Wednesday 1 December 2010

Learning How To Scan Different Documents

By Shanna McNeil


Learning how to scan takes some time and patience. There are several different types of scanners available and the prices have become very reasonable. If you plan on scanning lots of documents, photos, or special items like books you will want to invest in a scanner that is robust enough to handle the stress. Most scanners come with software and instructions to assist with the setup.

The flatbed scanner usually requires a manual changing of documents. These are great for capturing odd shaped items such as book pages, portions of maps, large photos, and anything that cannot be fed into a sheet fed device. When you place the item on the flat glass, make sure you know where the starting corner is located. Otherwise, the item will not scan correctly. There is usually an indicator on the plastic mold surrounding the glass.

If you use a sheet bed scanner, you can process a higher volume at the same time. These allow you to place a large number of same-sized documents in the feeder. When the scanning begins it will automatically pull each sheet through, eliminating the need to manually change document pages. Some scanners come with dual sided scanning. This will be a big time saver if you have material that is printed on both sides of each page.

Photo scanners have special attachments for feeding the photos. Some flatbed scanners are able to be converted to photo scanners with a special attachment. You can also find the type that is for photos only. They usually are much smaller because they are not designed to be used for regular documents. Many people use these to digitize family photo albums.

Handheld devices capture single lines from documents. These are great when you want to capture a quick quote to send to a friend, include in a master document, or just to keep. They usually can capture from one line to whole paragraphs at a single scan.

OCR stands for optical character recognition. This technology recognizes the text of a captured image and converts it into editable text. This is useful if you want to add a quote from a source but need to change the font and size to fit within the new document. It is also helpful when you do not have a digital version of a document and need to convert it.

Resolution is important for clarity. If you are going to reprint or fax the scanned document, you will need at least 300 dpi or dots per inch resolution. For photos, you will want the resolution to be much higher to maintain the clarity. Always make sure the glass is clean before performing a scan or the objects will appear smudged.

Prices vary based on the features you want included. Typical devices have a single feature and work great. Many users find it more productive to purchase devices that are combined with fax, scanning, and printing capabilities. As features are added, the price will increase. Office environments should purchase robust devices to handle the rougher daily workload.

As you learn how to scan, consider the options and types of documents that you will want to capture. The more work you expect the device to do in a single day, the more robust machine should be sought. After you install the device and the scanning software, take some time to walk through the various features available.




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