How to Buy a Scanner

Use a scanner to transfer printed materials - photos, drawings, even text - into your computer. The most important things to consider when choosing a scanner are quality and speed. Also keep in mind that your computer will need at least 32 MB of RAM, ideally 64 MB, to scan.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Aircraft Band Scanner

1. Buy a low-resolution scanner only if you will use it just to scan text.

2. If you don't plan to scan from books or magazines, consider a sheet-fed unit, which takes up far less desk space than a flatbed scanner.

3. Purchase a low-resolution or medium-resolution scanner if you plan to scan photographs to use on the Internet, as the resolution of Web graphics is low anyway.

4. Buy a high-resolution scanner if you plan to scan photographs to print and you have a high-resolution printer (greater than 600-by-600 dots per inch, or dpi).

5. Buy a model with 36-bit color depth if you plan to scan photographs or color graphics.

6. Purchase a parallel-port scanner if you don't expect to use the scanner often or work with large files.

7. Remember that even scanners that cost less than $100 will provide a good picture'600-by-1,200-dpi resolution. Scanners priced between $150 and $250 usually provide 1,200-by-1,200-dpi resolution.

8. Know that speed is the biggest factor in pricing. Parallel-port scanners, which use your existing printer port, are the cheapest and slowest. USB scanners, which require that your computer have a USB port, are faster and cost more. SCSI-card scanners are the fastest and most expensive. You need to install a SCSI card in your computer if it does not have one.

Tips & Warnings

• Your computer will need at least 32 (ideally 64) MB of RAM to scan.
• Don't buy a scanner that has greater resolution than your printer or display device. The extra money will be wasted. Make sure the scanner includes scanning software, an image-editing program and an OCR program (to translate scanned text into text you can actually edit).
• Some manufacturers mislead consumers with resolution claims.
• Optical resolution is the primary determining factor of quality.
• Be wary of small flatbed scanners that use a CIS (contact image sensor) instead of a CCD (charge-coupled device). They are more reliable but produce inferior image quality and color.

[legohead]

on 10/17/2008 Get an Epson and you'll have a good scan. The problem is no matter what flatbed you get, they just are too slow for large jobs. Flatbeds are meant for casual scanning, not hundreds of photos. You won't do much better with a cheap all-in-one. Besides, if the paper-path is in a U configuration as is typical, it likely will scratch the photo.

The fact is for the same $100+ you pay for a slow flatbed, a company like http://www.TheDigitalConvert.com will scan over 500 photos, do some editing, burn them to 2 DVDs, upload them to the web etc. It's really a waste of time and money to play around with one of those flatbeds.

[rongorongo]

on 9/10/2007 These guidelines are so far out of date that the advice will confuse- or scare anyone buying a new scanner in 2007! My advise: a cheap Epson PHOTO scanner from the Epson clearance center is all that an average snapshooter needs to input printed photos or color negatives. Serious photographers should buy an Epson scanner with the highest Dmax affordable. For a "home office" situation where document scanning is necessary get an all-in-one HP. Epson printers are problematic for anyone but the most serious fine art printmakers. Epson scanners are not problematic and the fidelity of even a cheap one leaves all the other manufacturers in the dust!

[sboals]

on 5/5/2007 Good article on scanner features at www.scanguru.com

on 11/22/2005 The warning not to buy a scanner that has greater resolution than your printer or display device (because the extra money will be wasted) assumes that printers will never get better. This is a very short-sighted approach. I don't want to scan my old photos again when the printer technology improves just because I scanned them at a lower resolution the first time. Also, those old photos will keep fading. They may not be around to scan a second time. Buy the best, highest resolution scanner you can afford.

on 11/22/2005 Many problems related to parallel scanners are related to driver conflicts of the printer/scanner and Win95 way of controlling the printerport (lpt.vxd) Upgrading to Win98 and getting the latest drivers is a pro.