Large Format Scanning - Q & A

What are the latest trends in large format scanner technology?
What does this mean for large format scanner customers?
What is the most popular size for large format scanners?
What types of projects are large format scanners used for?
What other large format scanning trends are visible?

What are the latest trends in large format scanner technology?

Most large format scanners use image sensor technology first developed for high volume, small format desktop applications in the consumer and office automation markets. Products such as digital fax machines and A-size color flatbed desktop scanners all use image sensor technology to capture digital images. Early generations of these products utilised charge-coupled device (CCD) technology to sense the image - first in monochrome and then later developed in tri-linear sensor format to capture RGB color images. Large format scanners typically use 2, 3, 4 or more small format sensors in order to achieve a wide format image.

The very latest small format scanner products use a more compact, more highly integrated digital imaging system called 'contact image sensor' (CIS). The advantage of CIS over CCD in small and large format scanner products is cost, compactness, lower power requirements and stability (quick start). Colortrac's new scanner range - SmartLF - uses 5 x 8.5" CIS devices that are factory aligned (stitched) and color calibrated to create a 40" image width large format scanner that requires no specialist installation or operator training and no routine maintenance. Colortrac is the only wide format scanner manufacturer to offer both CCD and CIS technology in large format scanner ranges to meet customer requirements in terms of image widths - 25" through 42" - fast scan speeds and optical resolutions.

What does this mean for large format scanner customers?

With CIS the combination of much lower cost and much easier installation and operation is expanding the market for large format scanning and large format copying to a new community of customers. Customers who previously could not justify either the equipment cost or the investment in time needed to learn and understand how to incorporate wide format images into their environment and workflow. This enlargement of the market for large format scanning is being facilitated in no small part also by the low cost of high volume digital storage devices, high speed plug 'n' play interfaces, such as USB2, and by changes in the way MSWindows interacts with peripheral devices through Windows Image Aquisition - WIA. Most new versions of imaging software applications can capture images directly from any image source connected to the system using the WIA interface. General awareness of digital imaging and color reproduction in the wider population is increasing at a massive rate due to the adoption of digital photography by consumers and professionals alike.

All these factors and developments are driving a democratisation and de-specialisation of digital imaging applications across a wide sector of the business and consumer markets - including the wide format scanning and large format copying markets.

What is the most popular size for large format scanners?

Colortrac estimates that 90% of large format legacy originals can be captured by 36" ~ 42" imaging width scanners. There appears to be a trend in new, first generation prints towards A1 and smaller formats brought about by higher imaging resolution printers capable of holding fine details at smaller output sizes and by the desire of customers for more easily portable and 'user friendly' paper sizes - in the same way that a tabloid newspaper is easier to handle than a broadsheet.

What types of projects are large format scanners used for?

Most wide format scanners are used for one or more of three basic applications:~

Archiving - projects where capturing the information content of the original and preserving it on digital media is the prime concern. This may or may not include OCR and R2V conversion but usually will involve indexing and entry in to a database for management and retrieval of the information.

Scanning - capture of images as part of a production or other application where the acquisition of the image is a first step in a sequence of processes that transform the original image.

Reproduction - capture of an image as part of a scan-to-print / copy solution including such features as copy count, enlargement or reduction, color calibration and image editing / enhancement filtering, for example dynamic thresholding to remove unwanted background image.

What other large format scanning trends are visible?

Faster

Large format sheet feed scanners are all pretty close to the practical speed limits for moving paper etc. through a feed mechanism - certainly as in most cases the originals are fed by a person not a machine! Colortrac has invested a lot in development of its ScanWorks and CopySmart software applications with particular emphasis on the UI and the workflow associated with processing a wide format image from the original in to a digital image or printed reproduction. When considering productivity one should consider more than just the quoted 'theoretical maximum scan speeds' - always read the small print! Colortrac software and scanners combine to provide excellent real-world productivity.

Higher resolution

There is a trend towards higher optical scan resolution. In our opinion this is driven mostly by specmanship rather than a real requirement or need for higher resolution in 99% of the large format scanning applications - that we are aware of. Of course, there are some niche applications where the original information content and fine image detail require higher optical scan resolutions and Colortrac have scanners with true 600 or 1200 dpi resolution, the highest available in wide format sheet feed scanners today.

Thicker media

Colortrac were the first large format scanner manufacturer to offer thick media handling - on our Colortrac Series 3 scanners way back in the middle of 1998 - and we understand the practical limits for accurate scanning of mounted originals more than most. Our SmartLF GxT CCD scanners will scan media up to 0.8" thick (20mm) however, this thickness of media will require manual support of the original and it is unlikely that the quoted accuracy specification for the scanner will be met or that the highest image quality be achieved.