Scanners

[David E. Coley]

I need a short course in scanners. Looks like it is time for another one.

I am not sure I fully understand all the resolution garb. Some say 2400dpi, say say 600 X 600, some say something else. Not to mention the 48bit color thing.

Really want one that can scan legal.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
DEC

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

David,

First, decide what you will be using the scanner for. If you'll be using it as a copy machine, I guess a legal size is OK/necessary but....

A high resolution scanner??? Forget it. The file will be so large you won't be able to email it nor will the person on the other end want to download it. Yep, the girls (sorry ladies) are now determining who gets appraisal assignments based on how large/small the stupid PDF files are. If they can download your PDF file faster, you get the appraisal work. So size really does matter. Anyway....you'll probably scan stuff at 150dpi to keep the file size small so no need for the high resolution scanner. Mess around with the resolution setting on your present scanner and watch the MB size of the files at different resolutions and you'll see what I mean

Legal scanner? Don't really need it, unless you need it as color copier as I stated above. Once again, the letter size will be usually big enough as you will be cropping what you need out of the letter size scan to keep your files small.

My recommendation?? Buy the $99 HP USB letter size cheapie...

Ben

 

[David S. Roberson]

I'm scanning at 100 dpi now & no one has complained yet.

 

[Judy Whitehead (Florida)]

After lengthy (and costly 900 number) discussions with HP, I scan at 72 dpi resolution and it looks fine. I have a legal size HP Scanjet 3200C but quickly found out that I don't need to have a legal size scanner. Most of the time we are scanning irregular size plats or maps to overlay on a digital map page and none of them are even 81/2 x 11 let along legal size. My scanner does go to a 300 dpi setting but the only time I have ever used that is for personal photographs. I use the 72 dpi setting and this scanner has a choice of good, or better viewing and I choose the better one. I believe you can purchase this particular scanner for under $100 now, but what Ben recommended sounds fine to me. I would never spend more than that for a scanner.

 

[Judy Whitehead (Florida)]

One more thing - when you think you need something to "scan legal" in actuality all you are doing is scanning in something to put on a legal size form. You can change the size of the picture that you are scanning to any size that you wish (such as it might actually be 2 1/2 inches by 6 inches and you want it to be larger) to put on the legal form and that can be done by relatively inexpensive scanners.

 

[xmrdfghap]

<span style='color:brown'>I looked at legal sized scanners sometime back but realized the "window" on my forms are never more than 8 1/2 by 11. The rest is borders. Other legal documents I would scan are things like legal sized legal descriptions or other verbage that does not have to be in the original format. With those, I use ocr anyway which means after it has been read, I take it to a wordprocessor anyway for editing. The third thing I would use a large format scanner for would be to scan the entire report for archival purposes.....but there again, I print to pdf so I have it ready for archiving anyway.

What purpose would you have for a legal scanner that will justify the cost?</span>

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

David,

One other idea for you. If you have a copier, reduce your legal size copies to letter size, scan them on the letter size scanner and if you're using the typical appraisal software with legal pages, when you insert the scan, it should fill the legal size page in the appraisal software. You may want to give it a try.

Just a thought to save you some money.

Ben

 

[Anonymous]

Dave:

I thought the same way. I did some research, and asked questions, and read the wintotal manual. I found actual legal size scanners were expensive. I bought an all in one machine. It gives me a back up copier, and back up printer.

When scanning into the appraisal program, you set the resolutions that work for you. Inside the appraisal program, you can set the size, legal, letter, etc., black & white, color, etc. So, you really dont need a legal size scanner.

Mine works great, once I got used to it. The scanner has an itermediate program, between the scanner and the appraisal program. You set your settings in that, and also, where your sending to. Send to the scanner's image viewer. Then with the appraisal program open, you send to the photo program in wintotal. Wintotal lets you adjust and optimize, which you should, before sending it to the page.

Hope this helps. Ron

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Legal scanners are generally a waste of money. I use a $79 HP 2200c and it works just fine. Use the lowest resolution you can get away with....100 dps is fine for most stuff. Remember the higher the resolution...the bigger the file. Since we are doing more and more EDI, I want really small files.