There are three types of scanners available on store shelves; there is a flatbed, a sheet fed, and a photo scanner. This paper will discuss flatbed scanners because they are the most versatile type of scanners; with the flatbed, a person can scan pictures and pages from books and magazines in addition to photographs and other graphics (McNamara 40).

A flatbed scanner has many uses. It can turn shoe boxes full of photos into a digital photo gallery; it can create a family or business website complete with photo and graphics; it can scan your paper documents and use OCR to convert them to files that you can edit with a word processor; it can give you occasional copies without investing in a photocopier; and a flatbed scanner can surprise grandparents with photos of the kids via e-mail (The PC Technology Guide 1).

One source noted, “On the simplest level, a scanner is a device which converts light (which we see when we lo

Grotta, Daniel, and Sally Weiner Grotta. “Scanning Made Simple.” PC Magazine 1 September 1999: 196 - 224.

McNamara, Michael. “Flatbed Scanner Roundup.” Buying Guide 8 February 2000: 40 – 50.

Color depth is also an important feature. The number of bits a scanner uses to define the color of a dot is called the scanner’s color depth or some times referred to as bit depth. Today most scanners use either 30 or 36 bits to determine the color of each dot. When buying, the tip I would give from my research is do not settle for anything that is below 30 (The PC Technology Guide 5).

One must also keep in mind the dimensions of the scanner if you have limited room. Look into a model with a smaller box design. Everyone would like a scanner that is easy to use, and most of the scanners on the market today are very user-friendly. Some vendors do put extra effort into making their scanners as simple to operate as possible; you may expect to find scanners with one-button operation and intelligently designed software that make them both simpler to operate and more fun. All scanners come with software bundles that include scanner control, image-editing, and OCR software (McNamara 48).

Interface is key in the time it takes to get it hooked up to your computer. The majority of scanners share the parallel port with your printer. A few come with a SCSI board you have to install inside your computer. SCSI stands for Small Computer Systems Interface. It's a standard for connecting peripherals to your computer via a standard hardware interface, which uses standard SCSI commands. If you want to have the faster of the two, then you would want the SCSI board connection, but if you do not like the idea of taking you computer apart, then you want the parallel port connection. If you want the best of both worlds, then you would want the newest connection idea that connects into your computer via your USB port, which stands for Universal Serial Bus. Your USB port is a hot spot that means that you can connect the scanner when the computer is running and it will recognize it without having to reboot (McNamara 48).

r model. When I say slower model I am referring the normally less expensive models priced between $99 and $200 (50).

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, which is the process of turning the group of pixels, which is the text t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1620
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)