Do You Need a Flatbed Scanner, or an Overhead Scanner?
For photos or other easily damaged originals, bound material, and 3D objects, you need a flatbed scanner, which has a large glass platen on which you place the documents, photos, books, or items. (When we talk about scanning objects, here we're talking about scanning three-dimensional objects to two-dimensional images. 3D scanners—which digitize objects to special 3D files for display or printing on a 3D printer—are a different beast entirely.)
Books, magazines, and objects thicker than a sheet of paper or driver's license are good candidates for an overhead scanner, which resembles an old-fashioned overhead projector with an illuminated scanning head that looks down on a flat surface. These work like cameras, snapping pictures of items and feeding them to suitable software for optical character recognition (converting images to editable text) or flattening the curve near the spine of a book.
Delicate originals such as photos and stamps can go through a sheet feeder, but you risk damaging them. If you need to scan this sort of original only once in a while, you may be able to get by with a sheetfed scanner that comes with a plastic carrier to protect the originals. Keep in mind, however, that even brand-new, unscratched plastic carriers can degrade scan quality somewhat. Direct-to-glass is always better.
Scanner models tend to stay on the market for a long time between iterations, and this is especially true of flatbed photo scanners. We regularly update our Best Scanners roundup, so should you encounter an "oldie but goodie," it simply means that no similar model that we've reviewed has yet surpassed it.
Ready to Buy the Right Scanner for You?
We trust our advice and product picks have clarified your potential purchase decision. All-in-one or multifunction printers have built-in scanners, nearly all equipped with a flatbed and many with ADFs. That may be sufficient for light scanning needs. However, you'll probably want to get a single-function scanner to get the most out of your scanning. The models listed here are the best we've tested, but for more focused advice, check out our roundup of the top scanners for photos, as well as our guide to the best all-in-one printers, if having a scanner attached to your printer is more appealing. (Finally, after you've digitized all that paper, look at the best shredders we've tested.)
Do You Need a Special-Purpose Scanner?
Finally, consider whether you need a special-purpose scanner. Among the most common special-purpose choices are scanners for business cards (small and highly portable) and receipts (small and equipped with specialized software). Specialized slide scanners are smaller than flatbed scanners, but they're no better at scanning slides than flatbed scanners with equivalent features.
If you travel often, you might want a portable scanner that's small enough to fit in your laptop bag, or a handheld scanner that you hold and trace over text. Some portable models can operate without a computer attached, scanning to a memory card or smartphone. You can also find some that function as both portable and desktop document scanners by combining a portable scanner with a docking station that includes an ADF.
Depending on what you need to scan, any one of these may be a good choice, either as your only scanner or as a supplement to a general-purpose scanner. We've highlighted a few of our favorite special scanners in the picks above.
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Hello,
I am planning to go paperless with paperless-ngx. I already have a docker setup where I can run the software with, but I am struggeling to find the right printer. All the scanners, that are recommended on the paperless repo seem to be quite expensive.
Do you have recommendations wich scanner/all-in-one-printer does the job and is affordable (also buying a used one is an option). Being able to use duplex scanning and being able to scan multi-page documents would be important to me because I want to automate the incoming document flow.
Like the title says, I'm trying to find a high quality yet affordable scanner to scan in a ton of high quality photos. Sadly my grandparents passed away and we have tubs and tubs of photos. To prevent family fighting, I want to scan in and eventually make copies of these images to prevent issue because dealing with their passing has caused enough family drama. The problem, I'm finding, is the scanner I currently have sucks, It lowers the quality of images and editing them is a pain/never seems to be right..
So I've been delving into looking for a new scanner, but am finding the ones that advertise HD photo quality, are often scanner only and the best reviewed ones are pricey as heck. I don't really want to invest a ton in a scanner only hardware as once I'm done with this, I probably won't have much of a need for it. Combo scanner would be ideal to get more use out of it, but I won't lie, I love the idea of it being compact like a lot of these solo scanners seem to be haha.
I'm probably being a bit picky because I'd be fine buying scan only if it was under 200 dollars since ultimately it's just going to become a paper weight until the rare occassion arises to scan more photos for someone. I see the Epson FastFoto has the best reviews, but at around 400-500 bucks, I just can't justify it for what's essentially going to be a one time use. So any suggestions on something that will scan well without a lot of photo editing required? I'm talking like hundreds upon hundreds of photos so stopping to edit/adjust every single image is not ideal.
Thank you all in advance and I apologize if I'm being difficult here.
TL;DR Need suggestions for an affordable high quality scanner to scan in a ton of old family photos. Willing to pay more if it does more than just scan, but also not opposed to the idea of just the scanner simply cause it'll be compact and easier to setup, just don't want to pay a ton for scan only since it won't be used often.