Scanner recommendations

[Fran]

Hi,

 

I find myself having to scan physical samples of fabrics and paint chips. I'm not really happy with my little $85 Canoscan. Is there a scanner that anyone can recommend for this? Would it be better to photograph the samples with my digital camera - a Canon G2 (less reflection)?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Tim Nelson]

I've had the Epson Perfection 2400 for more than a year and it's been great for my needs. It's very fast, the quality is great, & I've never had any technical trouble. It was about $200 back then, so I'm sure it's much lower now.

 

I've also tried photographing things instead of scanning, but have always found it really difficult. The lighting has to be just right since you usually don't want to use a flash on anything that would reflect back. A tri-pod comes in handy.

[Fran]

Thanks Tim.

[Tim Nelson]

Oh one other thought. I haven't looked into this, but see how much an 11x17 version would cost. There are so many times when I have to scan something twice just to get the whole thing & then stich it together in Photoshop. Its always a pain because sometimes the scans are crooked or the color is slightly different.

[Bugga_Guy]

In our office we use a digtal camera. Oddly enough alot of samples that we use have a glossy finish. So using a scanner turns deviates the texures a bight white. I find to achieve the best results I usually take my tripod and go outside on a sunny day and (gives me an excuse to leave the office on such a nice day) lay the sample on the ground and snap away (no flash). However in cold Canadain winters like now, I usually set up 4 white lights (energy saver kind) in a cross formation and placing the sample in the middle. It gets rid of the shadows which makes it easier to make it tileable in photoshop if I need it to.

[mwhite]

I'm not a big fan of HP anymore since my printer issues. However, you might want to look at the HP 4670 scanner which looks sort of like a picture frame that sits on your desk (small foot print) and comes apart. The fact that you can take the scanner mechanism apart and place it flat on a surface saved me when I had to create a texture from a very large carpet sample from the factory. There was no way I could have scanned the full pattern of the carpet with a conventional scanner and after a LARGE number of attempts at taking digital photos under all concevable light conditions in order to eliminate banding I resorted to making 8 scans with the HP 4670 and stitching them together. I do not believe there was any other way to get the large pattern into the computer and not have banding or other problems. The texture and the rendering with the carpet sample came out great. Also, you can even take a lap top with this scanner to the showroom and scan in materials onsite that would not otherwise fit in or lay flat in a conventional scanner.

 

BTW, I'm not a big fan of Staples anymore after my plotter cartridge issues, but thats where I got mine as they had the same or slightly better price as the other big boxes, but had a much better return policy.

 

Good luck,

 

Mike White