Umax Astra 2200SU

The Umax Astra 2200SU is a distinctive-looking scanner, with its dark cover making it stand out from the homogeneous all-beige competition, and its three one-touch operation buttons conveniently located at the front of the unit.

This gives the unit a more professional look, which is apt as it is aimed at more demanding users: Umax refers to them as 'prosumers' or professional consumers, as well as the small office/home office (SoHo) crowd.

The first sign that the 2200 isn't messing around comes with sight of the SCSI interface at the back of the unit. SCSI is a high-speed connection that requires a special card to be fitted to your PC - though the card is not included in the package. There is a USB connector, though, so it will work right away with any modern PC or Mac.

You don't have to be a boffin to use the 2200: in fact, the three one-touch buttons work well with the software that comes with the package, so once that's installed you have three easy options. The first two buttons will scan or copy any colour or black-and-white image and can then send them directly to a printer, turning the two machines into a low-cost (albeit much slower) alternative to an office photocopier.

The third button can be programmed to either send an image directly to an email program as an attachment or send a document with text directly to a word processor, using the included OCR (optical character recognition) software. The OCR software will 'read' the words and convert them into a format your computer will understand.

Also included in the 2200SU's software collection is some basic image-editing software, as well as full versions of NetObjects' Fusion and Macromedia Fireworks. Fusion is an easy to use but professional-quality web development software, while Fireworks is one of the best known web image editing software packages on the market.

Both packages will be a boon to any aspiring web artists or developers out there. In fact, they might just encourage you to set up your very own web page just to try them out.

Contact Umax 01344 871329Minimum requirements Windows 95/98 or NT, USB port