Probably OT: Scan + Print vs. Photocopy

I'd like to buy a good quality color scanner for home use. I'd also like to
make the occasional (B&W) photocopy. I could buy one of those all-in-one
devices, but I already have a printer and I don't need a fax. (Besides
which, the scanners bundled with home/home office all-in-one devices don't
typically approach that you can get in a standalone scanner.)

In there any difference in quality or convenience between a standalone
photocopier vs. a scanner + laser printer? They seem the same to me. That
way I could buy just a scanner and voila, I also have a photocopier.

Daddy

Daddy wrote:
> I'd like to buy a good quality color scanner for home use. I'd also like to
> make the occasional (B&W) photocopy. I could buy one of those all-in-one
> devices, but I already have a printer and I don't need a fax. (Besides
> which, the scanners bundled with home/home office all-in-one devices don't
> typically approach that you can get in a standalone scanner.)
>
> In there any difference in quality or convenience between a standalone
> photocopier vs. a scanner + laser printer? They seem the same to me. That
> way I could buy just a scanner and voila, I also have a photocopier.
>
> Daddy
>
>

For occasional use, get the scanner. It's going to cost you a great deal
less than a copier and will give you far more flexibility as far as
resolution and color quality.

Additionally, most ship with OCR software so if you need to scan and
convert to text, it's a snap.

Bob

I concur. Scanners are very handy. I suggest getting a flatbed scanner,
which takes up more space, but generally provides higher quality scans than the
ones with other types of feed mechanisms. If you are going to scan a multi-page
document, then a scanner with a document feeder is best.

The typical software included with most scanners provides a copy utility and all
manner of scanning options including scanning directly to a PDF, OCR scanning,
color-to-greyscale scans, various DPI scans, and scanning-resizing of image all
in one step. I use an ancient HP SCSI scanner, and it does everything I ask it
to do. I am not recommending buying one, though. Better to get a new scanner.
But scanner technology has been well-proven on personal computers for years.

The typical all purpose printer-copier-scanner (often with fax) devices sold by
mass market retailers are typically cheaply made and pretty flimsy. Also, if
one element breaks down, there is no real chance to repair it, as one of my
clients found when the fax board in an HP OfficeJet failed. To put it more
accurately, the cost to repair is about the same as a new replacement.

.... Ben Myers

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:07:28 -0400, Bob Levine <invalid@fake.address.com> wrote:

>Daddy wrote:
>> I'd like to buy a good quality color scanner for home use. I'd also like to
>> make the occasional (B&W) photocopy. I could buy one of those all-in-one
>> devices, but I already have a printer and I don't need a fax. (Besides
>> which, the scanners bundled with home/home office all-in-one devices don't
>> typically approach that you can get in a standalone scanner.)
>>
>> In there any difference in quality or convenience between a standalone
>> photocopier vs. a scanner + laser printer? They seem the same to me. That
>> way I could buy just a scanner and voila, I also have a photocopier.
>>
>> Daddy
>>
>>
>
>For occasional use, get the scanner. It's going to cost you a great deal
>less than a copier and will give you far more flexibility as far as
>resolution and color quality.
>
>Additionally, most ship with OCR software so if you need to scan and
>convert to text, it's a snap.
>
>Bob

Thanks to all of you, and especially for the advice about scanner features.
Off to do research...

Daddy

"journey" <journey@merr.com> wrote in message
news:nltu74ts8llvrc499vqap283qcnmfj045p@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:02:36 -0400, "Daddy" <daddy@not.valid.net>
> wrote:
>
>>I'd like to buy a good quality color scanner for home use. I'd also like
>>to
>>make the occasional (B&W) photocopy. I could buy one of those all-in-one
>>devices, but I already have a printer and I don't need a fax. (Besides
>>which, the scanners bundled with home/home office all-in-one devices don't
>>typically approach that you can get in a standalone scanner.)
>>
>>In there any difference in quality or convenience between a standalone
>>photocopier vs. a scanner + laser printer? They seem the same to me. That
>>way I could buy just a scanner and voila, I also have a photocopier.
>>
>>Daddy
>
> I would recommend a standalone scanner over an all-in-one.
>
> The scanner that I would recommend is the CanoScan LiDE90. I like the
> Canon LiDE scanners because they have virtually no warmup time. That
> means I actually use the scanner for individual documents rather than
> try to batch them together. I don't know if it comes with an
> automatic document feeder.
>
> I do have a "monster" all-in-one HP 7410 wireless inkjet. One nice
> thing about the all-in-ones is that you typically get more scanning
> controls via hardware buttons -- for example, enter the number of
> copies, enlargement, etc. However, it's big, bulky, and inkjet. It's
> easier and faster to create a copy that way, but if you only do it
> occasionally it's not worth it.
>
> I like PaperPort professional scanning software, but it will cost you
> an arm and a leg! If you do a lot of scans, it's something to
> consider, but the software costs more than most scanners.