Scanners!

Scanner Purchasing Advice

Scanners of all kinds derive images through a combination of hardware and software technology.

The best place I've found for solid reviews on scanners is PC World. The information is good, with a definite bias toward affordable, faster and smaller flatbed scanners.

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The Fastest Scanner

Most scanners today are typically quite fast. Users want it that way. In order to maximize the speed of your scanner, you need RAM. Lots of it. No, tons of it. Scanning is not very processor intensive. It is very memory intensive. Scanning software needs only a container to store all of this data without having to resort to memory caching on the disk to maximize the scanners speed.

Won't the latest and greatest in port (USB 2.0 or FireWire) bandwidth help? USB 2.0 or Firewire help only when generating huge files on a system with 1GB or more of RAM. The scanner is also somewhat dependant on the amount of RAM inside the scanner used as a data buffer. Low-cost scanners have less RAM buffer, expensive scanners have more.

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Scanner or Digital Camera Image Quality

The term resolution is abused so frequently in digital imaging, there is no way the average person can make heads or tails of resolution claims. Here's a way to think about resolution.

Sensor Resolution

How many pixels are on the sensor. This doesn't mean you get more detail or useful information. It just means there are more pixels. How much detail a digital camera or scanner resolves is mostly due to a combination of sensor and lens quality.

Ink Jet or Laser Printer Resolution

This is one of the most abused categories for the term resolution. Nearly all desktop printers resolve less than 180ppi. Compare printers simply by comparing the cost of refills. More expensive printers tend to run faster, that's about all.

Monitor Resolution

How many PPI the monitor can render. Resolution in monitors is still subject to other hardware issues, but it's not nearly as bad as it is in other peripherals.

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An explanation of image quality and resolution for desktop scanners. Same principals apply to digital cameras.

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Scanner Software

There are a couple of aftermarket scanning software solutions out there. The most developed is Lasersoft's Silverfast. Good stuff.

Find out why using your scanner's software to correct images before working on them in Photoshop or other image editing applications is better. Far better!

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All content copyright 2002 Michael Papet.