I highly recommend the ScanMaker (MicroTek) E3. It is a flatbed 300x600 DPI (hardware)resolution 24 bit color. Scan surface is 8 1/5 X 14 inch. It will do much higher software resolution (2048x2048), but the hardware is the important one. I researched this for some time before purchasing (In March), and settled on it. It comes packaged with light versions of PhotoWorks and Adobe's OCR text recognition. It also comes with a Microtek software product (I like it). You can buy the professional versions of the PhotoWorks and OCR software (that's the expensive part) if you require it. I got it, but looking back, I use the Microtek software that came with it more...it just is easier to use. The scanner is dirt cheap now (under $150). It comes with it's own SCSI card for your PC, so it is not some slow printer port model. I have even scanned 3 dimentional stuff (a large circuit board with components that raised 1/2 inch above the circuit board. HP has problems doing this. The scans where picture perfect, unlike what you would expect if photocopying the same thing. No out of focus crap. I considered the low end HP (4 at the time). But could find no reason to get it after using one owned by someone else. It was clunky, and expensive. I did'nt like the sales puke mentality of HP support either. The software sucked at the tmie also, although that has changed for the better recently. I'll mail you some scans if you like. To give you an idea of the capability of these scanners: If you have only a 2x2 color picture, you can create a clear scan using 300DPI mode that will fill the screen of a 800x600, each color pixel having millions of colors posible. This is as good or better than most SVGA computor monitors can display! Now if you want to print a high quality copy of a color scan, a larger picture gives nicer definition.
For OCR (Optical Character Recognition), the software that came with it is very nice (Caere Omnipage). I get 95%+ accuracy with good quality page print scans. One thing though: If you wish to scan columns (like a newspaper) without the columns getting mashed together in the final document, you will have to buy the upgraded software from Adobe or Caere to do this...that's pro stuff anyway, and I work around it. The software can easily cost more than the scanner.
Here is an example of what you can do in about 15 minutes with the scanner. It does not domonstrate well the resolution, but does show it's versitility and color. Better resolution (150DPI) scans are in my profile under "Favorite links". The following document is a page from a Microsoft Powerpoint document I did not long ago. This is a scan of a failed Cisco Catalyst 5000 switch backplane.
The scan was done in only 75 DPI (saves space on document by about 16 fold compared to 300DPI). The image was converted to a BMP (powerpoint can read it) using the scanner software. All blowups where done with the software. The final document was assembled with Powerpoint. To fully appreciate the document you really need to print it out on a good quality color printer. If you do download it, be sure to view it 100%. Right now it is saved as a 40% size file.
Warning...it is over 2 MEG.
All functions were done using Microtec software, not the expensive add on software. Keep in mind that this scan is of a 3-D object that is sitting about 1/2 inch ABOVE the scan glass. The scan was great for a 75 DPI pass.
pipeline.com
Another scanner model is available that you may be interested in. The E6 model will do 32 bit color, and the resolution is twice as good. You can also purchase it bundled with Pro PhotoShop for about 5-700 dollars. |
