I'm looking into getting a scanner soon, but I'm unsure as to what resolution I should go for. There's a nifty little Cannon unit at a store that has 1200x2400 dpi... is this pretty good for Photoshop and 3D texture work? I'm not a pro or anything, but at the same time I don't want to end up with blurry textures. It's a 42 bit colour unit too (CanoScan N1220U). Any thoughts? I'd hate to get the wrong thing.

If you can, get a Linocolor. A little more expensive, but better quality guts. Also check to find out what the DMax is of whatever scanner you are looking at. The more Density Maximum, the better ability to see into the shadow area. That way you do not end up with flat shadow's. AGFA's are pretty good too, although not that exacting for color work. If you need to be dead on for color work don't be afraid to spend a few extra buck's, it'll be worth it in the long run.

LPI=Lines per inch and refers to the screening when you print. Before the advent of scanners, artwork needed to be broken down into a image made up of dots in order to print, (still does) and you would use a 233lpi, 120lpi, etc. halftone screen. The higher the number, the finer the screen, and the more detail captured. The higher the resolution on the scanner,(DPI) therefore, the more detail that is captured. Also make sure that you check through all the trade magazines before you purchase one. You want to make sure you do not get a inferior product.

Depends how much money you want to spend, but for most work a 600 dpi 32 or 36 bit scanner is fine. Make sure it is USB (and don't figure on Win 95 for USB) or SCSI, the printer-port scanners are too slow. A 8 1/2 x 11 RGB scan at 1200 dpi is just under 400 Mb, incidently, so you will not be using that resolution all that often for big scans. I like Microteks, UMAXs are also nice, Apple doesn't sell them any more, HP Scanners have a poor interface, never used a Cannon, but I doubt if they would be less than nice..

Cheers Jim and all

As Jim Burton said, the resolution you need depends on what you want to do with the scanner. The higher the resolution, the bigger your file. If you want to put your scans out on a normal printer, a scan at 300 dpi gets you a result good enough to avoid the computer origin become obvious. Even most professional printing machines go seldom above 300 dpi, often lower (newspaper print and the like). The high resolutions are only needed for optical printing. If you want to scan for use only on the pc, remember, that most standard graphicsformats use a resolution of 72 or 96 dpi (based on the screen resolution). So, your scans will mostly be between 100 an 600 dpi. You can scan at a higher resolution an might want to reduce the resolution in Photoshop or other software, but I woudn't advice such. There might be more loss of quality then compared to scan at lower resolutions. I use an Epson Perfection 1200 Photo and am very satisfied. it comes at a reasonable price and had won several test in computer-magazines that I read (in 3 test two wins and a second place).

Just another question. There are two scanners I can get, both are virtually the same price. However, one is utilizes an LED scanning system, the other a CCD. Which would be preferrable? The CCD scanner is a lot bigger but has the advantage of being able to scan negatives, apparently. Thanks

This is the first I have heard of a LED scanner. Who makes it and is there a URL where I can find out more?

It is a Canoscan N1220U. It says that the scanning element is through CIS (contact image sensor), and the light source is three colour LED's.

This seems to be relatively new. I would have to work with something like this to find out. I guess it depends on what kind of work you want to scan and how much you want to spend. But if I had a choice, I would go with the neg./transp. scanner before this.

i feel its about money....if you can got a scanner i look for opaque and transparent formats the resolution its self its not the problem the better images came in transparent mediums cause prints always got porblems like news papers or magazines if your scanner its a usb or scsi more better but try afgha or epson....