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What to consider a Scanner?
If your scanner is intended for a simple filing of text or graphic documents, be it in colour or black & white, then any flat scanner with an optical resolution of 600 dpi (dots per inch) or less will suffice. This resolution is perfectly suitable for a simple output on a monitor and some occasional prints. Depending on the type of document in your possession, it may be more interesting to direct oneself towards a sheet fed scanner. Some scanners are capable of digitalizing any type of document; others are destined for specific formats, from the most common to the most particular (such as business card scanners). There exist a scanner for every use, but there will be necessarily one which will be the connection between yourself and your computer.

Scanners are rated in dots per inch (dpi), whereas cameras are rated in total pixels. Both scanners and cameras have an optical resolution (the real lens resolution) and an interpolated resolution computed by software. The higher the optical, the better.

Scanners are also rated by the maximum bit depth of each pixel (how many colors can be stored). At minimum, scanners support 24-bit color, and many go up to 48 bits. See optical resolution, interpolated resolution, document scanner, flatbed scanner, sheet-fed scanner, handheld scanner, drum scanner, slide scanner, photo scanner and digital camera. Film Scanner

Type of scanner

The sheetfed scanner is uniquely capable to digitalize sheet per sheet. It is enough to put your sheet into a feeder or directly into an opening for it to appear just a few seconds later unto your screen. This type of scanner is very compact but very limited in its usage. In fact, it has a tendency to disappear.
The flat scanner is the most common type of scanner. It can digitalize all types of documents, of different sizes (more often A4, but there also exists A3 scanners).
First and foremost destined for professionals, the film scanner is specialized in the digitalization of 24x36 negatives or APS. It can achieve very high resolutions and its quality is excellent, but its use domain is very restricted
Measured in bits, it is the number of colour gradation that the scanner is capable of dissociating. The higher their number, the better the colour gradation will be restored and the more your document will be faithfully restituted.

Some scanners are pretty and slim, others austere and massif. Some are equipped with buttons in frontage which make it possible to automate certain tasks (such as for example the launching of a photocopy or a digitalization by the simple touch of a button), others can also function whilst maintained vertically.

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