Finding the right scanner can be a challenge. Most can scan just about anything, but they come in various types and sizes are fine-tuned for different purposes. Here are key questions to ask to help ensure you choose the right or scanner-scanner-for your needs. WHAT YOU NEED TO SCAN?
Knowing what you expect to scan and how often you expect to scan it will tell you everything you need to know about the features you'll need. The two most common choices are the photos and documents (as bound pages), but there are other possibilities as well-books, business cards, film (slides and negatives), magazines, and the original can be easily damaged like stamp all quite common. Somewhat less common is the 3D objects such as coins or flowers. Also consider details like the original maximum size and whether you will need to scan both sides of pages of documents.
A FLATBED?
For original photos or other fragile, bound materials, and 3D objects, you need a flatbed. Genuine such as photos and stamps can go through the sheet feeder, but you risk damaging them. If you need this kind of scan the original only rarely, you may be able to make do with sheetfed scanner
that comes with a plastic carrier to protect the original. Keep in mind, that even brand new, unscratched plastic carriers can degrade the quality of the scan. A SHEET FEEDER?
If you plan to scan documents regularly, especially the document more than one or two pages-you almost certainly want to sheet feeder. Having to open the flatbed cover and set the page in place is a small task. After repeating this process 10 times for 10-page document is a tiresome interruption. Some scanners can also handle native sheetfed thick, such as health insurance ID card.
AN AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT FEEDER?
If you're mainly going to scan one or two pages at a time, manual sheet feeder may be all you need. If you will scan the document again on a regular basis, but you'll want the automatic document feeder (ADF) which will scan the entire stack of pages when you do something else. Select ADF capacity based on the number of pages in a typical document you expect to scan. If you sometimes have the document again, you can add a page during scanning. Some ADFs also can handle both stack of business cards.
DUPLEX?
Duplex scanning means both sides of the page at once. If you need a sheet feeder or ADF, and you wish to scan a duplex document (printed on both sides) on a regular basis, you'll want a duplex scanner, duplex ADF, or scanner driver including manual duplexing feature.
Duplexing scan scanner
has two elements, so that they can scan both sides of the page at once. They are faster than ADFs duplex, but they are also more expensive. ADFs duplex scan one side, turn the page over, and then another scan. Drivers with manual duplex let you scan one side of the stack and then manually Refeed stack to scan the other hand, with the scanner driver automatically interfiling pages. If you do not scan a duplex document very often, or on a tight budget, the duplex in the driver guide is the most economical alternative. RESOLUTION WHAT YOU NEED?
For most scans, the resolution is not a problem. For documents, even 200 pixel-per-inch (ppi) scan will provide a good enough quality for most purposes, 300 ppi is almost always enough, and difficult to find a scanner today with less than 600 ppi. For photos, the same, unless you plan to plant in the small section of photographs or print images with a larger size than the original, 600 ppi is more than enough.
There are several native species, however, which require higher resolution. If you scan 35-mm slides or negatives, for example, you might want to print it with a much larger size than the original, which means you will need to scan them at high resolution. Likewise, if you want to see fine detail on original documents such as stamps, you must scan at high resolution.
In this case you will want at least 4800 ppi optical resolution. Do not be confused with high figures for the mechanical resolution or interpolation. Both are irrelevant. Note also that the actual resolution is usually lower than the resolution claimed, because the actual resolution is usually limited by the optical quality of the scanner. However, it is generally safe to bet that the higher the resolution of claims to a higher-resolution real.
HOW BIG IS your original?
Choosing a scanner that can handle the original size that you need to scan seems like the obvious point, but easy to ignore. For example, most flatbeds font size, which would be a problem if you occasionally need to scan legal-size pages. Most flatbeds with ADFs will scan legal-size pages with the ADF, but not all do it, so be sure to check out. You also can find scanners with larger flatbeds.
WHAT SOFTWARE THAT COMES WITH THE SCANNER?
Most scanners will work with almost any program-related scans, but if the software you need already equipped with a scanner, you will not have to pay extra for it. Depending on what you plan to scan, some of the software features you might want to look for include photo editing, optical character recognition (OCR), text indexing, the ability to create searchable PDF documents, and program the card business.
SCANNER DO YOU NEED A SPECIAL-PURPOSE?
Finally, consider whether you need a special-purpose, rather than a general purpose, scanner. Among the special-purpose selection of the most common is the scanner for business cards (small and very portable), book (designed to let the pages lie), and slides (smaller than flatbed scanners, but not better in a slide scanning from the flatbed scanner with equivalent features.)
Two other possibilities is a portable scanner (general purpose sheetfed scanner small enough to fit in your laptop bag) and a scanner pen (pen size). Some of the latest portable scanner can operate without a computer, scanning to memory card, or even to the smartphone. You also can find a scanner that serves as both a portable document scanner and a desktop with a portable scanner combines with docking station that includes the ADF. Depending on what you need to scan, one of these could be a good choice, both as a scanner only you or as a supplement to general-purpose scanner.
