Digital Scanners

A scanner is a computer accessory (peripheral) used to digitize pictures.

A scanner converts a visual image to a digital signal. The signal is interpretable by computer software, which allows the image to be recorded, manipulated, and even sent electronically to another computer.

Even in the early 1990s, computers were used more for "in house" functions, such as preparing documents. But, with the expanding power of the Internet and the development of powerful and sophisticated software, computers became important for the preparation and publication of professional quality documents that included graphics.

One means by which photographs can be efficiently transferred from one computer to another is by scanning the image and digitizing the information as a computer file.

In the recording of music, compact discs convert the spectrum of instrumental or vocal sound into the 1s and 0s of digital code. Scanners perform an analogous function for images. A digital scanner converts the continuous tones in a photograph (light) into the digital code that is the language understood by computers. All words, numbers, images, and instructions to the computer ultimately consist of series of ones and zeroes.

Digital scanners can use laser light to scan an image. These scanners, while offering superb quality, are so expensive as to be beyond most budgets. The scanners that use conventional visible light are more affordable and, hence, far more popular.