Content area
Full Text
Scanners
With the long-awaited arrival of Windows 98 and its full-blown Universal Serial Bus support, a new generation of USB peripherals promises to deliver easier installation and faster data flow. Based on my tests of the first USB scanners from Hewlett-Packard, Umax, and Visioneer, I am happy to report that USB delivers on its promises.
I looked at a preproduction model of Hewlett-Packard's ScanJet 4100Cseand shipping versions of Visioneer's PaperPort 3100 USB and Umax's Astra 1220U. All three units are compact, lightweight flatbeds, designed and priced (at under $200) for small-business and home users.
At $130, the Visioneer is the cheapest of the bunch. It delivers 30-bit color and optical resolution of 300 by 600 dots per inch. It comes with Visioneer's acclaimed PaperPort scanning and document management software; a basic but adequate optical character recognition program; and PictureWorks...