Dina Goldwasser, Product Communications Manager, Scanners, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group, wrote an article on scanning and (Kodak --her observations apply to all scanning applications and devices) the use of scanners in the 21st century.

When the so-called ‘digital revolution’ started 20 years ago, it was fashionable to view its progress in terms of waves (some readers may recall the Third and Fourth Waves).  Succeeding waves swept away technologies and solutions which had outlived their usefulness; initially analog equipment such as repro cameras and ‘wet proofing’ systems, and then even such digital solutions as dedicated typesetting systems and electronic page composition (EPC) systems.

A current misconception is that scanners have shared a similar fate.  However, while all-digital workflows, and especially the adoption of digital cameras, have certainly impacted on scanner installations in the graphic arts, a look outside the sector reveals a very different picture.  Elsewhere installations are buoyant, driven by factors ranging from the need to digitize millions of ‘legacy analog images’ to the continued preference of a significant number of professional photographers for medium- and large-format, non-digital cameras.  As a result, the number of worldwide installations of professional colour scanners is still growing.

This article examines the theory and the practice underlying the continued demand for flatbed digital scanners by describing typical applications in more detail and showing how real-life businesses use their scanners to offer added-value services to their customers.

First, however, it’s worth defining what we mean by a ‘professional colour scanner.’ Essentially, such a device incorporates a range of features that enable users to produce the highest-quality results with the utmost ease and in the shortest time.  Factors determining the quality of the output include an optical resolution exceeding 2,750 dpi whatever the size of the original; a dynamic range above 3.7, to distinguish the broadest range of tonal levels; a 16-bit image capture depth that yields the maximum original image data; high-precision mechanics; and top-quality optical components such as lenses, mirrors, illumination, and so on.  Powerful, easy-to-use software controls the workflow, handling the essential ICC colour management process and automating the scanning tasks for maximum productivity.

Who’s using scanners?

The market for scanners in traditional pre-press houses and commercial printers is primarily a replacement market, as older models are upgraded to new operating systems, or to provide improved connectivity (FIREWIRE for example), improve image quality and productivity, and reduce service costs for older equipment.  Other sizeable markets are photographers and publication imaging.

One of the areas where scanner sales are growing fastest is the institutional sector, fueled by institutions such as museums digitizing the millions of images and documents.

The reasons for digitizing are many and varied.  There are the obvious benefits of conserving valuable analog images, whether in the form of photographs, negatives, slides or delicate glass plates - digitization allows access to the data while restricting manual handling of originals.  An institution may digitize to make heavily-used materials more widely available to existing and new users, or to enable researchers to use digital technologies in analysing collections.  In the case of nationally or internationally important collections, such wider access can increase the prestige of the host institution.  Finally, in today’s online world, demand for digital assets can generate revenue.

The UK’s National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, started digitizing its collection of over 250,000 historic photographs and 80,000 maritime-themed images in 1997.  Ten years on, the project generates what Tina Chambers, head of photography, describes as “a significant income” from a client base that includes publishers, film and television companies, and the general public, who can search the museum’s picture library and order prints online.

Before embarking on the digitization process, prints were produced manually from the originals.  Colour printing was outsourced, and black-and-white prints were produced in-house.  It was a costly, time-consuming process that often required handling delicate original glass plates or nitrate negatives.

The museum’s first digital studio comprised a LEAF Digital Camera and a KODAK EVERSMART Pro Scanner. Its latest scanner is a KODAK EVERSMART Supreme capable of handling originals ranging from 35 mm transparencies to 10 x 12 in glass plates.  It is a highly productive system – Tina Chambers says the EVERSMART Supreme Scanner has halved the scanning time in certain applications.  The powerful oXYgen scanning and image-editing application features intuitive controls, automation and built-in colour correction to guide even novice users through the process of creating sharp, dynamic images from the broadest range of inputs, and for the widest choice of outputs.  Finally, prints are produced on an inkjet printer, saving the cost of outsourcing and reducing chemicals usage.