"A scanner for every Mac" hasn't yet emerged as a presidential-campaign slogan, but three new sub-$800 color scanners -- the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 4p, the Apple Color OneScanner 600/27, and the UMAX Super Vista S-12 -- make that promise enticingly real for many home and small-business computer users.
Any of the three will do if your main concern is scanning black-and-white and grayscale images, but chances are you're interested in quality color images -- after all, these are color scanners. In that case, these scanners are decidedly not equal.
All three are flatbed models that connect to your computer's SCSI chain, and all ship with necessary cables and SCSI termination. (The UMAX uses an external terminator, and the Apple and HP models offer switchable internal termination.) All three accommodate standard 8.5-x-11-inch pages, and the UMAX and HP models are large enough to scan 8.5-x-14-inch sheets.
Each includes software for performing prescans -- quick, low-resolution scans that help you decide on scanner settings for optimal image quality -- in addition to software for image acquisition and image editing. Although each scanner uses the same basic procedures, the tools for acquiring, editing, and further handling scanned documents vary considerably. Before you buy, be sure to consider the tasks you intend to accomplish with your scanner and make sure to get the tools you need.
HP ScanJet 4p
The ScanJet 4p's features list has everything you'd want in a small-office scanner: Multifunction, easy-to-use software; friendly, thorough manuals that walk you through setup, the scanning process, and troubleshooting; a simple color-calibration system; and support for an optional ($599 list) automatic sheet feeder for scanning multipage documents. Despite these credentials, however, the ScanJet 4p came up woefully short in image quality. In our tests, scanned photographic images generally appeared fuzzy and consistently exhibited poor color quality. Blues and greens appeared glaringly bright, and reds sometimes appeared washed out.
The main software for the ScanJet 4p is Visioneer's PaperPort, which acts as a control center for a variety of scanner operations. PaperPort's main screen consists of a customizable tool bar -- with icons that represent applications you can employ to manipulate scanned images -- and a large window, known as the Desktop, where documents appear as small thumbnails after they've been scanned. To activate an application in the tool bar, you drag an image's thumbnail from the PaperPort Desktop and drop the thumbnail onto the desired application icon.
Chief among the tool-bar applications are PictureScan, which you use to adjust the ScanJet 4p's settings, and Photoshop LE, a limited edition of Adobe Systems' versatile image editor that provides tools for sizing, cropping, color-correcting, and retouching your images. (PictureScan can be opened from within Photoshop LE and PaperPort.) Other tool-bar icons include one for PaperPort's built-in OCR tool, which converts scans of printed text into editable text, and one for ScanJet Copy, an application that lets you use the scanner and your printer like an office copier. Your currently selected printer and your fax application, if you have one, also appear as icons on PaperPort's tool bar.
HP designed PictureScan to spare first-time users any confusion, so its scanning adjustments are intentionally limited: You select a printer from a pull-down menu (which includes HP printers plus generic options such as "300-dpi inkjet") and specify one of four document types ("color image with text," for example). Although this approach appears sound, in reality it's merely inflexible. If the colors in your prescan don't look right -- and most of ours didn't -- there's little you can do other than scan the image and try to fix it afterward in Photoshop LE.
The ScanJet's color-calibration software offered little help, although it was easy to use: You scan a supplied sample page, print it on your printer, and scan the printout, and the software tweaks the scanner automatically. We observed some improvement in color quality after we calibrated the ScanJet, but color images still looked unacceptable on-screen and in printouts.
Part of the image-quality problem may be with PictureScan's inexplicable restriction of the ScanJet 4p to a maximum resolution of 200 dpi (the same resolution as most fax machines') -- even though the hardware is capable of capturing images at 300 dpi. HP claims that resolutions greater than 200 dpi are overkill for the types of printers home and small-office computer users have. PictureScan therefore sets the scan resolution for most documents at 150 dpi -- even though one of the program's printer options is a 1,200-dpi imagesetter.
We did find that a boost in scan resolution can make a big difference in image quality: When we printed images scanned at 150 dpi (PictureScan's chosen setting for our color dye-sublimation printer), the printouts were noticeably fuzzy. When we forced the scan resolution to 200 dpi (by "lying" to the scanner and saying we planned to print on an imagesetter), the resulting images were decidedly sharper. HP is shortchanging users by denying access to all that the scanner is capable of.
Apple Color OneScanner 600/27
The Apple scanner delivers most of the advantages promised by the HP ScanJet 4p but avoids the ScanJet's biggest drawback, by making it easy to obtain acceptable-quality (if not picture-perfect) scans most of the time.
The Color OneScanner's central software application, a program called Dispatcher, presents you with four large buttons, each bearing an icon that corresponds to Dispatcher's main functions: The Scan button is for adjusting and controlling the Color OneScanner during image captures. The Image Edit button provides access to basic image-editing tools similar to those in Photoshop LE, although Dispatcher lacks that program's support for plug-in enhancement modules. The Scan Router button lets you use the Color OneScanner as a copier or conventional fax machine (provided you have your own fax software); you can fax a scanned page, or print multiple copies of it, without saving the scanned image to your hard disk. (These functions are made even more useful with the addition of an optional automatic sheet feeder [estimated street price, $350] that Apple supplies for the Color OneScanner.) The Archive button lets you view scans as thumbnails.
Dispatcher, like HP's PaperPort, lets you establish links to other applications in which you'd like to work on your scanned pages. Dragging an application's icon onto the Dispatcher tool bar adds that icon to the tool bar; dragging an image file's thumbnail onto an icon on the tool bar opens the file in the corresponding application. Apple supplies Xerox's Textbridge OCR application with the Color OneScanner and recommends that you use this drag-and-drop approach to activate it.
Dispatcher's simple Scan dialog box offers users the flexibility to adjust the scanner for most image types. You start the adjustment process by selecting an output device from a pull-down menu. Once you've done a prescan, you have the option of using slider controls to adjust the image's contrast and color balance. You can also override the scan-resolution setting Dispatcher has specified for your chosen output device. The Color OneScanner controls made it easy for us -- after we found the output to our dye-sub printer a bit indistinct, for example -- to improve image quality considerably by setting a higher scan resolution.
UMAX Super Vista S-12
Whereas the Apple and HP scanners aim to be multipurpose devices used for capturing text pages as well as images, the UMAX Super Vista S-12 is intended purely as an image scanner. It dispenses with OCR and copier functions in favor of tools devoted to obtaining high-quality image scans -- and succeeds admirably at that goal.
The Super Vista S-12 ships with Photoshop LE and uses a Photoshop plug-in module, called VistaScan, for image acquisition and scanner-setting adjustments. Because VistaScan is a subset of the control module UMAX supplies with the company's high-end graphics scanners, its interface may intimidate scanning novices. Fortunately, UMAX also supplies an outstanding tool called AutoScan, which automatically adjusts the scanner settings for a given document. It's so good that, in many cases, you won't have to use VistaScan at all.
AutoScan performs a prescan and, without showing you the image, automatically adjusts scanner settings for best results with the printer you've selected. Click on the Scan button, and the image appears in a preview window as it's captured. If you don't like the results, you can launch VistaScan (and Photoshop LE) from within AutoScan to override the automatic scan settings. VistaScan lets you choose from dozens of preset scanning resolutions, or you can type in your own. The plug-in also provides image-scaling and -correction features, such as sliders for Highlights, Shadows, and Brightness & Contrast.
The UMAX VistaScan offers greater graphics versatility than the Apple and HP printers. In addition to an optional sheet feeder ($495 list), it has an optional transparency adapter ($495 list) that lets you scan 35mm slides or transparencies as well as paper originals.
The Bottom Line
None of these scanners can compete with professional-caliber graphics scanners -- but none of them attempt to. Each scanner's output exhibited some artifacts and signs of "noise" associated with imperfect captures. Nevertheless, the scans produced by two of these scanners are good enough for most any business-communications needs or for inclusion in family art or publishing projects.
Despite a well-rounded software bundle and excellent documentation, the HP ScanJet 4p falls flat where it really counts: image quality. For that reason, we can't recommend it. Apple's Color OneScanner 600/27 delivers usable-quality images and offers a strong software bundle that will be useful in offices where OCR is desired or where a scanner pinch-hits as a fax machine and a copier (in conjunction with your printer). If your needs are confined to image capture only, the UMAX Super Vista S-12, with its impressive AutoScan tool, offers exceptional results and value.
Apple Color OneScanner 600/27, $599 (estimated street). Company: Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA; 800-538-9696 or 408-996-1010; http://www.apple.com/.
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 4p, $615 (list). Company: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara, CA; 800-722-6538 or 408-246-4300; http://www.hp.com/.
UMAX Super Vista S-12, $895 (list). Company: UMAX, Fremont, CA; 800-562-4000 or 510-651-4000; http://www.umax.com/.
