Brother Tabloid Scanner

[Dutton]

New blog post for people interested in tabloid scanners:

http://www.thewaterworks.ca/?p=318

[G. Gerald Garcia]

Hey SD, The link is not working. FC and I picked up this unit. I still have to take full advantage of what it can do.
Retails for about $249.00 at STAPLES.

GarSeeYa!!!

[Dutton]

Clickable here.

[FC]

I've been using this a bit mostly for business purposes lately... but i do find it useful for general oversized and low detail scans. I love that the scan surfaces is just a tad over A3 paper size. It just makes life easier. Waaay easier.

I'm not terribly happy with the greyscale scan quality, however. It's fairly obvious the scanner was intended to scan black and white documents used in business, rather than photographs or drawings. It's really a shame, since there are many, many lesser scanners that can pick up more subtle greys without bleaching the scan out.

When preparing work for scan with this machine, I have found it entirely necessary to make the work have a wide, wide tonal range, otherwise lighter tones are lost too easily.

Also, it may just be that I haven't figured out how to yet, but if you are scanning and sending wirelessly to your computer elsewhere, it can be a bit of a hassle to run back and forth to set up a custom sized scan and fiddle with the settings... so you may find it prudent to station your computer near this printer/scanner/fax, even though using it on a wireless basis is entirely possible.

With all that said, though, the scanner is pretty inexpensive, and if you tend to draw dark or are scanning solid inks, you should be fine. Ultimately, i have seen other 11x17 scanners out there - they usually produce better quality scans - but they are often priced quite high.

[Dutton]

I got crappy scans out of the native software as well. Once I began using VueScan, I got much better control and results. You're right though, it's not a pro scanner the way an Epson is.