Buying a Scanner:

Here are some things to look for when you buy a scanner:

Connection Type: There are three ways a scanner can connect to your computer.

USB: This is the best method. It is fast and it is easy to configure. Make sure your computer has a USB port and make sure your are running Windows98 or WindowsME. (Most Windows95 machines don't support USB even if they have the USB ports.) The connector is a small rectangular plug about a half inch wide.

Parallel Port: Some very inexpensive scanners still use this connection type. It is very slow - it may take a couple of minutes to scan one image. It can also be hard to configure, since your scanner and your printer will be sharing one port.

SCSI Card: This was the only high-speed option before there was USB. It is not found much now. It also requires that you open up your computer and install the SCSI card.

Resolution: This is the number of dots per inch the scanner can see. For around $100 you should be able to find 600dpi scanners. For around $400 you could get at 1200dpi model. Since photos are scanned at around 200 or 300 dpi, a 600 dpi scanner is usually OK. The exception to this rule is if you will be enlarging images more than 300% or 400% or if you will be scanning transparencies.

Descreening: Some scanners can removed the screened effect when you scan photos from newspapers and magazines.

Transpararency Adapter: Some scanners come with an adapter that lets you scan transparencies (a backlight). On low resolution models this doesn't work very well, though.

Buttons: Some scanners let you scan an image just by pressing a button.

Image Editing Software: All scanners come with one of about a dozen image editing programs.They all do about the same things but they all have different interfaces.

OCR Software: Some scanners also come with an OCR (optical character recognition) software. These programs will let you scan typewritten copy and turn it into a text file. Usually the versions that come with a scanner don't work very well. If you really need to do OCR, I suggest the full version of OmniPage. It will cost more than the scanner, but it does the job right.

Warranty: A good indication of quality with any piece of computer equipment is the length of the warranty.

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