Introduction to Scanners

Principles of Information Technology

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What is a Scanner?
A

scanner, simply put, is a device used to

analyze an image and process it.

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One size does not scan all!

There are different types of scanners for
different types of documents that need
to be scanned.
Flatbed

Scanners
Sheet-fed Scanners
Handheld Scanners
Drum Scanners

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Flatbed Scanner

Used for scanning most documents,

photos, and even flat objects from a PC
or laptop

Works like a copy machine

Scans documents placed face down on

the glass (scan bed)

Most common type of scanner

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Sheet-fed Scanner

More portable than a flatbed

scanner

Used to scan paper

documents and photos

The paper moves through

the scanner

Usually smaller than a flatbed and portable

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Handheld Scanner
Smaller

than the
previous two scanners

The

user must move

the scanner across the
document

Image

quality is usually

lower
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Drum Scanner
Used

by the
publishing industry

Document

is placed
on a glass cylinder

Generates

very highquality scans

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Using Your Scanner

Most

flatbed scanners are connected to the

computer via the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

software program called a TWAIN driver is

used by the computer to communicate with
the scanner.

An

image editing program can then be used

to manipulate the scanned image.

Copyright Texas Education Agency, 2013. All rights reserved.

Connecting the Scanner

Most

modern scanners
connect to the computer
through the USB.

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Scanner Software

The TWAIN is a standard of communication between

the computer and scanner that allow images to be
directly scanned from an image editing program. All
scanner manufacturers agree to use this standard.

The TWAIN driver controls the scanner and serves as

the interface between the scanner and your graphics
program.

TWAIN is not an acronym for anything, but

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10

What is TWAIN?
Twain

is an old form of the word two.

The TWAIN software refers to the computer
and scanner and the difficulty in connecting
the two.
The developers took the word from Kipling's
"The Ballad of East and West"
"...and never the twain shall meet..."
Allows

3rd party software applications to

access the scanner to import images.

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11

Scanning a Photo
Place the image face
down on the scanning
bed.

The scanner will have a

marker indicating
where the top of the
image should go.

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12

Scanning a Photo
Most applications that are TWAIN compliant
will allow you to scan the image directly into
the application.

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13

Scanning a Photo

Some applications are not TWAIN compliant.

The scanner manufacturer will usually provide a standalone application for scanning images.

You can scan images and save them using their

application.

Next, open them like any other image in your

application of choice.

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14

Scanning Formats

Depending on your scanning software, you may have

different options of file formats in which to save your
scanned image or document.

Images may be saved as

jpg, bmp, tif, or png.

Documents may be saved as

pdf or any of the image formats

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.bmp
The

BMP file format, sometimes called

bitmap file format, is an image file format
used to store bitmap digital images.

BMP

is a very simple bitmap format. It

doesn't support any photo-specific features
and most importantly, it doesn't support color
management.

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.tif

Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a

file format for storing images including photographs
and line art.

.tif images are considered lossless, meaning when

compressed they do not lose any of the data that
renders the image, allowing the image to maintain
its resolution.

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.jpg

.jpg is the most common image format used by

digital cameras and other photographic image
capture devices, and it is the most common format
for storing and transmitting photographs on the
World Wide Web.

.jpg images are considered lossy, meaning when

compressed, they lose some of the data that
renders the image, resulting in a lower resolution
image.

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.png
Portable

Network Graphics (PNG)

Designed to replace the GIF format.

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.pdf

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is the file format

created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document
exchange. PDF is a fixed-layout format used to represent
two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of
the application software, hardware, and operating system.

Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a 2D document (and sometimes embedded 3-D documents)
that includes the text, fonts, images, and 2-D vector
graphics that compose the documents.

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After Scanning
After

scanning, you may need to modify your

image in a graphic editing program.

Crop
Brightness
Contrast

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Crop
To

crop an image means to cut away, or trim,

the image.

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Crop

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Brightness
Refers

to the lightness and darkness of a

color
Also referred to as tone or value
Original Image

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Increased Brightness

24

Contrast
Contrast

is the difference in visual properties

that makes an object (or its representation in
an image) distinguishable between other
objects and the background.
Original Image

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Increased Contrast

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