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1996-07-14
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~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 £119.95 plus VAT, although PC WORLD began selling at £109,
this went up to £129 then for a few days £99 (all plus VAT) and now
the price is £139 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 £149 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 £250, 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!