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Larger Flatbed Scanners?
An Anonymous Coward writes: "I work for a University department and we're looking to find an affordable flatbed scanner with a scanning area of 11x17". Affordability is critical, and it's surprising how hard it is to find one of these... Some basic models I've found range from $1,000 to $4,000. Can the Slashdot community suggest any scanners? Will they?" I settled on a smaller scanning surface after finding the same thing, but my scanner (an Epson Perfection 1650 Photo) is supported nicely by the excellent Xsane. What scanner advice can you offer, especially when it comes to cross-platform support?
Along the same lines can someone out there recommend a GOOD color printer?
However, if you're dead-set on going down that low-cost road, your best shot would probably to pick up a few Plustek OpticPro A3-i scanners on clearance somewhere. (Here for instance.) The company's not around anymore, so you'll be on your own for support, but at $175.00 per unit, that might be a risk you'd be willing to take.
I am curious as to what the university so desperately needs to scan at 11x17, though...
Holy Price Gouging, Batman!
A letter size USB flatbed goes for US$90-120 at most stores around me.
For $3800 you're getting a few extra inches of rubber tractor, glass, and plastic.
You would think somebody would try to fill this market void with a larger scanner at an affordable price.
Love or hate HP I find their more expensive (i.e. SCL [scanner control language] based) scanners are pretty much the best supported under Linux. They are quite open about the SCL specs and usb models are well supported - my 5200C has been working perfectly with Xsane since I got it.
Etc....
Epson scanner: $100.
Epson scanner: $100.
Roll of duct tape: $2.
The look on your department head's face: priceless.
My university used to have 11x17 scanners in the Geography department's computer lab. We used them (of course) to scan maps. Even then, it often wasn't big enough. The scanners we used were made by Umax, and they were bought circa 1999. The were probably similar to this.
I've got a Microtek XL6 (i think- too lazy to go check the real name) The scanner has a SCSI interface, 11x17, supposedly 600x1200 dpi and works great for me. I received it as a gift, so I'm not sure of the cost. It's a bit on the noisy side, but thats not an issue considering all my cooling fans. Also, I know it works in Windows using Microtek ScanSuite, not sure about any other platforms.
I believe Fujitsu makes scanners in this size, priced around $1,000 - $1,500 (that may include a sheet feeder), and Kodak makes a very expensive ($23,000) but VERY fast scanner in this size (we had some technical problems with one we had in on evaluation in mid-2000). My consulting client needed to scan about 50,000 11x14 color images, along with about 20,000 poster images (mostly 27x41 movie posters), and ultimately decided to buy a couple of $25,000 52-inch Contex sheet-fed scanners.
I don't need my A3 EP scanner any more, so perhaps I should post it for sale on eBay. But then I guess I'd need to set it up. It does have a small crack in the glass. Maybe I should just put it out at my condo complex yard sale this Saturday. ;-)
Hey, Anonymous Coward: if you're in the Bay Area, give me a call, maybe I'll donate it to your insitution. I think it uses one of those pass-through parallel port connections.
Before you select your solution, you need to determine the actual application before buying anything. How fast does it need to be? (Trust me, manually positioning 50,000 pages on a flatbed scanner is going to take a long, long, long, long, long time.) What resolution, and what kind of color range? How accurate must the color mapping be?
Finally, note that there are service bureaus that will scan a bunch of documents, sometimes even come to your office and scan them right there, for prices ranging from 50 cents to $2 or more per image (depending on condition, size, color/monochrome, etc). One firm in Vacaville was doing this for government agencies: send in 3 guys with 3 wide-format scanners ($10,000 each) and scan for a few weeks, then deliver the document images on CD-ROM or tape.
As a university, you might find some alumnus or other supporter who would lend you this kind of equipment for a specific project -- ask around. Check if another department (engineering? public planning?) might have a scanner, or maybe there's even a scanner like this in the basement of the bursar's office.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
Why is everyone pushing bargain basement cheapness? Obviously if he simply needs to scan 11x17 documents for OCR, his ideal scanner would be 600dpi greyscale and an $1000 color flatbed targeted at desktop publishing (not prepress, not graphic design----desktop publishing)
but if he's in charge of requisition for an art or graphic design department, $1000 could be considered skimping on an 11x17
Does anyone else remember the old greyscale logitech handheld scanners? I've often lamented the fact that no one sees fit to make an updated version (HP had a pretty sweet one that didn't even need to be plugged in to work w/ ~ 50 pages worth of memory - but for some reason the discontinued it). A handheld would be perfect for all your odd-sized scan jobs (and books, which is why I want one)
I used to service scanners for AGFA and they had a unit called the Horizon which scanned up to A3. Other than it had a SCSI 1 interface and was built like a brick outhouse I can't help you but there should be units available on the second-hand market.
Peter Jones
Our production department just got one of these, after much research. A transparency adapter was important for us, and that helped drive the decision, but that alone added $1k to the price (about $3k total).
It's a very nice scanner though, and includes lots of items you could easily pay a few hundred for alone: Silverfast software, color calibrating software & plates, fast SCSI + Firewire + USB interfaces.
The preview and scan speed is fantastic (we use it on fast SCSI). We're still nailing down the color on transparencies. The reflective quality is wonderful right out of the box, though it tends to want to 'help' by saturating soft colors.
I agree with the earlier poster about using a service bureau - if you don't need the large size very often, they can be very cost effective. For us, we scan enough that this should pay for itself in about 3 months (vs using a scanning service)
Heck for that price, you could get a pretty nice digital camera. With a little fiddling, you could get a pretty nice scan I'm sure.
Of course, OCR would be more challenging.
What you're getting is a decent dynamic range. You want at least 3, close to 4 is noticably better.
The $90 scanners don't list dynamic range, they're around 2. A laughably low value, but good enough to scan in text.
We just rented a Minolta digital photocopier (DiALTA Di351f) for our training department. It is a 35ppm copier, with stapling, punching and sorting, a network printer and a scanner that ftp's or emails TIFFs and PDFs. Obviously it is B&W only, but it does a very passable job on text. If you wanted to buy one, they are quite expensive, but when you consider that you are also getting a photocopier, fax and A3 printer in one, it starts to look attractive.
I am sox the monkey and I have rabies and AIDS... Do not come near me....
Thanks!