Reference:Scanners
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TL;DR tips for shopping for a new scanner
What are the primary options/types of document/artwork scanners?
- Small and very portable scanners. Small flatbed, foldable document feeders or move with your hand. Example [Doxie Flip]
- These usually max out at 300ppi optical scan at 8-bits/channel.
- Cost is higher (it's portable), quality is lower.
- Less expensive, smaller flatbed document scanners. Example [Epson Perfection V19]
- Most often have an optical scan resolution of 2400 x 2400 dpi at 8-bits/channel.
- Cost is lower, quality, and sharpness is better than #1, but less than #3 😉.
- These are primarily built for hobbyists scanning photo prints and document scanning.
- As a low-cost solution for home, this should be a workable solution for some of your work (sketches, exploratory work). If you tend to upscale your scans or aspire to make larger prints, you will eventually need to find a more powerful scanner.
- Professional tier, higher quality flatbed scanners for creative people. Example [Epson Perfection V600]
- Most often have an optical scan resolution of 4800 x 4800 dpi. or higher. These are not limited to 8-bits/channel.
- These also tend to be able to scan at the deeper color depths: 48-bit/channel Color or 16-bit Grayscale.
- Cost is higher, takes up more room on your desk. Quality and sharpness are top-notch. This is often a multi-year investment, scanner technology leveled out years ago.
- Large format (big drawings), higher quality professional flatbed scanners. Example [Epson Expression 12000XL-GA]
- Let's be honest folks, these are mostly identical to #3 but bigger and absolutely insanely expensive!
- Specs are mostly the same as above.
- Unfortunately it's a small market and therefore more expensive to produce these in lower quantity.
What resolution means and what should you get?
I will attempt to summarize and provide links for further clarification. There are two primary ways that we talk about resolution. When we know the size of an image/illustration we can simply indicate how many pixels (width and height) will be in the digital version/file. As your comfort working digitally increases, you will become fluent in the relative scale.
