Not long ago scanners
were a luxury item. Not now, with prices so low, they have become
available to everyone. And with a scanner, there are so many
additional things you can do. For instance, you can scan photos
to include in your favorite genealogy program, insert a photo
in a letter, send a photo as an attachments to e-mail, touch
up a photo and print it. You can copy a document, fax a document,
attach a scanned document to an e-mail, only to name a few uses.
So, you want one? Here is some information that may help you
decide what to buy.
There are three types of scanners;
hand held, paper feed and flatbed. Hand held were once very inexpensive
and were therefore a worthwhile choice. Now with low cost flatbed
scanners, hand held scanners are not very desirable. Sheet feed
scanners take up a very little area on your desktop and are therefore
desirable if desktop space is limited. You use them by feeding
a photo or document into the scanner. The photo or document is
pulled into the device and is scanned as it does. One large drawback
to this kind of scanner is that it cannot scan books, magazines
or anything else that is not flat and thin and can fit into the
scanner opening. Therefore this kind of scanner has limited usage.
The most versatile and desirable
scanner is the flatbed scanner. Although it takes up a fair amount
of space on the desk (starting at about 11" wide by 16"
deep), you can scan just about anything from photos, documents,
magazines, books and even objects. And with the prices nowadays,
it is easy to justify having one.
Scanners connect to the computer
via the USB port. You should have several USB ports on your computer.
Connect the scanner to the rear USB port just in case the front
USB port does not have sufficient power.
Now comes the question of scanner
resolution. Resolution means the number of dots (or samples)
per inch (dpi) that the scanner can record. Usually the higher
the number of dots or samples recorded, the higher the quality
of the scanned image. Some scanners can record 300 dpi by 600
dpi and some scanners can record 600 dpi by 1200 dpi. In general
the 600 by 1200 dpi scanner can produce a higher quality scanned
image than a 300 by 600 dpi scanner. The draw back to scanning
at a higher resolution (dpi) is that images scanned take a very
large amount of storage space on your hard disk. Large images
scanned at the high resolutions (dpi) can take up 10s of megabytes.
Also, images taken at a high resolution display very large on
your monitor. In order for a photo, for instance, to display
on your monitor at about the same size as the original photo,
you need to scan the photo with a resolution of about 75 to 85
dpi. Also, if you are attaching a photo to an e-mail message,
large photo files take a long time to send and receive. For printing
documents or photos, it is suggested that the scanner can have
a resolution up to the resolution of your printer. Therefore
if you have a 600 by 600 dpi printer, you scanner can have a
resolution of 600 by 1200 dpi. So, why do people buy the 600
by 1200 dpi scanners? People who are doing serious photographic
work probably need the higher resolution. Keep in mind that the
higher resolution scanners cost more than the lower resolution
models. For most of us the 300 by 600 dpi scanner will be sufficient.
These scanners can cost as little as $35 to $50.
One last consideration to buying
a scanner is what software comes with it and is there any addition
software required. Scanners come with the software needed to
scan a document or photo. Most scanners come with software that
allows you to convert a scanned document into one that you can
edit. This software is called Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
So, in most cases you don't need to buy any additional software.
However, if you want to scan a photo and then touch it up or
manipulate it, you may need to buy some additional software.
Some scanners come with software to manipulate photos and you
may want to look for it when buying a scanner.
For more information and reviews
of scanners, check out the following sites:
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