scanners

While scanners are still considered a "luxury" item, they are growing into becoming a more necessary item. While there are many uses, from scanning receipts for expense reports, to emailing photos to relatives, to backing up important documents. There are many different scanners out there, all with their own bells and whistles. The two most important items to consider when purchasing that new scanner are:

• Dots Per Inch (dpi)
  Every scanner boasts its DPI setting. The higher the dpi, the more detail that can be picked up by the scanner. Make sure, however, that you read the specifications for the Optical dpi, not the "maximum" dpi. The reason is very comparable to the optical zoom versus digital zoom on a camera. You will always achieve 100% quality within the optical zoom, but when you get into the digital zoom, the camera image sometimes becomes fuzzy or pixelated (grainy). This is because the imaging processor is not actually "seeing" the image, but "interpretating" it.
• Bundled Software
  Always make sure that the bundled software meets your needs based on what you will be doing with the software. Read recommendations and reviews of other users, or ask for a demo at the store to see how it works.

single-function

The most wide-spread purchasing of scanners is still in the form of single-function products. I recommend Epson Perfection series scanners. They are consistently receiving Editor's Choice awards for best scanner. And Epson scanners come bundles with a great suite of software that enables anyone to produce great digital images! I also recommend Canon CanoScan LiDE scanners. They don't require a power cord, are incredibly portable (for laptop users) and have a Scan-to-PDF button (35 and 500F only).

multi-function

Multi-function devices are the wave of the future. One downside is that these devices tend to take up a lot of desk space, whereas separate devices tend to be smaller and collectively can be arranged in tighter areas. As you may guess, I also recommend Epson All-In-One devices, and particularly the RX series. This line of products contains all the benefits of the Epson Perfection series of scanners, and also the great features of the Epson Stylus Photo Printers (like seprate ink cartridges for each color).

Again, if you have any questions, please contact me.

make your files smaller

When people scan their items, whether they be pictures or letters, they tend to leave the scanning resolution the same, unnecessarily taking up hard drive space. Here are some suggested scanning destinations and the appropriate resolutions:

• Web Images
  Every screen on the plant displays images at 72dpi. So when you are scanning items exclusively for email, desktop backgrounds, or posting on a website, choose 72dpi.
• Print Images
  When you are printing an image, you should consider scanning at 150-600dpi, depending on the quality you seek.
• Enlargements
  When you are enlarging items, that's when you need the full power of the scanner. Experiment with higher resolutions until you get the level of quality you desire.