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So they typically have the highest resolution available in the consumer scanner market. You’ll see resolution expressed in DPI (dots per inch), with companies advertising very high DPI for flatbed scanners–typically at or in excess of 2,000 DPI.
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You can scan photos with a flatbed scanner just as easily as you can scan a document you need to email to your boss.įlatbed scanners, thanks to their size, have no need to miniaturize components or cut any corners. Hands down, flatbed scanners are the best all-around value for someone who doesn’t have any one particular scanning type they do consistently. The scanner type gets its name from its large and flat fixed glass bed, upon which you lay your documents, close the lid, and scan them. When most people think about scanners, they envision the flatbed scanner, a common home and office peripheral that looks like somebody chopped the top off of a photocopier. Sure, all scanners perform the same process: they use a combination of mirrors, glass, a light source, a CCD chip (just like the one in your digital camera), and some combination of belts, motors, and rollers to move the document and/or the pieces of the scanner around in order to capture your paperwork or photos in their entirety.īut while they all capture images from paper, the way in which they do so, the quality in which they do so, and the amount of effort you have to invest into loading and scanning each individual document or photo varies enormously between models.ĭepending on the material you need to scan, and the frequency with which you scan it, the difference between buying the right scanner and the wrong scanner is the difference between “I love this thing! I push a button and I’m done!” and “I’ll admit, at the back of my office closet is an old scanner and a box of stuff I need to scan…”įlatbed Scanners: Friend of Photographers and Casual Users Alike Even if you buy a top of the line model, it might not be the right tool for the job, and you’ll waste time, get inferior results, and curse the day you bought the wrong model.