Scanners types, popular brands, prices, selection and maintenance tips
This article deals with the office scanners. Firstly there is an introductory note about scanners. Scanner types like drum scanners, flatbed scanners, film scanners, digital camera spanner and even the smartphone scanners that work scanner apps are discussed. The popular brands of scanners by top scanners' manufacturers like HP and Canon are given. The scanner prices wherever available are mentioned. The article also describes how to select scanners and some maintenance tips are also given.
Introduction
The purpose of an image scanner is to optically scan an image. The image to be scanned may be text whether typed, printed or handwritten, or a picture, diagram of an object. The image so scanned is then turned into a digital image by the scanner. The different types of scanners used in modern offices are desktop or flatbed, hand-held and 3D scanners. Old drum scanners used photomultiplier tubes as image sensors, whereas the modern scanners make use of charge coupled devices (CCD) and contact image sensors (CIS). Rotary scanners are types of drum scanners for scanning documents at high speed. There are also planetary scanners to photo books and documents. 3D scanners take three dimensional models of objects with full colours. In the more recent times, digital camera scanners are available as alternatives to the traditional scanners due to their anti-shake, portability and high speed features. Digital cameras are based on the concept of reprographic cameras. The scanners are most commonly used in modern offices. Let us discuss these features of scanners in detail.Types of scanners
Drum scanners
The first kind of scanners called drum scanners were first introduced in 1957. These scanners scanned the images by using photomultiplier tubes (PMT). These scanners derived their name from the clear acrylic cylinder called drum. The original document of maximum 11"x17" size could be mounted on the drum. However the output size of the scanned image differed from manufacturers. The drum scanners could control the aperture and sample size separately. However, with coming into existence of the inexpensive flatbed scanners, the use of drum scanners have become obsolete. Nevertheless, the drum scanners are still a matter of choice with regard to scanning of films since films can wet-mounted on the drum and due to the exceptional sensitivity of the photomultiplier tubes. Drum scanners are manufactured only by a very few companies these days. Although the prices of drum scanners have come down but they are still costlier than the flatbed and film scanners. The superior resolutions, value structure and colour gradation of the drum scanners make their demand felt in certain sectors. Drum scanners become advantageous when a very large scanned image is needed due the capability of drum scanners having resolutions up to 24, 000 PPI.
Flatbed scanners
The second type of scanners are flatbed scanners that have replaced the drum scanners in most of the scanning jobs except for the high ended applications like museum-quality archiving of photographs where scanning of high quality books and magazine advertisements are needed. Many fine-art photographers still buy drum scanners because the pre-owned scanners are easily available. The flatbed scanners comprise of a glass pane called the platen. Under the glass pane, there is a bright light that illuminates the glass pane, and a moving optical array in charge coupled devices (CCD) scanning. The CCD scanners have three rows or arrays of sensors with red, green and blue filters. Contact image sensors (CIS) scanners have a moving set of red, green and blue LEDs strobes for illumination and a connected monochromatic photodiode array for light collection. In this type of scanner the object to be scanned is placed face down on the glass. It is then covered with an opaque cover so that no ambient light is able to cross through the opaque cover. It is not possible to scan transparent image with this as they will need special accessories that illuminate them from the upper side. These accessories are provided as option by many flatbed scanner manufacturers today.
Sheet fed scanners
Sheetfed scanners can scan only one paper at a time. These scanners have a scanners have a stationery scanner head. The paper is automatically moved across this scanner head which is then sent to your computer for processing. These scanners have an automatic document feeder which can hold up to 50 pages. The speed of sheet fed scanners is usually limited to 25 pages per minute. Manual feeding is also possible. The care should be taken that the documents to be scanned should not have folds, nicks or tears. These come with scanning software for windows, Mac or other operating systems. The user can scan photos, forms, letters, business cards etc. using these scanners. Optical character recognition features of the scanners can scan and convert your typed and handwritten documents into editable texts in Microsoft Word and certain other word processors used in the computers.
Film scanners
The third kind of scanners are film scanners. In these type of scanners there is an equipment which is specially manufactured to scan both the positive and negative slides of films. Uncut film strips of up to six frames or four mounted slides are mounted on the carrier of the film scanner. It is then moved by a stepper motor across the lens and the CCD sensor inside the scanner. Film scanners are quite expensive.
Hand scanners
The fourth type is the hand scanners which are available as document scanners or 3D scanners. Hand held scanners are operated manually. These are dragged across the surface of the image, which is to be scanned. The hand needs to kept steady to avoid distorted images due to uneven scanning. There is start button to be held by the user during scanning. There are also switches to set the optical resolution and a roller. They were usually monochrome and were popular in the 1990s. However, hand held 3D scanners are still in use in certain applications including industrial design, inspection and analysis, reverse engineering, medical applications and digital manufacturing.
Smartphone scanners
The fifth kind of scanners can be classified as smartphone scanner apps. High resolution cameras in smartphones are capable of scanning high resolution photos which are post-processed by using scanning apps. Many smartphones come with a range of scanner apps. These apps are able to scan multiple page documents and multiple camera photos. These can be changed to output formats in PDF and JPEG. Popular office scanner brands available in India.
Since were discussing here the scanners which could be mainly used in our offices, let us discuss the available popular brands of scanners manufactured by several popular companies in India.
Scanners from HP
There are about 20 brands of scanners manufactured by HP which are available in the Indian market. These are given below along with their prices as available at the official website of the HP India http://www8.hp.com/in/en/products/scanners/index.html.
Scanners from Canon
There are five brands of scanners available on the official website of Canon India.
Epson's A4 Flatbed Business Scanners with ADF
Epson's A4 Sheetfed Scanners
Epson's A3 Scanners
The prices are not quoted on the official website of the company. However, you can click on the link 'how to buy' on the website http://www.epson.co.in/epson_india/scanners/scanner_list.page# and find the seller in your city from the 'store locator information' on this page of the website.
Besides the above, iBall also supplies a fordable scanner at the rate of Rs.9990.
Where to buy the office scanners
In addition to the online stores of HP, Cannon etc., these scanners and also some old models of HP and Canon scanners are available at shops that sell computer peripherals in India and also several online shops like naaptol.com, shopping.rediff.com, imagestore.co.in, homeshop18.com, flipkart.com, yebhi.com, infibeam.com and shopping.indiatimes.com. However these shops may not have all the brands available at a time. The prices also may differ slightly from shop to shop. How to select a scanner for your office use
Buy a scanner according to the nature and volume of office scanning work
The selection of scanners for a particular scanner will depend on the nature and volume of scanning work that is usually carried out in an office. So you must take into consideration the requirements of your office needs which a scanner will fulfil. The type, model and cost of the scanner to be purchased for an office will depend on the specific needs of your office. This is a very essential factor for selecting a scanner to be bought for your office. Before you buy a scanner for your office, you must therefore, work out the approximate number of documents that need to be scanned on an average. You must buy a high volume scanner if you need to scan hundreds of documents every month. Similarly, if you need to create high resolution files from the images you scan, your choice should be the scanners offering high resolution features.
Select a flatbed or sheet-fed style based on what you have to scan
Further you have to decide whether you need to buy a flatbed scanner or a sheet-fed scanner. Here your choice will depend on whether you want to scan a variety of documents and photographs using platen of the flatbed or you want to feed individual pages through a sheet-bed scanner in the same way as you feed your documents in a fax machine. You can go for a sheet-fed scanner if your requirement is to scan letters, documents, receipts etc.
Decide whether to have additional options depending on the needs of your office
Always look for the optional features in the scanners. You have to select the options depending on the scanning needs of your office. Some scanners come with built-in features while some others have add-on features. The most important of these options is automatic document feeder which feeds your documents through the scanner automatically. This will allow you to automatically scan multiple photos or documents saving a lot of your time. Some scanners have the option of a slide feeder, which converts your slides into individual image files. You have to decide the scanner model options taking into consideration the nature and volume of your work.
Think of the cost of the scanner vis-à-vis your office needs of scanning
The cost of the scanners is another consideration which has to be kept in mind while buying a scanner for your office needs. The best rule is that if the budget of your office permits, do not compromise quality for the cost. Here again, your decision depends upon the needs of your office. In case you want to scan only black and white documents, an inexpensive model will suffice your needs. However, you will need a costly scanner in case you want to scan slides or high resolution photos. Suppose, there is no need to print the photos and you need to scan images for online format to be sent with email or for uploading on the web, a cheap lower resolution scanner will suffice the needs of your office. Some tips about maintenance of scanners.
Proper maintenance of your scanners will not let you easily face hardware problems and other relative issues. For this purpose, you are reminded to read the maintenance section of the user's manual supplied with the scanners by the manufacturers. Regular cleaning and maintenance of your scanners can save you from the costs of unnecessary repairs. Below are given some tips to properly maintain your scanners:
In case the scanner does not scan, check up the cable connections from the scanner to the electrical plug and your computer. See whether the power light is lit on the scanner.