Scanners
- When you buy a scanner, follow the general principles for buying green office equipment.
- Only turn your scanner on when you want to use it.
- To meet ENERGY STAR requirements scanners must be able to enter a sleep mode of 12 watts or less in no more than 15 minutes.There are some scanners on the market with a power rating for sleep mode of about 3 watts, but most are three to four times that amount.
- Generally, high resolution scanners use more energy in sleep mode than lower quality ones. However, there are a few high resolution machines at the energy-efficient end of the scale. Consult the manufacturer regarding the 'sleep mode' energy rating.
- While relatively rare a few years ago, scanners are now one of the fastest growing segments of the office equipment market and are commonly included in home/small office computing packages.
- In most offices scanners are only used occasionally. They can therefore be switched off for most of the time. Networked scanners can be switched off outside working hours and during office hours if they are not used very much.
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[edit] Photo scanners
- Enjoy high-definition scan quality for vivid and realistic images
- Preserve and restore photos, slides and negatives
- Scan, copy and share effortlessly
[edit] Document scanners
- Easily capture, store and retrieve important documents
- Fast document scanning with great productivity features
- Improve efficiency with one-touch features
[edit] Types of Scanners
[edit] Drum Scanners
Drum scanners capture image information using photomultiplier tubes (PMT) technology unlike the charged coupled device (CCD) used in flatbed scanners and film scanners. In the drum scanner the reflective and transmissive originals are mounted to an acrylic cylinder, the scanner drum, which rotates at high speed while it passes the object being scanned in front of precision optics that deliver image information to the PMTs. In most modern color drum scanners 3 matched PMTs are found in use, which read red, blue and green light respectively. In drum scanner light from the original artwork is split into separate red, blue and green beams in the optical bench of the scanner making the digital image more precise.
[edit] Flatbed Scanner
Another type of scanner is the flatbed scanner. A flatbed scanner is usually made of a glass pane, which is illuminated with a bright light found underneath, and a moving optical CCD or CIS array. In the flatbed scanner images to be scanned are placed face down on the glass and the sensor and light source move across the glass pane reading the entire area.
[edit] Hand Scanner
A Hand scanner is a manual device that is dragged across the surface of the image to be scanned. Scanning documents in this manner is difficult as this requires a steady hand, to avoid uneven scanning rate that would produce distorted images. They have a "start" button which is held by the user during the scan, some switches to set the optical resolution, and a roller which generates a clock pulse for synchronization with the computer .
[edit] Flat Bed Scanners
A scanners basic function is to analyze, scan and convert an image, document or handwriting into a digital image. And the flatbed scanner precisely does that. It is one of the most popular and commonly seen scanners in the United States. The flatbed scanner is a functional and compact device that is widely used to scan pictures and documents.
Technically a flatbed scanner is a device that is composed of a glass pane or platen, which it is usually known as, under which there is a bright light, often xenon or cold cathode fluorescent that illuminates the glass pane. The next part, which is important in the scanning process in a flatbed scanner, is a moving optical array, which is usually CCD (charged coupled device) or CIS (Contact Image Sensor). The color flatbed scanners typically contain three rows or arrays of sensors with red, green, and blue filters. In a typical case images to be scanned are placed face down on the glass and the sensor array and light source moves across the pane reading the entire area of the bed or glass pane of the scanner. This image is therefore visible to the charge-coupled device only because of the light it reflects. The only exception to the flatbed scanners are the transparent images or transparencies that do not work in this way, and require special accessories like the transparency adapter that illuminate them from the upper side.
The flatbed scanner is available in many prices, which depend on the features such as optical resolution, color depth, and other such aspects.
[edit] Large Flatbed Scanners
Flatbed scanners resemble a copying machine and can vary greatly in their quality and size and last but not least their size. It is important to consider your needs before purchasing a flatbed scanner and then pick one that will have the characteristic that will give you the best quality/price ratio.
Flatbed scanners also vary in their size. Regular flatbed scanners in size match the A4 page (8,5?x 11?) but there are also smaller ones available that are especially designed to scan photographs and are 6?x4?in size. And then there are large flatbed scanners, which are adapted to the sizes A3 and more. They are the high end of the consumer scanners, but can also be purchased at reasonable prices.
Consider the depth of the color, the resolution and density range, even before you decide whether you need a large flatbed scanner. Flatbed scanners of high quality are also often used to produce repro-quality scans.
[edit] Slide Scanners
The film scanner can be effectively used as a slide scanner. The slide scanner is such a device, which can scan photographic slide or negatives directly into your computer without the need of intermediate printmaking. This saves a lot of time and assures you of the best scanning results as it takes them directly from the slide itself rather than from the prints.
The slide scanners are quite popular among the professionals and amateurs. There are two types of slide scanners available in the market one, which is a specialized slide scanner, and the other one is the flatbed scanner that can be used to scan slides with the help of adapters. Normally a slide scanner can accept strips of either 35mm or 120 mm of film or individual slides. The entry level slide scanners are usually equipped to take only the 35mm slide whereas the high end models of slide scanners come with interchangeable slide loaders that allows them to be used for different types of packaging.
For greater results with the scanned images many of the slide scanners come with software and hardware, which is capable of removing dust and scratches from the scanned images. This gives more flexibility and specialization to the professional using such scanner.
[edit] What is in a pen scanner?
Pen scanners are the most recent newcomers in the scanning market. Most commonly pen scanners were used as bar code readers, in one swift motion one is able to scan the bar code and the photodiode in the tip of the pen decodes the bar code and gives you the name and the price of the article in question.
With advancements in technology pen scanners are not only limited to decoding bar code anymore. The most recent models of pen scanners that are available can scan up to 100 pages of text and transfer it to your computer. Pen scanners can recognize different fonts of texts you are scanning, they can scan the text directly into the application on your computer, some pen scanners even double as a PDA.
Pen scanners might be a bit tricky to use at first, as it will take a while to get the angle to scan the text just right, however once you get used to using a pen scanner you might wonder how you ever went without it.
[edit] Sheetfed Scanner
A scanner is there to take care of all your scanning needs. This device has evolved greatly and has transformed according to the changing needs. The most common scanner used in the United States today is the flatbed scanner usually known as desktop scanner . In this type the scanning head moves through to scan the document placed on the bed of the glass pane. But the flatbed scanner is nearly unreasonable when it comes to scanning a number of documents in quick succession. As the flatbed scanner requires manual assistance to place the documents on its bed it is time and effort consuming in case there are a large number of documents to scan.
In such case the sheetfed scanner or the document scanner comes as a great help. More or less like the flatbed scanner, the sheetfed scanner is more handy in scanning a large number of documents. Unlike the flatbed scanner the sheetfed scanner instead of moving the scanner head moves the paper past a stationery scanning head which then scans the documents in quick succession without human assistance. The initial problem faced with the sheetfed scanners was that of paper misfeeds which was a common occurring error. But with the help of new designs and technology the new age sheetfed scanners no longer prone to misfeeds and scan many documents quickly and convert them to digital documents, usual PDF files.
The sheetfed scanners find common application in the offices where they need to scan a large number of documents. In addition, many scanners sheetfed scanners come with software programs to convert typed documents into text that can be used by a word processing program.
[edit] Handheld Scanner
When you are consistently traveling or have a small office space and still require scanning documents or images then obviously the flatbed scanner wont be of any help due to its size. In such a case the handheld scanners come in handy to carry and to use. The invention of the handheld scanner is a great boon to people who are frequent travelers and or have a compact office space.
The hand scanners were fairly popular during the 1900’s but due to the scanning results and process involved have not retained the popularity once enjoyed. A handheld scanner is a manual device that is dragged across the surface of the picture or document to be scanned. Scanning documents with the handheld scanner is difficult, as it requires a steady hand, as an uneven scanning rate would produce distorted images. The handheld scanner have a start button which is held by the user for the duration of the scan. There are also some switches to set the optical resolution, and a roller that generates a clock pulse for synchronization with the computer. Most handheld scanners used to be monochrome, and produced light from an array of green LEDs to illuminate the image. A typical handheld scanner also had a small window through which the document being scanned could be viewed.
[edit] Business Card Scanner
If you have gone to attend a business conference or a trade show you might as well understand that you will be carrying a dozens of business cards with you. When you have a large number of business cards with you and want to store the information in your PC then typing the individual information is not only tedious but also unviable. In such a case scanning the card and then saving the information in converted text format is kind of right idea that saves time and efforts.
To scan business card using flatbed scanner is also time consuming, as it requires manual assistance when it is about scanning multiple cards. This is when a typical business card scanner comes to rescue. A business card scanner is a scanner that has only one purpose and that is to scan business cards and store the information. A business card scanner scans business cards, separate out all their various types of information like name, title, address, phone number, e-mail address, URL, etc. and store that data, either with the help of a software that comes with the scanner, or in a personal information manager/address book packages such as Microsoft Outlook. The business card scanner is very useful in scanning business cards but due to the designs, graphics and lettering on the business cards can sometimes generate errors in the converted texts. But looking at the speed at which it scans the cards these errors can be corrected manually and still you can save a lot much time in the whole process.
[edit] Film Scanner
If you have always wanted to scan negatives or films directly with the scanner then the film scanner is the best device for you. The film scanner is such a device, which can scan photographic film or negatives directly into your computer without the need of intermediate printmaking. This saves a lot of time and assures you of the best scanning results as it takes them directly from the film itself rather than from the prints.
The film scanners are quite popular among the professionals and amateurs. There are two types of film scanners available in the market one, which is a specialized film scanner, and the other one is the flatbed scanner that can be used to scan films with the help of adapters. Normally a film scanner can accept strips of either 35mm or 120 mm of film or individual slides. The entry level film scanners are usually equipped to take only the 35mm film whereas the high end models of film scanners come with interchangeable film loaders that allows them to be used for different types of packaging.
For greater results with the scanned images many of the film scanners come with software and hardware, which is capable of removing dust and scratches from the scanned images. This gives more flexibility and specialization to the professional using such scanner.
[edit] Scanner Features
The scanners today exhibit many interesting feature and functionalities, which not only improve its productivity but also the overall performance. Gone are the days when the scanners only used to be scanning merely images but the scanners today not only make the best digital scans but wit features like the OCR can perform a lot many tasks. Lets learn more about the scanner features presently found in the most popular models.
Increased Optical Resolution It plays an important role in determining the quality of scanned image. The scanners today have more than 1200 dpi of optical resolution and some of them may go well above 3600 dpi.
Increased color depths Color depth refers to the information captured on each individual pixel while scanning. Scanners are now available with high color depths to give you the best image quality. Color depths usually start from 24bit.
Scanner Sensor While most of the scanners are still available with the conventional CCD or charged Coupled Device arrays new technologies like the CIS or contact image sensors are fast catching up giving more flexibility in use.
Scanner Connectivity The new sensors like the CIS allow the scanner to be connected to the USB port of a PC which requires very low power consumption.
Third Party Software Third party software are those which are not bundled with the manufacturers software but can be additionally used. One such is the Optical Character Recognition software, which is a common third party software.
Transparency Adapter A transparency adapter is very useful feature when you need to scan transparencies or negatives using your scanner.
