What Do I Need to Look For When Buying a Flatbed Scanner?

Flatbed Scanners have the capability to take old photos and create archives as well as being able to convert them over into film. However, negatives are hard to see so it's best to digitize them. The best flatbed scanners are made by companies like Epson, Hewlett Packard and Canon.

What criteria should someone use when choosing a flatbed scanner? Pick the one based on the resolution which will measure the number of pixel for an image. This is important when it comes to looking at the specifications of the scanner. When it comes to a better measure the optical resolution preferred to the maximum resolutions. If the optical resolution is higher, it is measured in the dots per inch which gives better clarity and you will also get better details on your photos.

Also another area to look at is the bit depth; this is a count of the number of colors in an image. For an 8 bit scanner that will have 256 colors, a 24 bit will have 17 million colors, the 36 bit will have 69 billion colors and last but not least the 48 bit will have 281 trillion colors.

In the new charge coupled device or CCD scanners they will use high luminance white LED lamps and not the mercury filled cathode fluorescent lamps for its light source. The advantage to this is that the scanner does not need any time to warm up and can immediately scan as opposed to having to wait after the power is actually turned on. Also, this scanner will use less power as well as being environmentally friendly due to not having to use mercury. This scanner type will also use a reflective or Film Adapter Unit known as FAU light source.

Flatbed Scanners have the capability to scan up to 8 slides or the equivalent of 4 35mm filmstrips at 6 times each. A good thing is that batch scanning will not take a lot of time when you are using automatic file naming. The scanner will come with an auto film loader at the top so you can feed the filmstrip. As you slide in the negatives an image will pop up on your screen. It's best to choose approximately 4 or 5 of the best photos from a filmstrip.

The scanner will have 4 easy access buttons for one touch scanning, copying and creating email attachments as well as being able to create PDF files. You can also pre program the scanner as well. When you hit the copy button it will scan the document and then it will send it to the printer where it then prints out a copy. Then there is a photo film button that will scan an image and put it into an image organization software. It will have an image editing program such as photo shop can crop the image or flip it around if needed.

You can get flatbed scanners to scan either in black and white, grayscale or color mode as well as scan in dual mode. The scanner will allow light to pass through an object and capture it on its bed. All you have to be able to do is line up the image on the bed then close the lid before you scan the image. You will then see the image preview the software supplies to you. There are also trays for slides and negatives and also on some which will have the transparency adapter or unit.

A flatbed scanner can be optimized for optical character recognition or otherwise known as OCR. This means the text is being converted into a document that can be opened by a word processor so you can search and even edit the text.

There are flatbed scanners out there with multifunction capabilities such as printing, scanning and photocopying. By purchasing a all inclusive function flatbed scanner it will be well worth the cost. Keep in mind that a combo scanner may not print as well as a separate printer or scan as well as a separate scanner.

The best reviews out there according to PC world are the Canon CanoScan, LiDE200. The Epson Perfection V300 Photo was the editor's choice for flatbed scanners.

Oyyy.co.uk are one of the UK's leading A3 flatbed scanner and Canon flatbed scanner suppliers, with over £12 million worth of stock available from stock for next day delivery.