Flatbed scanners

Home Office Computing,  August, 1998  by Rich Malloy

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We survey eight scanners and pick the right one for capturing an image, document, or this article

Take a good look at your desk. Most likely, you're adrift in a sea of documents, memos, faxes, clipped newspaper articles, and other scraps that are keeping you away from your real work. But there's no need to feel as if you're drowning in paper. With a flatbed scanner, you can clear up all the paperwork cluttering your home office. Whether you suffer from excessive invoices or fear-inducing faxes, this tool can scan, sort, and store documents in your PC with little effort.

Thanks to increasingly accurate optical character recognition (OCR) software, scanners convert printed documents into electronic, customizable versions that you can edit at will. And if you don't own a fax machine, with a quick scan and your computer's fax modem you can take care of this essential business duty as well. In addition to storing documents, scanners can import colorful images into your business correspondence, turning drab documents--from brochures and advertisements to presentations, Web pages, and e-mail messages--into marketing masterpieces.

What's holding you back from buying a scanner? Just a few years ago, your excuse was probably the $600-plus price tag. But in the last few months, prices for flatbed scanners have tumbled below $300, and both the performance of and the software bundled with these units have vastly improved.

How good are the newest scanners? Did the manufacturers skimp on quality in order to reach their alluring prices? To find out, we asked vendors to supply midlevel flatbed scanners with optical resolutions of 600dpi and price tags under $300.

After inviting all the major manufacturers to participate, we reviewed the Agfa SnapScan EZ, Microtek ScanMaker X6, Mustek Plug-n-Scan 1200 III EP, Plustek OpticPro 9636T, Storm Technology TotalScan, Umax Astra 1220P, and Visioneer PaperPort OneTouch. Hewlett-Packard sent us its ScanJet 5100Cse, whose resolution is only 300dpi, but we decided to test it for comparison's sake. Another popular manufacturer of scanners, Epson, was unfortunately unable to provide us with a unit for this Buyer's Guide.

SCANNING THE COMPETITION

To subject these scanners to the most strenuous tests available, we employed the resources of CurtCo Freedom Group's CFC Technical Labs. For this review, we incorporated a series of scanning tasks used in most home offices. To check the resolution of each device, we scanned a standard monochrome Kodak test image in both line-art and grayscale modes.

To measure the speed, we timed how long it took each unit to read the Kodak image in both 600dpi and 300dpi resolution. To test color accuracy and how well the scanner captured the colors cyan, magenta, and yellow, we used the standard Gretag-Macbeth Color Checker, a series of colors on a card.

To compare general color accuracy and resolution, we used a professional-quality 5-by-7-inch photograph. For a test of the scanners' OCR capabilities, we scanned in a magazine article, then we scanned a picture from that same article to see how well each unit reproduced screened images in magazines or newspapers.

Lastly, we spent some time using the bundled software, from OCR to fax capabilities, that came with each scanner for an accurate test of each package.

All the scanners connected to our testbed PC (a Gateway 266MHz Pentium II desktop with 32MB of RAM and a 2MB hard drive) via the parallel port, obviating the need to install a SCSI card. Scanners with SCSI interfaces are (at least in theory) somewhat faster, but we feel the more convenient installation and laptop compatibility of parallel scanners makes them better bets for most home offices.

Since compatibility with other peripheral devices is a major issue for scanners, we connected each unit's pass-through port to an HP LaserJet 6P printer as well as to an Iomega Zip drive to see if we'd run into any problems.

One of the first things we noticed was that, while all the scanners allow you to vary resolution to suit your needs, only the Umax Astra 1220P and Microtek ScanMaker X6 models were also able to control the color depth of a scan, and hence the size of the scanned file, directly. The others' scanning levels were limited to line-art (1-bit black and white), grayscale, or 24- to 36-bit color. In English, this means that your hard disk can quickly clog up with scanned images. In fact, we found that a few of our 600dpi sample scans devoured as much as 96MB of disk space. So, make certain that your computer has enough elbow room.

In the course of our tests, we discovered that scanners are extremely delicate instruments and prone to injuries. Even the slightest jostle can send your new piece of hardware to peripheral purgatory. In fact, a number of scanners were damaged en route to our testing lab. Due to this sensitivity to turbulence, we decided to factor into our reviews the packaging of these units to avoid possible damage. Because of this potential problem, we recommend you shop around, find the best price, then consider buying a scanner from your local computer store rather than a mail-order outlet.