[Tfug] Hand scanner recommendation?

[johngalt1]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Karns" <>
To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org>
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Tfug] Hand scanner recommendation?


> On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Bexley Hall 
> <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> You can even use a camera for text and fine line drawings 
>> if
>> it will let you store TIFF's or "RAW" format (I've seen
>> photos of schematics stored as JPEGs that were little 
>> more
>> than fuzzy clouds)
>
> That reflects my experiences with using a digital camera 
> (Canon
> Powershot, model 240, IIRC; 2005 vintage) for close up 
> work - can be
> tricky and a bit time consuming to get a decent shot. 
> Usually have to
> use manual focus in macro mode.  Even then it's not 
> particularly
> straight-forward.

I wonder if one of the distinctions Don-Bexley was making is 
that JPEGS are compressed - bad for fine detail.

TIFFs or RAW - no compression good for fine detail, but they 
take up a LOT of space.

> It seems puzzling that the market for hand image & text 
> scanners has
> dried up the way it has.  I remember seeing the magazines 
> full of ads
> for them back in the late '80's or so.


Not puzzling to me about hand scanners. They were crap.

It was too difficult to steer them straight, especially with 
paper that had folds, etc...