Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"
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Most Popular Scanners:
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film
Scanner (35 mm)
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX
Path-Through Scanner
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo
Flatbed Scanner
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through
Scanner
Scanners
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Main > Computer > Peripherals
Lowest
How Scanners Work
by Jeff Tyson
Price
$500
Scanners have become an important part of the home office over the last few years.
$349 Scanner technology is everywhere and used in many ways:
● Flatbed scanners, also called desktop scanners, are the most versatile and
$126 commonly used scanners. In fact, this article will focus on the technology as it
relates to flatbed scanners.
● Sheet-fed scanners are similar to flatbed scanners except the document is
$190
moved and the scan head is immobile. A sheet-fed scanner looks a lot like a
$722 small portable printer.
● Handheld scanners use the same basic technology as a flatbed scanner, but
rely on the user to move them instead of a motorized belt. This type of scanner
typically does not provide good image quality. However, it can be useful for
quickly capturing text.
Go ● Drum scanners are used by the publishing industry to capture incredibly
detailed images. They use a technology called a photomultiplier tube (PMT).
In PMT, the document to be scanned is mounted on a glass cylinder. At the
center of the cylinder is a sensor that splits light bounced from the document
into three beams. Each beam is sent through a color filter into a photomultiplier
tube where the light is changed into an electrical signal.
Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

Microtek's Scanmaker flatbed scanner

The basic principle of a scanner is to analyze an image and process it in some way.
Image and text capture (optical character recognition or OCR) allow you to save
information to a file on your computer. You can then alter or enhance the image, print it
out or use it on your Web page.

In this article, we'll be focusing on flatbed scanners, but the basic principles apply to
most other scanner technologies. You will learn about the different types of scanners,
how the scanning mechanism works and what TWAIN means. You will also learn
about resolution, interpolation and bit depth.

On the next page, you will learn about the various parts of a flatbed scanner.
Next Page >>

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"
Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

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Main > Computer > Peripherals

Lowest
How Scanners Work
Most Popular Scanners: by Jeff Tyson
Price
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film $500
Scanner (35 mm) Anatomy of a Scanner
Parts of a typical flatbed scanner include:
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX $349
Path-Through Scanner ● Charge-coupled device (CCD) array
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo $126 ● Mirrors
Flatbed Scanner ● Scan head
● Glass plate
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo $190 ● Lamp
● Lens
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through $722
● Cover
Scanner ● Filters
● Stepper motor
● Stabilizer bar
● Belt
Scanners Go ● Power supply
● Interface port(s)
● Control circuitry

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

Close-up of the CCD array

The core component of the scanner is the CCD array. CCD is the most common
technology for image capture in scanners. CCD is a collection of tiny light-sensitive
diodes, which convert photons (light) into electrons (electrical charge). These diodes
are called photosites. In a nutshell, each photosite is sensitive to light -- the brighter
the light that hits a single photosite, the greater the electrical charge that will
accumulate at that site.

Photons hitting a photosite and creating electrons

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"
The image of the document that you scan reaches the CCD array through a series of
mirrors, filters and lenses. The exact configuration of these components will depend on
the model of scanner, but the basics are pretty much the same.

On the next page, you will see just how all the pieces of the scanner work together.
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Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

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Main > Computer > Peripherals

Lowest
How Scanners Work
Most Popular Scanners: by Jeff Tyson
Price
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film $500
Scanner (35 mm) The Scanning Process
Here are the steps that a scanner goes through when it scans a document:
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX $349
Path-Through Scanner ● The document is placed on the glass plate and the cover is closed. The inside
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo $126 of the cover in most scanners is flat white, although a few are black. The cover
Flatbed Scanner provides a uniform background that the scanner software can use as a
reference point for determining the size of the document being scanned. Most
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo $190 flatbed scanners allow the cover to be removed for scanning a bulky object,
such as a page in a thick book.
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through $722
Scanner
In the image above, you can see the fluorescent lamp on top of the
scan head.

Scanners Go
● A lamp is used to illuminate the document. The lamp in newer scanners is either
a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a xenon lamp, while older scanners
may have a standard fluorescent lamp.

● The entire mechanism (mirrors, lens, filter and CCD array) make up the scan
head. The scan head is moved slowly across the document by a belt that is
attached to a stepper motor. The scan head is attached to a stabilizer bar to
ensure that there is no wobble or deviation in the pass. Pass means that the
scan head has completed a single complete scan of the document.

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

The stabilizer bar is very durable and tightly secured to the body of
the scanner.

● The image of the document is reflected by an angled mirror to another mirror.

In some scanners, there are only two mirrors while others use a three mirror
approach. Each mirror is slightly curved to focus the image it reflects onto a
smaller surface.

● The last mirror reflects the image onto a lens. The lens focuses the image
through a filter on the CCD array.

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

Look carefully at the image above and you can see all three of the
mirrors plus the lens assembly in this scan head.

The filter and lens arrangement vary based on the scanner. Some scanners use a
three pass scanning method. Each pass uses a different color filter (red, green or
blue) between the lens and CCD array. After the three passes are completed, the
scanner software assembles the three filtered images into a single full-color image.

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

Click on the green Scan button to see the scanning process.

Most scanners today use the single pass method. The lens splits the image into three
smaller versions of the original. Each smaller version passes through a color filter
(either red, green or blue) onto a discrete section of the CCD array. The scanner
combines the data from the three parts of the CCD array into a single full-color image.

Another imaging array technology that has become popular in inexpensive flatbed
scanners is contact image sensor (CIS). CIS replaces the CCD array, mirrors, filters,
lamp and lens with rows of red, green and blue light emitting diodes (LEDs). The
image sensor mechanism, consisting of 300 to 600 sensors spanning the width of the
scan area, is placed very close to the glass plate that the document rests upon. When
the image is scanned, the LEDs combine to provide white light. The illuminated image
is then captured by the row of sensors. CIS scanners are cheaper, lighter and thinner,
but do not provide the same level of quality and resolution found in most CCD
scanners.

We will take a look at what happens between the computer and scanner, but first let's
talk about resolution.

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Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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Main > Computer > Peripherals

Lowest
How Scanners Work
Most Popular Scanners: by Jeff Tyson
Price
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film $500
Scanner (35 mm) Resolution and Interpolation
Scanners vary in resolution and sharpness. Most flatbed scanners have a true
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX $349 hardware resolution of at least 300x300 dots per inch (dpi). The scanner's dpi is
Path-Through Scanner determined by the number of sensors in a single row (x-direction sampling rate) of
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo $126 the CCD or CIS array by the precision of the stepper motor (y-direction sampling
rate).
Flatbed Scanner
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo $190
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through $722
Scanner

Scanners Go

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

The precision of the stepper motor determines the y-direction

sampling rate.

For example, if the resolution is 300x300 dpi and the scanner is capable of scanning a
letter-sized document, then the CCD has 2,550 sensors arranged in each horizontal
row. A single-pass scanner would have three of these rows for a total of 7,650
sensors. The stepper motor in our example is able to move in increments equal to
1/300ths of an inch. Likewise, a scanner with a resolution of 600x300 has a CCD array
with 5,100 sensors in each horizontal row.

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

Most scanners have a scan area that is either letter size (8.5x11
inches, 21.6x27.9 centimeters) or legal size (11x14 inches, 27.9x35.6
centimeters).

Sharpness depends mainly on the quality of the optics used to make the lens and the
brightness of the light source. A bright xenon lamp and high-quality lens will create a
much clearer, and therefore sharper, image than a standard fluorescent lamp and
basic lens.

Of course, many scanners proclaim resolutions of 4,800x4,800 or even 9,600x9,600.

To achieve a hardware resolution with a x-direction sampling rate of 9,600 would
require a CCD array of 81,600 sensors. If you look at the specifications, these high
resolutions are usually labeled software-enhanced, interpolated resolution or
something similar. What does that mean?

Interpolation is a process that the scanning software uses to increase the perceived
resolution of an image. It does this by creating extra pixels in between the ones
actually scanned by the CCD array. These extra pixels are an average of the adjacent
pixels. For example, if the hardware resolution is 300x300 and the interpolated
resolution is 600x300, then the software is adding a pixel between every one scanned
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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"
by a CCD sensor in each row.

Another term used when talking about scanners is bit depth, also called color depth.
This simply refers to the number of colors that the scanner is capable of reproducing.
Each pixel requires 24 bits to create standard true color and virtually all scanners on
the market support this. Many of them offer bit depths of 30 or 36 bits. They still only
output in 24-bit color, but perform internal processing to select the best possible choice
out of the colors available in the increased palette. There are many opinions about
whether there is a noticeable difference in quality between 24-, 30- and 36-bit
scanners.
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Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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Main > Computer > Peripherals

Lowest
How Scanners Work
Most Popular Scanners: by Jeff Tyson
Price
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film $500
Scanner (35 mm) Image Transfer
Scanning the document is only one part of the process. For the scanned image to be
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX $349 useful, it must be transferred to your computer. There are three common connections
Path-Through Scanner used by scanners:
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo $126
Flatbed Scanner ● Parallel - Connecting through the parallel port is the slowest transfer method
available.
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo $190
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through $722 ● Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) - SCSI requires a special SCSI
Scanner connection. Most SCSI scanners include a dedicated SCSI card to insert into
your computer and connect the scanner to, but you can use a standard SCSI
controller instead.

Scanners Go ● Universal Serial Bus (USB) - USB scanners combine good speed, ease of use
and affordability in a single package.

● FireWire - Usually found on higher-end scanners,FireWire connections are

faster than USB and SCSI. FireWire is ideal for scanning high-resolution
images.

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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"

A scanner may have more than one way of connecting

to your computer.

On your computer, you need software, called a

driver, that knows how to communicate with the
scanner. Most scanners speak a common language,
TWAIN. The TWAIN driver acts as an interpreter
between any application that supports the TWAIN
standard and the scanner. This means that the
application does not need to know the specific details
of the scanner in order to access it directly. For
example, you can choose to acquire an image from
the scanner from within Adobe Photoshop because
Photoshop supports the TWAIN standard.
Did You Know?
TWAIN is not an acronym. It
actually comes from the phrase
"Never the twain shall meet"
because the driver is the go-
between for the software and the
scanner. Because computer people
feel a need to make an acronym
out of every term, TWAIN is known
as Technology Without An
Interesting Name!

In addition to the driver, most scanners come with other software. Typically, a
scanning utility and some type of image editing application are included. A lot of
scanners include OCR software. OCR allows you to scan in words from a document
and convert them into computer-based text. It uses an averaging process to determine
what the shape of a character is and match it to the correct letter or number.

The great thing about scanner technology today is that you can get exactly what you
need. You can find a decent scanner with good software for less than $200, or get a
fantastic scanner with incredible software for less than $1,000. It all depends on your
needs and budget.

For more information on scanners and related topics, check out the links on the next
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Howstuffworks "How Scanners Work"
page.
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Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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Main > Computer > Peripherals

Lowest
How Scanners Work
Most Popular Scanners: by Jeff Tyson
Price
1. Nikon CoolScan V ED Film $500
Scanner (35 mm) Lots More Information
2. Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOX $349
Path-Through Scanner
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
3. Epson Perfection 2580 Photo $126 ● How Fingerprint Scanners Work
Flatbed Scanner ● How USB Ports Work
4. Epson Perfection 4180 Photo $190 ● How Parallel Ports Work
● How SCSI Works
5. Fujitsu fi 4120C Path-Through $722 ● How Photocopiers Work
Scanner ● My scanner has a resolution of 9,600x1,200 dpi -- what do those numbers
mean?
● Can USB handle both a printer and a scanner?
● How do I add another USB device to my computer if I am out of USB ports?
Scanners Go

Where to buy

● Compare Prices
● Super Deals

More Great Links

● PC TechGuide: Scanners
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● PC Magazine: Scanners
● ScanTips.com
● WhatIs.com: Scanner
● Computer Friends: How Scanners Work

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Table of Contents:
› Introduction to How Scanners Work
› Anatomy of a Scanner
› The Scanning Process
› Resolution and Interpolation
› Image Transfer
› Lots More Information
› Shop or Compare Prices

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