motor—which Moves the scan head and the mirror on which the document is placed. The light hits the document and the image is reflected back to the diodes via mirrors. The image is then focused on the CCD array, which converts photon into electrons, thus converting the Image to digital format. Now take the final decision
A scanner with 1,600 x 3,200 dpi or better resolution, A3 platform size and preferably a SCSI interface. Ex. - HP ScanJet 4570C, HP ScanJet 4500.  Subscribe to "COMPTECH" ezine to get the latest news and updates on Windows Vista. |
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