While in the past, the scanner was seen as a specialist product, it has now become a staple in many offices. Prices are coming down all the time and this has undoubtedly helped with their popularity. But in addition to being increasingly affordable, the growth of the internet and the need to create electronic images for web pages is also driving the trend. For many businesses it has long been a crucial piece of equipment. These include estate agents, photographers, publishing houses to name but a few.
From adding a bit more spice to your business with colourful posters and a snazzy company logo to scanning in your own photographs or slides to create a newsletter, a scanner is able to do all these things and more.
There are two main forms of scanner that you may wish to consider – flatbed and film scanners.
Flatbed scanners are more commonly used and are often thrown into many PC packages. They are so named because of their flat surfaces and work in very much the same way as printers except that the end product ends up on your PC rather than in an in-tray. Prices vary greatly and range from under £50 to well into four figures.
The other principal form is film scanners. These are more associated with the scanning of photographs, slides and negatives and are often more expensive than their flatbed counterparts.
Other designs include hand scanners where you sweep across the document by hand. This technique has one slight drawback – people tend to divert from a straight line at speed. These are inexpensive but rather impractical for business use.
Another form is the sheet-fed scanner for larger volume use. This is able to scan several pages in one go but is also impractical for low volume usage.
