Flatbed scanners: reproduce inexpensively and in many ways

Now almost every home along with a coffee maker, computer and TV you can see a device that can copy photos or, at least, plain sheets of A4 paper with text. There are color, there are also black and white – and the market is the sea of such devices. And that’s why the process of choosing a home scanner is a tougher task than Faust… Let’s try to get some clarity on this issue?

Author: Andrew KASHKAROV.

History of scanners, which is already interesting

Scanner. scanner – a device that, by analyzing some object, creates a digital copy of the image of the object. The process of obtaining this copy is called scanning. This is, in my opinion, the most accurate description is in the Encyclopedia “Wikipedia.wikipedia.org/wiki/.

A scanner is also called a device which, by means of an analog-to-digital converter ADC , creates a digital image description of an object external to a personal computer PC and transmits it via I/O to the PC.

There is a distinction between manual and digital pumps. Handheld , roll-fed and flatbed solutions. Sheet-Feed , flatbed Eng. Flatbed solutions, the most popular ones for domestic use, and projection scanners. A kind of projection scanners are slide scanners, designed for scanning photographic film.

The high-quality printing industry uses drum scanners that use a photomultiplier tube PMT as a photosensitive element.

The first handheld scanners were popular in the early ’90s, when others simply did not exist or were fabulously expensive. Most first-generation handheld scanners were monochrome and used a few LEDs – red or green – to illuminate the image.

“Handhelds” had a specialized interface suitable for certain types of computers, such as the Atari STB, Apple Mac or Commodore Amiga.

Compared to flatbed scanners, the first handheld scanners were compact, performed identical functions, but performed much worse.

Scanning a standard A4 sheet in one pass was not possible: it was necessary to work on several sections in succession, and color scans often had ghosting and distorted colors.

The main problem is keeping a constant speed – in most cases it is impossible to achieve smooth motion, which leads to distortion of the received image.

Today’s handheld scanners have long outgrown their original specialization, which involved only scanning images. Today, devices that read bar codes in stores and at the cash register, too , bank and other cards with a magnetic stripe or chip, contactless cards, and even RFID tags attached to goods to reduce theft, loss in stores – all these are fashionably called scanners.

However, since we are interested only in scanners in the classic sense of the definition – for use with a PC, then we will consider them in detail, and begin with the most popular in everyday life – flatbed scanners.

How Different Types of Scanners Work

The principle of the single-pass flatbed scanner is that the scanning carriage with a light source moves along the scanned image located on a transparent fixed glass symbols down .

Picture 1.

View of a moving scanner carriage

The reflected light through the optical system of a scanner consisting of a lens and mirrors or prisms hits three or more photosensitive semiconductor elements based on charge-coupled devices CCDs , each of which receives information about the components of the image.

One-pass this scanner is called “for the fact” that to scan an image with relatively low resolution less than 300 dpi requires only one pass carriage with a special lamp or a powerful LED, dpi – the value of the parameter “dots per inch image.

Today the most popular and modern model of flatbed scanner is Xerox DocMate3460 worth more than 60 000 Dollars its specifications are described below.

However, buying a professional device, so to speak, not everyone can afford, and for the home and is not necessary, there are more simple and quite satisfactory advanced models that work without repair within a few years in my practice, 3-4 years , and replaced by new ones, only because morally outdated.

So you can say with confidence that almost any modern scanner is a very reliable device, in spite of the fact that in its composition there are moving mechanical parts, driven by low-power electric motors.

When analyzing different brands, firms, and specific models you often have the question: which one is better, which one is worse, which one should be plastic or mineral glass? What is the best or minimum resolution and color depth for using a scanner in your home as we do. Let’s look into these issues as well.

Different Brands and Their Features

The most popular brands among scanners are Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Xerox and a relatively new firm, Plustek, which has been producing for some years but only recently began to deliver to the American market its products in the form of color tablet A4 scanners.

The other brands and models are left out of this review, not because they are not worthy, but because we cannot conduct this review alone. So if you see a Texet scanner on sale, it’s okay. As a rule, in such a device there will be approximately the same set of service functions, as in the already familiar to us brands, but Texet will cost many times cheaper due to equipment and mechanisms .

Here everyone chooses for himself. I can only give an opinion: all scanners and multifunction devices MFP today are produced in China, where prudent companies, in order to optimize costs, have long ago moved their production subsidiaries.

Canon

Canon’s Multi-Photo technology saves time by scanning many original images including photos in one pass.

The originals images can be simply laid out on the glass without wasting time aligning them, as the Multi-Photo system automatically recognizes, crops, aligns and creates a separate file for each photo.

Epson

Epson scanners have great quality. 2400 x 4800 dpi, 48-bit color depth for high contrast and crisp color reproduction. EPSON Matrix CCD scanning sensor, MicroStep Drive technology and On-Chip MicroLens for maximum quality of the original image.

Multifunctional quick scan with EPSON SmartPanel menu and QuickStart key USB interface 1.1, USB 2.0. Built-in module for scanning transparent originals. Great choice for home photo and design.

Hewlett Packard

The processing of paper documents in offices is one of the most time-consuming jobs. Fast and reliable scanners from Hewlett Packard provide maximum support to this task and minimize the cost of processing paper documentation.

Hewlett Packard scanners will therefore be indispensable assistants in processing documentation where there is a lot of it, and they are also a good example of a universal information input device.

Plustek

Plustek CCD scanner models have the optical resolution of 600×1200 dpi with focal depth up to 3 cm, which allows you to scan not only flat objects, but also three-dimensional objects. Equipped with five function buttons on the front panel, which recall the installed software for copying, emailing, text recognition, power saving and settings.

Comparative table of the most popular flatbed scanners

Model	Type	Slide adapter	Format max	Improved resolution max , dpi	Standard Resolution, dpi	Sensor Type	Power during operation/standby mode, W
Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F	flatbed	available at	A4	19200×19200	9600×9600	CIS	2/1
Canon CanoScan LiDE 110	flatbed	no	A4	19200×19200	2400×4800	CIS	2/1
Canon CanoScan 5600F	flatbed	available	A4	19200×19200	4800×9600	CCD	19
Canon CanoScan LiDE 210	flatbed	yes	A4	19200×19200	4800×4800	CIS	2/1
Epson Perfection V330 Photo	flatbed	yes	A4	12800×12800	4800×9600	CCD	No data
Epson Perfection V33	flatbed	no	A4	12800×12800	4800×9600	CCD	No data
HP ScanJet G2410	flatbed	no	A4	1200×1200	1200×1200	CCD	No info
HP ScanJet G4010	flatbed	120×120 mm	A4	4800×9600	4800×4800	CCD	No info

Modern scanners usually have a USB 2 interface.0 and compatible with IBM PC and MAC type PCs, which is quite in line with today’s standards. PDF, JPEG, DOC scan file format.

What is relevant when choosing a scanner

When choosing a scanner and analyzing comparing the technical characteristics different models of the same type, for example, flatbed scanners such parameters as speed scanning of color and black and white monochrome images, color depth, maximum resolving power, are important.

The first two options determine how fast the scanner can scan pages respectively color or monochrome in a given period of time. For example, for the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F scanner, these parameters are respectively:

• Scanning speed color and. 34.3 ms per line 4800 dpi

• Scanning speed B&W 11.4 ms per line 2400 dpi

• 48 bit color depth.

The higher all three parameters – scanning speed, color depth and resolution dpi , the better, but also the more expensive will be the scanner.

Besides monochrome or color images in all models of modern scanners it is possible to set the resolution parameter in dpi programmatically through the scanner menu in the PC within the maximum capabilities. This setting will affect the quality of the scanned image, color reproduction, scanning speed, and the “weight” volume of the finished file.

By the way, it is better to save scanned images in raster tiff format such a file is perfectly effectively compressed by RAR archiver. For example, a file with tiff resolution of 11 Mb will be archived by RAR to the volume of 1 Mb or less, depending on the settings of the archiver such a minimized file is much more convenient to send by e-mail or even store in a PC to save the space .

Another equally important feature is the glass material through which the image is scanned. Mineral glass is the most common type of glass in good scanners. Its distinguishing feature is its durability, transparency.

Organic glass plastic is lighter and more impact-resistant, and very light in weight, while mineral glass makes the scanner heavier. However, plastic is melted natural quartz sand with various additives.

It is much cheaper than glass, but also less valuable, over time the plastic glass darkens. Small scratches on plastic cannot be corrected at home plastic cannot be polished .

On the other hand scanners with high quality plastic glass are many times cheaper than “glass” scanners, and lighter. If you are buying a scanner for a short time, you can take the cheapest one with the plastic glass according to the comparative characteristics of the budget models presented below.

For a good scanner bought for your convenience over the years, including one combined with an MFP, you’re better off with a glass. The same method is used for choosing lenses for eyeglasses, cameras and other applications. Here the savings are questionable.

Advantages of the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F

Slim body, quiet and fast scanner. No bulky power supply powered by USB, which also downloads files . Can stand upright on a table. It is especially good when your desk space is limited: -slide the scanner behind a flat monitor, you won’t see it.

More features of the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F “tablet”: 4 EZ Buttons.

The scanner has a separate module for scanning slides and negatives. Allows digitizing slides with excellent quality. It’s important for those already quite elderly people, grandmothers and grandfathers who have saved old films slides, negatives , because 30 years ago there were no digital cameras freely available there were only some lucky owners of “Polaroids” .

Many people today want to digitize their film archives, including 35 mm negatives. Color reproduction, tinting – all excellent. Nice and simple software, you can scan one batch and one-by-one, which is also a plus. There is a descreening function.

The cover of the scanner with magnets – the documents itself presses the glass.

For example, on some scanners of other models it was necessary to put a stack of paper on top to scan a notebook or brochure, or a convex sheet of cardboard.

Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F – a simple and functional scanner for any color job except scanning stacks of prints .

Good for home, since it takes almost no space on your desk. The average retail price for the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F as of February 2011 is 3950 Dollars. This is an average model and the cost and parameter characteristics.

Advantages and disadvantages of Canon CanoScan LiDE 110

Scanning speed: 15 seconds grayscale scanning at 300 dpi. Relatively inexpensive budget model, like the previous one, powered by USB. The software works fine, no problems to install. Type of light source LED. However, in this case, we found more disadvantages than advantages.

disadvantages:

• 13 seconds of scanning time for the carriage to reset 15 seconds to scan the grayscale image the middle option between black and white and color, all other things being equal – set resolution , then another 13 seconds to scan again, for a total of 28 seconds – that’s relatively a lot per run.

• It takes 30 seconds to scan a color image at 300 dpi plus 13 seconds for the carriage to return to its original state, the total of 43 seconds.

• The scanner has a CIS matrix not CCD . This means that if you are scanning a book, if it is thick and has a deep spread, the image will be blurry if the scanner cover is not tightly closed near the center.

  If you move farther than 0.5 cm from the glass – the scanned image blurs. If it had a CCD sensor, everything would be clear.

The scanner is only good for scanning flat gray text, such as documents on sheets of paper. Maximum – thin books, or books without deep spread between pages.

Wanted to make an electronic version of a thick reference book, recognize and search for text. This scanner cannot do the job.

Conclusion: Despite the limited budget in your pocket the scanner cost 2700 Dollars the color image will not be blurred.I think this scanner is cheap for a schoolboy or college student, but it is a bit weak.

Canon CanoScan 5600F

The advantages of the Canon CanoScan 5600F are its high scanning quality – both reflective and translucent. Other than that:

• Intelligent functional and shockproof mechanical design

• user-friendly software interface

• built-in power supply

• Good quality interface cable included

• Nice unobtrusive design.

  

  The auto-correction functions should be used with care sometimes better results are obtained with third-party software.

  Interface is simple and functional, just as a good scanner should be. In my opinion, if to estimate, the Canon CanoScan 5600F has above-average parameters an excellent option for a schoolboy and a student, even for the future. Parameters of speed and color depth:

• Scanning speed color , the scanning speed is blurred. 67.5 ms/line

• scan speed b/w 67.5 ms/line

• color depth external. 48-bit.

Disadvantages:

• non-removable cover

• Overly bright indicator on the lid

• Low weight and small dimensions.

Conclusion: excellent for its price 5950 rbl. scanner. It scans excellent negatives, it is as good as a specialized film scanner if you prepare the film well, then you can get an excellent scanned copy even from old negatives .

Canon CanoScan LiDE 210

Newer, improved model compared to Canon CanoScan LiDE 110.

Distinctive features of the device:

• Scanning speed color . 2.2 msec per line 300 lpi ./d. 33.2 ms per line 4800 t./d.

• scanning speed B&W 2.2 ms per line 300 t./d. , 11.1 ms per line 4800 fpm , 11.1 ms per second 4800 fpm , 4800 fpm per line 4800 fpm ./d.

• 48-bit color depth

• Color depth external. 24 bit

• The scanner is only good for scanning flat gray text like documents in sheets of paper with a color depth of 256 grayscale

• Light-emitting diode LED light source type.

The image appearance is similar.

Advantages: high scanning speed see parameters above , conveniently located quick access buttons on the body, automatic resizing, USB power supply no external power supply . Good color rendering parameters.

Conclusion: A good scanner for a decent price, the average citizen for school and college student. Works faster than many CCD scanners with external power supply. Comes with a stand for mounting your scanner “on the edge”.

The standard software program is versatile and, in my opinion, complicated, but you can figure it out. Conveniently designed quick access buttons, press and get results.

Epson Perfection V330 Photo

Advantages: Reasonably priced and good scan quality. Movable module in the lid for film scanning.

Disadvantages: Not a perfect frame for films slides . In all previous models, except for a relatively cheap and simple Canon CanoScan LiDE 110, such a frame is included.

Bottom line: Not perfect, but for a little money 4,500 rb. is probably a good bet. It doesn’t make sense to program to the highest resolution because of the large size of the files. It’s best to scan in professional mode, using the settings you figure out, trust the rest to automatic software selection.

Epson Perfection V33

Advantages:

• The software is user friendly

• fast scanning

• High quality scanned images.

Disadvantages: no adapter for film slides, negatives . Although it’s clear, that not everyone needs such adapter today we live in XXI century..

Conclusion: A good scanner at a very good price 3,600 Dollars .

The software is impressive, everything is user friendly, simple and understandable and very functional at the same time.

Great scanner, for home use and a wide variety of users.

HP ScanJet G2410

Weaknesses: It gets very “lazy” when you upgrade to Windows-7 operating system. From mechanical problems: the cover fell off the guides, the glass gets dirty easily, after a year of operation it became as “smoked”.

Conclusion: Cheap 2200 rub. and cordially. Not functional. Looking for another one right now, like the HP ScanJet G3110. If you want to change equipment more than once a year – buy this model.

HP ScanJet G4010

Advantages: fast scanning, at 300 dpi, carriage return speed of about 8 seconds.

Disadvantages: The software let me down, it heats up to 45 degrees Celsius when plugged in, which I’ve never noticed with other models.

Conclusion: the average model at a cost of 5200 Dollars, the user is most likely paying for the brand, taking into account that for the same material means you can buy see 5-6 . higher better and more functional.

That is the end of the first part of our review of the most popular inexpensive scanners. Of course, there are more expensive and functional, professional and multi-profile models. This will be discussed in future posts.