Microtek E3 color scanner (C$279; discontinued)
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5P (C$549)
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5S (C$369; discontinued)
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5200 (discontinued)
Epson Expression 636 (C$1199)
Agfa Snapscan (C$349; discontinued)
Kodak Photo CD
Pro Photo CD
Digital Cameras
Scanning software overview and utilities
Resources
Microtek E3 scanner (discontinued; we've seen it on sale for as little as US$39)
Pros: very good scanning software, reasonably accurate color. Black scanner lid reduces reflections. Low price. Transparency adapter and sheet feeder options.
Cons: cheap plastic lid on the scanner looks like it will crack after repeated use. Fluorescent lamp doesn't turn off when unit is idle.
The Microtek E3 scanner is one of the lowest-priced color flatbed scanners on the market. At under $300, you might be surprised at just how good it actually is.
The E3 recently dropped in price and now, with a US street price around $160, it is definitely worth considering if you are a PC or Mac user looking for a low-cost color scanner. The E3 delivers 24-bit color and a 13.5" flatbed, plus what may be the best scanning software in the business -- Microtek's easy-to-use ScanWizard software. The package also includes an Adaptec 1502AE SCSI interface which, despite what the manual says, can indeed be used to connect more than one (non-bootable) SCSI device.
Color accuracy was good --better than that of the higher priced HP units, in fact -- and the installation was entirely trouble-free.
The package includes OmniPage LE, an OCR utility (not an especially good one, either), and PhotoImpact SE for Windows 95/NT, Ulead Image PALS for Windows 3.1 (which also works under Win95, by the way), and Color-it for Mac as well. PhotoImpact SE includes a number of special effects features, such as "oil-paint" and "watercolor" modes that can turn a scanned photo into a reasonable facsimile of a painting, and the software has very effective automatic functions for automatically cropping and deskewing photos and descreening previously screened images from magazines, etc. Color scans were speedy, taking only 42 seconds to complete a high-res scan of a 5x7 photo. The package also includes OmniPage "Limited Edition."
Warning: when you call Caere to register OmniPage, the company tries to sucker you into buying an upgrade and a videotape. Don't. Invest in a better OCR package, such as TextBridge, instead.
Recommended. (We did not test the transparency or sheet feed options for this unit)
Epson Expression 636 scanner with optional Transparency adapter
Pros: Excellent quality transparency scans from optional adapter. This scanner produces the highest-quality scans and best dynamic range of any scanner we've tested under $7,000. (The images of the printers on the cover of the March '97 issue of The Computer Paper were scanned with the Expression 636, and were only touched up to eliminate a few dust specks and other slight imperfections.) The Expression 636 features simultaneous PC and Mac connectivity via parallel and SCSI interfaces; a full version of Photoshop is included in some configurations.
Cons: Windows TWAIN32 (scanner driver) software sometimes fails to initialize correctly in Windows 95 environment running Photoshop 4.0, a 32-bit graphics application. The TWAIN 16 driver works correctly, however.
We had some difficulty with the initial setup of this scanner on the Windows platform (it seems that if the scanner is off when the software is installed, it really gets confused and must be fully removed and reinstalled.) Once installed and configured, however, we were delighted with the quality of the scans.
On the Macintosh, we had no problems to speak of. It just worked.
The Expression 36 is available in a number of configurations, including some with a full version of Photoshop -- definitely worth having. Recommended.
Note: As of May 1997, Epson has added an additional software package with its Expression 636 Professional model color flatbed scanner for Windows or Macintosh. The company says Lasersoft's SilverFast software provides both beginning and high-end graphics professionals a powerful tool for optimized scanning and color reproduction. The Epson website has further details.
Hewlett-Packard scanners
Hewlett-Packard 5P color scanner (C$549)
Pros: automatic scanning button, PaperPort software, HP support, excellent compatibility.
Cons: Symbios Logic SCSI card default configuration conflicts with many sound cards, white scanning lid increases color distortions reflected from clutter inside the scanner body.
The 5P ships with a non-standard Symbios Logic 53C416 SCSI interface that, according to the documentation, supports only one SCSI device. The 5P must be turned on before the computer is booted (optionally, you can turn the unit on click the Refresh button in the System/Device Manager). The 5P has a 8.5" x 11" flatbed area, making it inappropriate for working with legal-size documents. (The previous 4P model supported legal pages, but cost more.)
To its credit, the 5P includes a button on the front of the scanner that, when pressed, invokes an automatic scan -- very handy. Instead of the DeskScan software included with previous generations of HP scanners, the 5P includes an easier to use, but less powerful driver called PictureScan. Despite what PC Magazine wrote in a recent review, the DeskScan software cannot be used successfully and, according to HP, is not supported on the 5P.
Although it is more powerful than PictureScan, the DeskScan software supplied with other ScanJets is fairly non-intuitive (just try to figure out how to define the DPI value of a scan, for example).
As it has with the 4S and 4C series units, HP has included the PaperPort software from Visioneer with the 5P. This software is very, very good as an automatic image manager. By simply dragging a page of scanned text to your word processor's icon on PaperPort's "desktop," PaperPort automatically handles the conversion of the scan into text via OCR -- neat! Similarly, other utilities make it easy to fax, print or edit photos and other scanned images. HP scanners include a feature called AccuPage, which increases their accuracy in OCR tasks by re-evaluating and adjusting contrast and brightness values on a line-by-line-basis as the image is scanned. However, AccuPage scans are somewhat slower -- we usually leave it turned off.
It is worth mentioning that Hewlett-Packard scanners are one of the only brands of scanners due to have built-in support in the forthcoming "Memphis" version of Windows. Memphis (AKA Windows 98) will reportedly support the push-button feature of certain models (including the 5P), making scanning a nearly effortless process under that OS. This level of support only underscores HP's dominant position in the marketplace, and virtually assures that the graphics or OCR software package you buy will support HP's products.
Unfortunately, the system's Symbios SCSI card wants to use I/O 220 which most soundcards already use. Fortunately, you can change the I/O address of the Symbios card through Win95's System/Device Manager -- although this is not a task many beginners would relish.
In conclusion
The HP 5P enjoys wide distribution, but its setup procedure, image quality and value are only so-so. The PaperPort software is this bundle's strongest feature.
Product: Hewlett-Packard 5S sheetfed scanner
Pros: Compact, includes PaperPort software.
Cons: Poor quality images compared to similarly priced flatbed units.
The newest addition to the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet family is the ScanJet 5S, a color sheetfed scanner that, as the name suggests, is the company's followup to the grayscale ScanJet 4S model it licensed from Visioneer in 1995. Like that models, the new unit comes with Visioneer's Paperport software but the new unit connects via a parallel port (and offers a pass-through for printer connection). Unfortunately, we were not as impressed with this sheetfed unit as we were with the grayscale ScanJet 4S or other scanners in its price range.
For starters, potential parallel port conflicts with some models of printers, including many of HP's own printers, can cause some problems with the automatic software launch feature that was one of the (serial-connected) 4S model's best features. The 5S includes clear instructions on exactly how to turn off the conflicting feature of the scanner, but it suggests that the parallel port interface is not the ideal method of scanner connection. (Neither is serial, for that matter.)
More importantly, our initial tests of the 5S produced such poor quality color images, we contacted HP to find out if perhaps our evaluation unit was defective. (Compare this 100-dpi sample from the ScanJet 5s with the same image scanned on a HP ScanJet IIcx flatbed scanner.)
Hewlett-Packard spokesperson Evan Wood explained that the reason for the disparity in the scanning quality at the same resolution is because the ScanJet IIcx has superior optics and image processing capabilities that are not included on the ScanJet 5s. This disparity, Wood said, is an example of how dpi is not a true indicator of scanner quality, as it only measures the number of pixels being scanned per inch and not the quality of those scanned pixels. To include similar optics and imaging processors in the ScanJet 5s as is found in the IIcx, the ScanJet 5p or 4c, would make the ScanJet 5s much more expensive than it is.
Wood says HP wanted to ensure this scanner was affordable, while offering consumers a means to simplify the management and electronic distribution of b&w and color paper-based documents.
There are a couple of things that you can do to improve the quality of images scanned on the ScanJet 5s:
Indeed, choosing the software's Expert option High quality improved the images produced by the 5S, as this 100-dpi sample shows.
Also, we wonder why the 5s software displays a useless splash screen when it starts up -- before a dialog with various scanning options. We could find no way to turn it off, short of disabling the automatic launch feature entirely.
Wood explained that HP had to insert the splash screen that pops up so that the company was not in violation of another company's patent (presumably, Visioneer -- Ed.) on automatically starting the scanner when a piece of paper is inserted. The HP ScanJet 5s is currently available in the market and was publicly introduced April 14, 1997.
The estimated selling price of this product is $369, although the price may vary by individual retailer.
Transparency adapter for Hewlett-Packard ScanJet IIcx
Pros: none noted
Cons: expensive; abysmal image quality (large vertical streaks)
While the summary above makes further discussion of the transparency adapter rather pointless, it should be mentioned that the Hewlett-Packard drivers were utterly painless to install on the Windows and Mac systems we've attached the unit(s) to. On the PC, we simply connected the scanner to our Adaptec SCSI interface (we chose to not use the card that ships with the HP) and started Windows 95. The system recognized the scanner and prompted us for the location of the HP Scanning software disk. Done. Seconds later, we had a fully functional ScanJet. It is also worth mentioning that we have purchased -- and regularly use -- several ScanJets of various vintages for our home and office use here at The Computer Paper and have never had a problem with any of them.
Agfa SnapScan color and B&W 300x600 dpi scanner (C$349)
Pros: Includes Adaptec 1502 (16-bit ISA) SCSI adapter. Black lid and case interior reduces reflections and glare. Software bundle similar to that of the Microtek E3 scanner. Transparency and ADF options.
Cons: 11-inch flatbed limits scans to letter-size sheets -- a drawback for some tasks such as OCR. Clumsy software installer. Lamp stays on when idle. Noisy mechanism.
We were expecting no headaches with this product from the Agfa division of venerable aspirin maker Bayer, but we encountered a few disappointments in this, the company's lowest-cost scanner. In a nutshell, we found the software to be weak. The SnapScan hardware is similar in many ways to the Microtek E3. Both units ship with Adaptec 1502 series ISA SCSI cards (and both manufacturers falsely claim that the card does not support more than one SCSI device). An Agfa spokesperson claims this is due to an error in the documentation. We suspect it just might also have a little something to do with a reluctance to support third-party product issues caused by another company's SCSI adapter.
The Agfa ships with the 1502AP SCSI adapter; the E3 bundles the slightly newer 1502AE. Our test unit did not ship with a SCSI terminator. The Microtek unit did.
The SnapScan, like the E3, ships with both Mac and Windows software, despite the misleading "PC version" designation on the box. Windows users get OmniPage LE and Ulead PhotoImpact SE editors (see the E3 review for details); Mac users get OmniPage LE and Color-It software. a collection of other Agfa software tools for both platforms facilitates copying, enhancing and color-correcting images.
Fotosnap is a simplistic one-click scanning utility. We received occasional "scanner initialization errors" with this utility. The more full-featured FotoLook includes a number of additional features but some aspects, such as its "wizard" interface option, seemed poorly designed and unduly confusing. Their descreening and color correction features are a nice touch, although the software's sharpen function appears to be more crude than the "unsharp mask" type of enhancement usually performed in a program like Photoshop. Both Agfa utilities also produced occasional initialization errors when we attempted to adjust a parameter while the scanner was finishing a preview scan. The TWAIN drivers (both 16-and 32-bit drivers are included) worked well, though.
We were not at all impressed with the PC software's clumsy installation program. The installer proved to be incompatible with Intel's LANdesk software on our test system and, even after we had uninstalled the Intel code, the "FotoFlavor" installer did not correctly identify the location of our Photoshop installation, nor did it support path names with spaces or more than eight characters. We had named our directory "Photoshop"; we had to type "PHOTOS~1" to get the Agfa software to recognize it.) Also, the installer forced us to run several different Setup programs to install the various components. Worse, the scanner had to be turned on before the computer in order for it to be recognized by the system -- a problem that the Canon IX4015, the Artec Viewstation A6000C Plus and certain other models also have. Boo hiss. Fortunately, there is a solution -- albeit a slightly inelegant one. In Windows 95, open up the System control panel (or right-click My Computer and choose "Properties") and click the Refresh tab on the Device Manager tab. This allowed the Agfa software to initialize correctly. Occasionally, however, the FotoSnap software reported an "initialization failed" error message when we attempted a final scan. The TWAIN driver worked reliably in Photoshop though. (Photoshop is, however, not part of the package.)
Color fidelity was not especially good. Skin tones were quite accurate, but at the expense of bright orange hues, such as the color you get when mixing 100% magenta with 100% yellow. This color looked a muddy, dark red onscreen. White areas did not display undue amounts of noise, fortunately.
Here is a sample of the Agfa's unretouched output, and the same image after an "unsharp mask" function and other minor corrections were applied in Photoshop. For comparison, here is the same image scanned and unretouched on an HP IIcx (which added a noticeable yellow cast to the image), and an HP 5S in fastest mode or best quality.
When we inspected the unit, we suspected that the shiny chrome rail inside the Agfa case might be likely to cause more reflections than the nearly uniform interior of the Microtek unit. However, we did not notice a problem when working with photos, possibly because Agfa has chosen to make the interior of the flatbed area almost entirely black. Perhaps a test of the SnapScan's $300 transparency option might have shown this to be more of a problem, as the HP unit's (which has a similarly shiny guide-rail) is. The hinged lid design of the Agfa unit is clearly superior to that of the flimsy cover on the E3 and the Agfa unit's overall aesthetics are somewhat more pleasing.
As the Microtek unit is $50 less expensive, ships with a better software bundle and has a larger flatbed and comparable image quality (both units handle 24-bit color), the Agfa's viability hangs upon such details. Either unit is a better value than the HP ScanJet 5P, though.
Update: Agfa in Aug. 2001 announced its intention to exit from the consumer scanner market and is canceling production and development on all consumer scanner models including the SnapScan and DuoScan product families. Warranties will be honored.
MacWorld has details....
Scanning Q&A
Q: We got Corel 6 last spring and I noticed right away a peculiarity with how it handles TIFF files. If an image is scanned as a TIFF file and imported into Corel, the image will display but will not print.
A: Corel Readme file notes that some TIFFs need to be imported and resaved with LZW compression. That's CorelSpeak, I think, for "its a bug in 6.0."
Q: Our scanner is an HP ScanJet IIcx, which comes with the Deskscan software. Is our current scanner capable of producing high-quality halftones?
A: In a word, no. IIcx scans, like those from most inexpensive scanners, are noisy and unsuitable for glossy work, and the dynamic range is much lower than a (much more expensive) pro-level scanner. Artifacts are a problem, too. If you have a noisy scanner, the best results can been obtained -- ironically, considering the so-so review we gave CoreDraw 7.0 in the Graphics Toolkit 97 article -- with CorelScan 7.0 and Corel TWAIN driver -- both bundled with the 7.0 package. Worst results -- even more ironically -- with Photoshop and Epson driver -- lockups were common and the scans are always too dark, even after careful calibration and gamma correction. The same scanner's results from CorelScan, though, were quite amazing. The three top scanners under $2000 for print work are the Agfa Arcus II, Agfa StudioStar Pro and Epson Expression 636. Epson is better on color than grayscale/black and white, it appears, due to its 36-bit preprocessing. Linotype has a very good US$5000 model, if you are able to go to that level of quality. MacWeek gave it a first class rating.
Q: I need a high-quality scan. I've heard that a "drum scan" might be the best choice. Where can I go?
A: Many service bureaus offer a wide range of graphics services, including imagesetter output, drum scanning, and more. Look in your local Yellow Pages under "Graphics Service Bureau" for locations near you. Two Vancouver-based service bureaus we've had good results with are WordPower (recently renamed West Point Graphics) and WYSIWYG.
Q: Many SCSI devices, including Microtek and Agfa scanners, Iomega Zip drives, etc., ship with an Adaptec 1502 SCSI interface. The documentation says this interface only supports one SCSI device. Is this true?
A: No. The 1502 cannot handle bootable devices, but you can add a second hard drive to your system with it, or daisy-chain up to seven CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, M-O drives, Zip or Jaz drives, etc. with it. To paraphrase an answer by ful...@cyberramp.net, the 1502E is an OEM product, meaning Adaptec doesn't support it. The scanner company must support it, and they don't care to deal with support issues concerning your other SCSI devices. They will only claim the scanner will work. In fact, the paperwork with the 1502E says it supports only ONE external device. However, it is not crippled and will in fact support several. But versions sold with Microtek and Agfa acanners intentionally have no internal connector. A similar 1502E is sold with internal Zip drives, and then it has no external connector -- same reason. It's essentially the same board as the $50 1505, which has both connectors.
Also, the Adaptec 15xx boards are ISA bus boards. While its Fast Scsi (10 MB/sec on the scsi bus), the ISA bus will be hard pressed to do more than 2 MB/sec. Thats fine for the scanner, tape drives and CD ROM, but you'd really much prefer a PCI scsi board for a fast disk that might otherwise run 3X that speed. Speed is the reason we abandoned ISA.
You could get a PCI scsi board, and run all your scsi devices on it. (But watch out for the outrageous prices for the cable you need to connnect a scanner to an Ultra Wide SCSI card -- we paid a whopping $120 for the cable.) It's also worth mentioning that, unless you are also using the SCSI card for controlling a SCSI hard drive, you really don't need a fancy, high-performance PCI SCSI card. A 15xx series ISA Adaptec card is more than fast enough for the data rates required by a scanner. Your easiest, cheapest solution is to add a 2nd IDE drive and a low-cost SCSI card for your scanner, CD-ROM, and other low-speed SCSI peripherals. In summary, the AVA 1502 is a perfectly normal SCSI adapter, supported by the built-in "sparrow" SCSI driver supplied with Win95. You can use it to control both "normal" internal SCSI disk as well as external SCSI ZIP drive in the same time. It's 16-bit ISA adapter, so performance is quite good.
PhotoCD and Pro PhotoCD
(article by Graeme Bennett)
Q: What is the least expensive scanner able to produce pro-quality results?
A: Your best bet for getting high-quality scans on tight budgets is Pro PhotoCD, a service available at your local Kodak photo-finisher.
Scanning Software Overview and Utilities
One of the most important issues in color scanners is the unit's dynamic range, which is expressed as a value that is usually around 2.6 on a low-end scanner, up to 3.6 or so on a higher-end unit.
Another important consideration is the "noisiness" of the circuitry in the scanner. Obviously, low-end scanners have cheaper circuits and these typically produce spurious noise in the images.
OCR Utilities
Computer: read this page -- A look at three OCR packages
For further reading:
Scanners-What To Look For
SCSI And Proud Of It
by Graeme Bennett
Selling imaging solutions to the paper challenged
Scanning An overview of what's new in scanners.
by Geof Wheelwright and Jeff Evans.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Scanner
Scanners for Everyone
Scanners Buyers' Guide
(Requires Adobe Acrobat)
The Delrina Winfax Scanner, and You
by Jeff Evans
Yes, Hand Scanners
Flat-bed scanners
by Jean Allen-Ikeson
Looking For A Few Good Scanners
ImpOS/2 A Fine Warp Image Editor by Jeff Hildebrand
Analysis: A Scanner for Everyone by Geof Wheelwright
Document Management A Guide to Optical Character Recognition.
Other Resources
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