Agfa SnapScan e40

Breaking away from its reputation as the tool for the graphics specialist, the flatbed scanner has become a popular item with the home user. With falling prices and a growing demand for internet images, the home computer can now look positively isolated without a scanner by its side.

Agfa's SnapScan e40 is all about ease of use and connectivity. Although not the cheapest flatbed around, this A4 scanner is easy to install. Simply plug in the USB cable and allow a Windows98/2000 computer to detect it. This procedure is well documented in the manual, together with diagrams.

After installing the bundled ScanWise software, you can use the SnapScan e40 to scan images directly to your hard disk, email application, word processor, printer or fax machine. If optical character recognition (OCR) is more your thing, then the multilingual Readiris software will come in handy when converting printed type into PC-editable text.

Whatever option you choose, it only takes several mouse clicks before you can sit back and let the intuitive ScanWise interface take control. However, if you want to do some tweaking then the usual settings for image size, brightness, contrast and saturation are present. You can also preview the effect of your adjustments before triggering the scan process.

If you get stuck along the way Agfa has included a 'guide me' mode for those new to scanning technology. A copy of Corel Print Office 2000 for document, web image editing and publishing is also thrown in.

Despite its high cost, the image quality is only average. Resolution is not up to the standard of other similarly priced scanners, and darker colour shades were not exceptional. On the plus side, the maximum resolution is relatively high, which means you can produce good-quality enlargements.

Be careful though, as those large file sizes just love to swallow up large chunks of disk space and processing time. It takes around half a minute to scan in a colour picture, which may only be a problem if you're doing a lot of colour image scanning.

For all those image-conscious users out there, the SnapScan e40 is well-built and also comes with a choice of interchangeable translucent handles in orange, blueberry and graphite.

Contact Agfa 020 8231 4903