A scanner is a scanner is a scanner. Or not! (Epson Perfection 1240U)

Member Name: adele1476

Product:	Epson Perfection 1240U
Date:	07/07/01 (765 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: full package software, not trial versions as other scanners have, three quick easy buttons for quick tasks, easy intergration with most common packages

Disadvantages: No 'off' button, can be daunting to start with

A scanner is a scanner is a scanner!
Well yes, this is true to a certain extent. All scanners scan information from the hard copy to a soft copy, which can then be manipulated by you via the computer.
The thing that makes certain scanners stand out above others though is two things.

1) The software that comes with the scanner
2) The colour depth and resolution of the scanner
You may think that I have these in the wrong order and that colour depth and resolution should be above the software, let me try to explain why there is this way round.
When choosing to buy a scanner people normally plump for the one with the highest resolution in the price bracket they can afford. This is unfortunately only half the story and which manufacturers hope you do as this way they can get you caught up with that and put you unlicensed software in or a trial copy in, this is what happened to me and my previous scanner. That scanner was ok though for around 2 years until I decided to take the plunge and upgrade (unfortunately in the computer world all peripherals can be and usually need to be upgraded. The old adage if it isn’t broke don’t fix it dose not generally apply to the computer world as everyone young and old wants the best they can afford and as such as new technology comes along manufactures lure you into this sense that you need their new product. Ok if the scanner you have is adequate and you are not thinking of upgrading then you would not be reading this review anyway  but if you are thinking of purchasing a new scanner, then in my opinion you cannot go far wrong with this Epson. There is another version of this same scanner if you are thinking of doing a lot of photograph scanning but I did not need this version so I plumped for this cheaper alternative. This product though can still scan photographs and scan them well. It has a colour depth of 42 bits meaning that it can saturate colours well and thus giving a clear imag
e of the scanned image on to the page. The other important numbers to remember are that it has a true optical resolution of 1200x2400dpi. These are the only two number bits of information that you need to remember and the best rule of thumb is to look at the price bracket you can afford and then with this in mind go for the highest in these two numbers, you shouldn’t go far wrong. However, you are thinking to yourselves that she said that software was more important than these figures, it is. Read on my fellow reader.
You can have the best numbers in the world able to produce the best scan, but in order for you to be able to do anything at all with that scan one needs software. This is in my opinion where the Epson scanner excels. The software you get is all full package software and not trial versions that you may find with others, the software is as follows

1) Text bridge Pro
2) Adobe home edition
3) And Epson’s own scanning facility
These three bits of software all combine to make this scanner one of the best in this price bracket.

Text Bridge pro is an excellent OCR (optical character recognition) package, and is the full version, not one that has no registration information inside, thus you cannot use the full package.
Both the Adobe and Epson's’ own are good for general all round purposes such as photographs and information to be copied from a book etc.
Thus, I hope I have now illustrated in some way that no matter how brilliant the numbers are on the scanner it is the software that really is the key to how well the scanner works. I mean you can buy scanner software in addition to this but if you are going to use it, as I am for schoolwork then you cannot go far wrong with the software that comes included with the scanner.

Most scanners cannot read or manipulate the handwritten word, this can. If you mess about with the software then through a combination of text bridge and Epson's ow
n your handwriting (no matter how bad) can be read and understood by the software (even the different colours) this can then be used in different software packages.

The front of the scanner is straight forward, three buttons one for a copy, one to use the scanner as a photocopier (prints a copy of) and the third is to scan it to enable you to email the scan. The colour is a nice two tone grey that will not look at of place with the rest of your pc equipment (obviously, if you have an I-Mac) but for most PC users it will blend in nicely. The connection is via USB and an external power socket, the plug incidentally is normal plug shaped, unlike my previous, which was an odd shape to fit into my extension cable.

The only negative thing I will say is that the scanner has no of button and as such, if you do not want to use the scanner then you will have to unplug the plug at source or at the ac power transformer point.

Other than that there is not a lot of negative I can say about this scanner, once you buy it investigate the software to suit you and so that you understand all about your scanner. As a child, you learned through play and thus through play once again you could use the scanner to the fullest of its capabilities.

Well not much else to say other than I am so glad I took the plunge and got this scanner, btw the cheapest place to get the scanner was through dabs, but if you want a good honest reliable service buy if from www.buy.com

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