Scanners

A scanner is an input device that allows graphical data to be

captured by the computer. This data can be in the form of
photographs, line drawings or even text
To capture the data, the scanner reflects light off a paper
image that is placed on a sheet of glass. The reflected light
is gathered by photosensitive cells.

Scanners
The electrical current representing the reflected light
intensity passes through an analogue-to-digital converter
to create a bit map of the original image. This digital
image is then sent through an interface to the computer.
A typical flat-bed scanner comprises an A4 glass plate
underneath which a scan head is moved down the
length of the glass in small steps.

Scanners
The control software for the scanner usually allows a
number of image characteristics to be altered. It is
important to be aware of these as the file size created for a
single A4 page can be as high as 20 Mb.
OCR software, which comes with most scanners, enables
the conversion of a graphical representation of text into a
word processing file, database, spreadsheet or other text
format.
OCR Optical Character Recognition
R e s o l u t i o n
The resolution of a scanner is a measurement of how
close together the scanned pixels are located. It is
usually measured in dpi.
Dpi dots per inch
Images scanned for display purposes on a monitor
(e. g. for use in a multimedia presentation) should
normally be scanned at 72 dpi as this will match the
resolution of most monitors.
R e s o l u t i o n
Flat-bed scanners can give a resolution of up to 2400
4800 dpi. The number of colours in the scan is also a
major factor affecting the resolution of the image.
This is called the bit depth.
A scan of 24 bits means 24 bits are allocated to each
pixel in the image; this is also know as true colour, as
millions of different colours
can be represented.
S p e e d o f d a t a
t r a n s f e r
The scanner itself does not have any RAM so the data is send
directly to the computer.
This means that the speed of data transfer depends on
the connection to the computer and the computer specifications.
A modern USB 2.0 scanner has a transfer rate of
480 Mbit s 1
Cost
Like the digital camera this depends on the make and
model of scanner.

Prices range from 40 up to 300 or more.
U s e s
Converting photographic prints into
digital form.
Scanning documents for OCR.
Exercise
Using the web- find a Scanner for approx 40
and another for approx 300.

Q What differences are there between them?
Q What other types of scanner can you find?