Find your perfect scanner

Being able to transfer hard copy material to your PC has long been a major driving force for the popularity of home computing.

Since the dawn of the flatbed scanner, we have been given a way to digitally store our most treasured photos, letters and personal documents. Now, with email and the internet, we can even share these pieces of history at the click of a button.

The first scanners for home use were handheld models that worked by dragging a T-shaped device over your flat document.

Although a great idea in theory, these devices were ultimately flawed due to their tediously slow transfer speeds, a maximum scanning width of about 15cm and the human inability to follow a straight line when using the device.

Thankfully, today's flatbed scanners operate more like photocopiers and allow us to scan almost anything, providing it fits on the scanning bed.

However, due to their popularity, scanners now come in all shapes and sizes performing a whole host of fancy jobs, so which is the best one for you? vnunet.com's sister title Computeractive investigates.

Flatbed scanners
The flatbed scanner is the most popular home scanning device. Flatbed scannersl ook and operate in largely similar ways to a photocopier, with a scanning head slowly moving underneath a glass sheet.

Acquiring a flatbed scanner needn't be expensive. The One Touch 5800 USB from Visioneer costs just £58. Granted, it's not a pretty peripheral but the 48bit colour depth and 600 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi) resolution is perfectly adequate for scanning documents and photos for personal use. The MGI image editing software is a bonus.

If you are after sharper performance for photo work, the extra resolution of the BenQ S2W 5300U is just the ticket. Again, it's no oil painting but the 1200 x 2400dpi resolution will allow for zooming in on photos with fewer quality issues than on the lower resolution Visioneer.

There is plenty of software for owners to play with too. A suite of Arcsoft software packages will take care of any post-scanning touch-ups, while the bundled optical character recognition (OCR) software can turn a page of text in a magazine or book into an editable word processing document.

Stepping up a rung or three on the quality ladder brings us to the £179 Canon Canoscan 5000F, which is £121 dearer than our budget choice. The money goes on building extra flexibility into the scanner, most noticeably with the inclusion of a built-in transparency adaptor for scanning photo negatives and transparencies.

This is a great option for the traditional camera enthusiast with a horde of 35mm film slides and negatives they would like to digitally archive. The 2400 x 4800dpi optical resolution combined with the 48bit colour depth allows for high-quality scans.

The Canon is also a quick scanner, thanks to a speedy PC connection. It hooks up via USB 2, which allows the image information from the scanner to pass to the computer more quickly, meaning scans take less time to complete.

One other nice feature is the FARE 1 system which offers automatic dust and scratch removal from scans.

The £230 HP Scanjet 5500c is a top-of-the-range scanner for home users and comes with a host of special features for photo fans. A transparency adaptor is an obvious inclusion, but an automatic photo feeder is less so.

This ingenious gadget can stack 24 6 x 4in prints on top of each other and scan them one at a time, saving each image to the PC as it goes. Again, it features a fast USB 2 connection while the 2400 x 2400dpi resolution should be enough for anyone.

Gimmicky quick-start buttons offer shortcuts for various scanning tasks such as email and 'share-to-web' features, although the 'scan-to-printer' button makes your PC a capable photocopier.

Pen scanners
Pen scanners are little more than an evolution of the handheld scanners we talked about at the start of this feature. Even though these devices can only read text, they still come in a variety of forms to undertake an assortment of tasks.

The C-Pen 800C (£200) is no bigger than a large chocolate bar but manages to squeeze a lot of technology into its tiny frame. Sliding the device over a line of text automatically triggers its OCR sensor and copies the desired text to its 8MB memory.

Up to 2,000 pages of A4 pages can be stored at one time and text can be transferred to a PC or handheld computer via serial or infrared connections. As well as recognising 99 per cent of English text, The C-Pen 800C can also decipher 10 other European languages, including French, German, Italian and Spanish.

The optional J-Notes software will also allow the pen to read and transfer handwritten copy although if your script is a little scruffy, don't expect miracles.

The C-Pen 10 (£80) is a cut-down and cut-price version of the 800C. Scanned text is stored straight to your word processor but the direct USB connection means you are tethered less than 2m from your PC. That makes it difficult to recommend over a flatbed unless you are on the move and use it with a notebook PC.

Developed for document scanning on the move, the DocuPort DocuPen (£145) can scan an A4 page of text and graphics in around five seconds. Rather than having to painstakingly run the pen along each line, the DocuPen can be slowly dragged vertically down the page across all the text at once.

Its 2MB on-board memory can store between 12 and 100 A4 pages depending on the density of text and the chosen resolution, either 100 or 200dpi.

The DocuPen only scans in greyscale and connects to a PC via a very slow serial cable. Nevertheless, the TWAIN interface means that most photo-editing software packages can be used to view your scanned documents.

Perhaps the most innovative pen-scanner is the Wizcom Reading Pen II, but at a cost of £230, you'd expect it to be. It scans like the C-Pen but the Reading Pen II will pronounce any word outloud, making it a useful aid for dyslexics or youngsters leaning to read.

More than 200,000 definitions are stored in its internal memory, which can also be displayed on its screen. A series of buttons can be used to navigate through the scanned text and menu options while a headphone socket allows for private listening.

The Reading Pen II can recognise printed text between six and 22pt but to transfer text to your PC, you will need to purchase a memory expansion kit which costs £65.

Multi-function devices
There are a few reasons why people opt for multi-function devices over a more traditional separate scanner and printer. The most obvious is space.

Modern multifunction devices are no larger than standard inkjet printers, and integrating the scanner can free up a square foot or two of desk space. Another advantage is that buying one integrated device is far cheaper and space-saving than splashing out on two or three separate machines.

The HP PSC2110 boasts excellent photo reproduction and good quality scans. The 600 x 1200dpi resolution is good but to get the best printing results you will have to splash out £35 on a six-colour cartridge to make use of HP's PhotoRet iV 4800dpi technology. Those with a USB 2 port will also be able to benefit from speedier scans.

The Lexmark X75 (£90) is a budget multi-function device that has shed a few monetary pounds since we had a look at it last autumn. Like the PSC2110 it can scan, print and copy images but it is very small compared with the HP. The USB connection won't allow you to scan as quickly as those with USB 2 enabled, although for the price it's a suitable compromise.

The 600 x 1200dpi scanning resolution is fine for a budget scanner. We like the fact that all scanning and printing options can be operated directly from the panel of buttons housed on the top of the device. Beware though, that the X75 cannot copy documents without the PC being switched on. It is not a standalone device.

The Brother MFC-580 (£160) is different to the other two multi-function models here as it also acts like a fax machine. Also shaped like one, it will scan A4 documents to an interpolated resolution of 2400dpi.

Built without a scanning bed means that the MFC-580 can't scan anything other than A4 paper, which is fed through the sheet feed but thanks to the built-in modem, you can directly email your scans to family and friends.

Both USB and parallel connections are on hand, while the printer will happily reproduce colour images at 1200 x 1200dpi.

Scans a lot
If you're looking for a scanner that will do the whole caboodle then a flatbed will be your best bet. As you can see, prices vary dramatically but depending on what you're planning to use the scanner for should make your decision easier.

If it's photo scanning you're after, then it's worth shelling out a little more to get a high-resolution model. HP's Scanjet 5500c is a superb machine that not only offers a 2400dpi resolution but also comes with both a transparency adaptor and automatic photo feeder. The pen scanners will be most useful to students and academic types.

If you don't mind being tied to your PC while copying out chunks of text, then the C-Pen 10 is an economical choice.

Multifunction devices should only be considered if you are going to use all of their features. For those that need an all in-one office solution at home, then the Lexmark X75 is a solid machine for a good price.

Semi-pro scanners
If you like heading out with your traditional 35mm camera and snapping anything from wildlife to Wandsworth, then you might want to invest in something a bit better than a flatbed scanner.

We trundled down to our local Jessops to see what it had on offer for the more discerning photo enthusiast.

The PrimeFilm 3600PRO Film Scanner (£380) isn't cheap but has a optical resolution of 3600dpi. You can even scan a whole roll of uncut 35mm film in one go if your PC is powerful enough.

Since it is a high-quality scanning device, it's not surprising to find both USB and FireWire connections for transferring images to your PC. Bundled with the 3600PRO is a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements for post-scan tweaking.

If you want to go a little easier on the wallet, PrimeFilm also sells the 1800U. This 35mm film scanner offers a lower optical resolution of 1800dpi and only provides a USB connection. However, a healthy bundle of software coupled with the £120 price tag makes it worth considering.

For those with a money tree in the back garden, the Nikon Coolscan 4 LS40 Film Scanner will not only scan 35mm film but also APS film at an optical resolution of 2,900dpi. Take a cheque for £500 to your nearest stockist if you'd like one.

CONTACTS

BenQ
01628 628600
www.benq.com

Brother
0845 606 0626
www.brother.co.uk

Canon
0870 514 3723
www.canon.co.uk/canoscan

Datamind (for pen scanners)
0870 770 0848
www.datamind.co.uk

Epson
0800 220 546
www.epson.co.uk

HP
0870 547 4747
www.hp.com/uk

Jessops
0116 232 6000
www.jessops.com

Lexmark
0870 444 0044
www.lexmark.co.uk

Nikon
0800 230220
www.nikon.co.uk

Visioneer
01483 445480
www.visioneer-europe.com