Who would have thought that the once considered high-tech expensive color scanners would be available to ordinary people with normal everyday needs, at incredible prices?

When you read, your eyes scan the text of a page and your brain processes the information so it can be understood. A Scanner is a peripheral device that can read text, graphics, photos, virtually anything on a printed page, and send it to a computer for further processing. It easily connects with a desktop or notebook computer and, often, comes with software to help edit and process scanned material.

The most common scanner is known as a Flatbed Scanner. It looks a little like an office copier. There's a flat surface topped with a hinged panel. This can be used for scanning documents as well as pages directly from books and magazines. Many Flatbed Scanners may also scan from Transparencies. The sheet-fed scanner is more commonly found on multifunction machines (combining a printer, scanner and fax in one unit) but this can't scan directly from a book. There are also scanners that are designed to scan negatives and color slides.

DPI refers to Dots per Inch, the higher number of DPI means that resolution is greater. There are two ways that resolution can be measured - Optical and Interpolated. Optical is the 'actual' resolution. This refers to what the scanner's CCD actually sees when it scans. Optical resolutions can range from 100 DPI to 1200x2400 DPI or more. Interpolated is more closely associated to 'enhanced' resolution, using certain hardware and software features to provide resolutions of 4800x4800 DPI or greater. It is especially significant to note that when scanning at higher resolutions, the scanned file contains more information and is, therefore, larger and requires more memory.

You'll often hear that a scanner comes 24bit or 36bit. These numbers refer to the number of colors that the document is scanned in, hence the color depth. The more colors, the brighter the image, and the better the image quality. Bit depth doesn't refer to the actual number of colors the scanner can capture, but to the number of colors it can detail or replicate. Go for scanners that will give you the highest bit rate.

While most scanners deal with scanning documents, there are a few scanners devoted to scanning photographic slides and negatives. In some instances, document scanners may allow an adapter for scanning slides. If you plan to scan slides and negatives frequently, we suggest considering a Film Scanner because they're faster and more efficient.

How you connect your scanner to your computer varies from scanner to scanner. Most of the newer models can connect by USB and/or Parallel interface ports. Older models may use Serial and SCSI connections. Certain models, due for introduction, use FireWire ports. USB and FireWire offer distinct advantages over older connections because they can transfer data at much faster speeds. Make sure you check scanner interfaces before deciding which scanner you want to purchase.

Most scanners do come with some form of editing software (on CD-ROM), which allows you to crop, color, and tweak your images, as you like.

In order to scan text documents into your computer and be able to edit it once you do,you would need a special type of OCR or Optical Character Recognition software. This software may sometimes be included with the bundled software that comes with the purchase of your scanner. Otherwise, it must be purchased separately.