Four Tips to Help you Choose the Right Scanner

When shopping for a scanner, the first thing people usually think of is price. That’s the case when shopping for almost anything nowadays. While that is obviously a huge factor, there are a few things you should take into consideration before bargain-hunting.

Look at it this way, if you end up with equipment that doesn’t do what you need it to do, then what? You’ll end up paying exponentially more in add-ons or heading back to the drawing board and purchasing a new one altogether. If you’re in the market for scanners, here are a few important things you should ask yourself before buying.

1. WHAT WILL YOU BE SCANNING, FOR THE MOST PART?

Are you scanning the front of cereal boxes? How are you going to fit a cereal box through a sheet feeder? Are you scanning business cards? You should technically put them in a sheet feeder, but you run the risk of jamming it and/or damaging them.

There are options available if you’ll be handling items like this, but rarely. If they’re your primary focus, you might want to go with a flatbed scanner. Alternatively, a flatbed scanner probably won’t make much sense if you’re using it for traditional document scanning.

Side note: if you are scanning cereal boxes, we would love to know why.

2. HOW LARGE ARE THE DOCUMENTS YOU’RE SCANNING?

If your primary focus is photos, you’ll need a different scanner than if your primary focus is posters. Need we go on? It seems like an obvious component, but it is often forgotten.

3. WHAT KIND OF RESOLUTION ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

As a rule, higher quality scanners produce higher resolution images (though there are some exceptions). Ask yourself what you’ll be using the images for. Are you designing a billboard or are you just scanning receipts to file digitally? This makes a big difference.

4. HOW MANY PAGES WILL YOU NEED TO SCAN AT A TIME?

Assuming you are using a sheet-feeder, are you scanning single-page documents or hundred-page documents? This is going to play a big role in whether your document feeder should be manual or automatic.

While this list is a good starting point, we recommend talking to a professional before you make your scanner purchase. That way, you can feel confident that you’re getting exactly what you need.