Planning to buy a flatbed scanner?
Nov 15 '01 (Updated Feb 08 '02)
The Bottom Line If you're considering to buy a new flatbed scanner, you might want to know a few things before you even pick up that package.
Is your scanner really starting to die out?
Do you want to store some family pictures in your computer or disk?
Does your scanner give you only non-professional results?
If you answered yes to either or all of the questions, you may want to consider buying a flatbed scanner?
Compatibility
The first thing that you want to look for in a flat bed scanner are the interfaces. First, most scanners are USB only and USB is not compatible for Operating Systems before Windows 98 and Windows 2000 and there are even some USB scanners that aren't even compatible with Macs. However, there are some scanners in the market also offer a parallel connection and those are compatible for all operating systems except for the Mac. Some of the corporate scanners even offer SCSI and/or Firewire IEEE 1394 interface for even faster scanning and data transfer, which is ideal for both the PC and MAC.
Software
Secondly, you got to know how much hard disk space in which you'll use your scanner is left. This is because the drivers in a scanner can take up quite a bit of space if you've read very carefully on the box or online. The software package should include an OCR (Optical Character Recognition), software that allows scanned text to convert from jagged text to even smoother text edges that is eletronically editable. It should also contain a photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop to modify, crop and even enhance the quality of the photo.
Color Depth and Resolution
In addition, you want to get a scanner that has at least 36-bit color. This ensures that there are more colors available to reproduce the image ideally. For many scanners that are offered for the home and/or personal use, a 42 bit color flatbed scanners will do just fine. For the corporate or office use, you would really want a 48-bit color to reproduce the image as perfectly as possible.
For the resolution, I would recommend at least a 1200 dpix1200dpi or more to produce excellent images. The higher the numbers, the better and the more realistic that the scanner will reproduce the image.
Control Panel
The important thing that most people miss in buying a scanner is convenience. What I mean that sincerely is that it has to have at least a scan button in the opening side of the lid. Most scanners include a scan button and many will include a print button, which allows direct copying from the image to a printout. Many of the more expensive scanners include a one touch save or even e-mail button, an ideal convenience for those who use their scanners to reproduce the images then send it to their family and friends. In addition, a handful of scanners even allow you to control how many copies you want reproduced and even fax them, it’s ideal for corporate or office users.
Price
For a good scanner designed for home and/or personal use, expect to pay $90 to $200. For professional scanners, I would expect to pay $200 to $ 1500 and up, but the higher priced scanners are targeted for corporate use. With higher priced scanners, they tend to offer an automatic document feeder (ADF), ideal for scanning individual sheets. Many of the more expensive home and/or personal and professional scanners, offer a transparency or film adapter, ideal to scan even more media. Even though higher priced scanners are better, it doesn’t always mean that. For the warranty, I strongly recommend at least a one-year warranty. If it doesn’t offer you at least a one year's manufacturer's warranty, you can purchase the warranty off the retail store if it does offer extended warranties.
Here are the scanners that I could recommend:
Starters
Canon Canoscan N650U, N656U, N670U, N676U, D660U; Epson Perfection 1250; HP ScanJet 4400, 4470; UMAX Astra 3400, 3450, 4400, 4450 and AstraNet e5420.
Intermediate
Canon Canoscan N1220U, N1240U, D1230UF; Epson Perfection 1250 PHOTO, 1650, 1650 PHOTO; HP Scanjet 5400, 5470; UMAX Astra 4000U and AstraNet e5470.
Professional or Corporate
Canon Canoscan D2400UF; Epson Perfection 2450 PHOTO, 1640SU, Expression series; HP Scanjet 5490 and 7400 series; UMAX Powerlook 3 and 1100.
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