In the world of computers, scanners have made the conversion of physical documents into digital images possible. In some office settings, scanners have even made fax machines obsolete. They are a versatile and practical tool for both home and business. Here's a little bit about the different types available in the market place.
Although scanners are usually associated with documents such as handwritten notes, typed materials, and photographs, some models can also scan physical objects as long as it can fit on top of the device itself.
Today's scanners are marvels of modern engineering, but the concept has been an object of fascination with inventors for nearly 100 years. Early telephotography technology was in use from the 1920's to the 1990's, and is considered to be the ancestor to written document scanners. A primitive "drum scanner" was able to reproduce a photograph in 1957, but it was never commercially viable on a large scale.
Flatbed scanners are the most versatile of the devices available on the market today. They consist of a glass paten covered by a flip-up cover: most of these are available as part of a multi-function printer system. They are ideal for home settings, but do tend to take up a lot of desk or table space in a business setting.
Although they have the advantage of being able to scan objects, their great disadvantage in a business setting is that they can usually only scan one document at a time. In essence, if a person has multiple documents he needs to scan, he'll have to "babysit" the scanner and feed the documents to it one by one.
A document feed scanner, also known as a sheet-fed scanner is commonly used in the business world. It has two features which make it attractive in this kind of a setting: first of all, it is much more compact in size than a flatbed scanner, so it takes up less physical space. Secondly, documents can be fed into the scanner in multiple numbers. This feature eliminates the need to "babysit" the device, and the user is free to attend to other documents during the scanning process.
The newest "toy" in the scanner world is the portable scanner. The smallest kinds are about the size of a regular pen and can scan a document one line at a time. Others are about as wide as a standard piece of paper and can be easily rolled down a document. Despite the advantage of their portability, these scanners provide relatively poor resolution and are usually only for personal use.
Author Resource:-
If you are looking for a high quality document feed scanner for your business or home, contact the experts at ScannerSolutions.com, a subsidiary of DoxTek, Inc (http://www.scannersolutions.com). Art Gib is a freelance writer.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.freebie-articles.com/images/rss.gif "XML Feed For RSS")
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites