Evaluate these factors when choosing a scanner
Choosing a scanner depends on your specific needs.
If you scan receipts or documents, the scanner in your all-in-one printer may be all you need.
If you’re a graphic artist or photographer, you may need aphoto scanner.
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If you manage an office, you might benefit from a document scanner.
Scannerresolutionand color depth are key factors to understand when considering a scanner purchase.
Resolution and color depth are important considerations.
In other words, resolution is the amount of detail a scanner can capture.
Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi).
A higher dpi means higher resolution and higher-quality images with more detail.
The resolution of heavy-duty office document printers is often 600 dpi.
Optical resolutions can go much higher in professional photo scanners, for example, up to 6400 dpi.
When you select a scanner, you’ll need to know how high its resolution range should be.
If you plan to enlarge the photos, use a higher dpi.
Resize scans in photo-editing software to save space on your hard drive.
At higher bit depths, more colors are used, and the scan looks better.
For example, grayscale images are 8-bit images, with 256 levels of gray.
The trade-off is large file sizes.
Resolution and bit depth affect a scanner’s price.
In general, the higher the resolution and bit depth, the higher the price.
However, resizing a scan upward is a bad idea from a quality standpoint.
