~Primax Scanner THE PRIMAX PAPER-EASE SHEETFEED SCANNER, review by Les Aston. Another parallel port device, this scanner is really amazing! It will take any size up to a full A4 sheet, adjustable paper holders and all usual sizes being marked on the actual paper guide. To read in an A4 sheet takes about 7 seconds. Once the original document has been 'read', a copy can be printed out, exactly the same as the original or it can be converted into WRITE and manipulated in any way desired. If you have a FAX machine, anything read in can be FAXed. The controls are simplicity itself. 2 push buttons and 3 L.E.Ds. One button switches from text to photo mode, the other cycle through, Desktop, Copy and Fax. The software provided is very comprehensive, working in Windows 3.1, the scanner is ready as soon as Windows has initialised. If you have a document resting in the machine, you will hear a click, telling you that it is ready. The screen shows the scan taking place, the finished scan being shown as a 'thumbnail size' on the desktop display. It can also be viewed actual size as well as zoomed, to make any editing easier. What impressed me the most was the results with the supplied O.C.R. software (Optical, Character, Recognition). As a test, I printed out a sheet of A4 paper using 10 fonts and sizes from 12 point to 20 point. Once scanned in, the 'recognition' takes place. The results were not perfect, as using proportional spacing, did cause a few errors, but it was better than I had ever seen before and on more normal examples it really IS perfect. The supplied manual is adequate, but a bit more detail would make initial results easier. Scans can be saved in many formats, the manual describes these saves as EXPORTS which is rather unusual. The price of this model in most shops is œ119.95 plus VAT, although PC WORLD began selling at œ109, this went up to œ129 then for a few days œ99 (all plus VAT) and now the price is œ139 INCLUSIVE of VAT. The only 'professional' revue that I have seen, criticises the resolution of 300 dpi as not enough for serious work. Several friends have bought the same model and we are all VERY satisfied with the results. There is a very similar scanner priced at œ149 plus VAT but the software supplied with it is not as up to date as with the Primax. There is also a similar model BUILT INTO a keyboard. Apparently, there is a built in compression chip and other electronic bits designed to speed up all the processes, this version being œ250, rather a jump for what seems a weird idea in the first place. The Primax range has the usual hand held scanners, black and white as well as colour. Another model is like a stylus for reading in text from books etc. They even have one model, that crawls across the scanned image. The whole range seems very good value for money, but the Paper Ease must be the favourite!