| Flatbed
Scanners
True Value
Hardware
Although there are several different types of scanners, the most
flexible one is the flatbed model which allows you to place items
on top of a glass platen to be scanned. Similar to a copier, a flatbed
scanner allows you to scan pictures, books and anything you can
place on top of the scanning surface.
There are three things to look for in a color scanner. First is
color depth, which is measured in bits per pixel. Most color scanners
are either 30-bit or 36-bit. Higher bit depths allow for more accurate
color reproduction of scanned images.
Second, look for the resolution of the scanner. Resolution is measured
by how many dots per inch, dpi, a scan captures. If the bulk of
your work consists of graphics and manipulating images, at least
600x600 true resolution is required for decent detail capture. Discount
sales pitches that talk about a scanner's interpolated resolution.
It is a way to create additional pixels that has not been captured
in the original scan, which can be helpful when enlarging scans
but does not improve upon the detail captured.
Finally, test for scan speed. Unfortunately, the only reliable way
to get a sense of how fast a unit scans is to try some samples.
Determine if the speed is going to be a time constraint for the
type of work you will be doing. Usually, if a scanner is going to
be used for data entry, you need a unit that scans quickly in a
lower resolution setting.
Scan speed is also greatly affected by the computer powering the
scanner. If you don't want to spend minutes waiting for an image
to be scanned, you'll need to use it with your speediest computer,
both in terms of processor and RAM. And you'll also want a hard
drive that's got plenty of space. When scanning at a high resolution
and capturing full color, one image can easily take up more than
10 megabytes of hard disk space.
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