I need to know about digital scanners and I am a complete newcommer to this. I want very simple, basic nuts and bolts info telling me what I need to know before purchasing a scanner. Any help finding web sites containing this kind of beginner's info will be greatly appreciated.

-- Mitchell Harrison (miha@loc.gov), November 25, 1998

Answers

Two possible starting places: Wayne Fulton has an excellent page, albeit a bit more oriented to film scanners, at www.scantips.com. Also Dennis Curtin's "Shortcourse" on digital photography covers a lot of ground, including scanning. Find it at www.shortcourses.com.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), November 27, 1998.

I got every bit of info I could ever want to know about scanners and then some from the Mustek site (I believe it is www.mustek.com?) They do an incredible job of explaining it simply and in great detail. I would highly recommend reading this site for anyone trying to make the best use of their scanner (irregardless of what brand scanner you purchase). I have a Mustek scanner (purchased it about a year and a half ago) and love it -no complaints. I haven't ever compared scanners directly so I don't know if it is the best (but I would definitely get a cool lamp one over a hot lamp, personally) but the one I have seems perfect. Some scanners come with incredible software packages so that is really something to take into consideration (I am still kicking myself that I could have gotten a comparable scanner with adobe photoshop 4.0 -when it just came out- for only $70 more!)

-- Sharon Carroll (marc_alley@sprynet.com), December 16, 1998.

Hello Mitchell, I found a great deal of very helpful info at www.scanshop.com/scanners. This website is provided by Caere. They don't do any direct advertisement, however. They provide all of the basics in a manner that, I believe, anyone can understand. At least it will give you somewhere to begin asking appropriate questions, which is usually the biggest problem when you begin anything new. They talk about types of scanners, scanner specs, components, bundled software, drivers, color calibration, applications and much more. Good luck!

-- Gene F. (gcd@wwics.com), January 07, 1999.