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December 1996 Reviews This Month
By Serdar Yegulalp
Agfa's SnapScan flatbed scanner fits the bill for personal and small-business users: It's inexpensive ($389), easy to set up and use, and produces fine-looking images.
The SnapScan delivers 24-bit color, single-pass scans at an optical resolution of 300x600 pixels per inch '(ppi). Through interpolation it can scan up to 2400ppi. The scanning bed handles materials as large as 8.5 by 11.7 inches. Previewing a whole page in color took a speedy seven seconds. A 60-page document feeder and a transparency module are both sold separately. The SnapScan attaches to an existing SCSI-2 interface, which the unit doesn't provide.
The review model's beta TWAIN drivers (Windows 3.1x and 95) proved very stable. Both the 16- and 32-bit drivers had the same look and feel when installed. You can zoom in and out in the preview window, a feature missing in most other TWAIN drivers I've seen. According to the manufacturer, the unit will package NT-specific drivers when it ships.
Agfa bundles software from European graphics expert Ulead: Omnipage LE (Limited Edition), OCR and PhotoImpact LE, the high-quality answer to Photoshop. SOFT Copy lets the scanner serve as a fax machine and copier when used in conjunction with a fax modem and printer.
Test scans with a Ronchi target, which uses various line screens to determine how well a scanner reproduces different resolutions, yielded an above-average score of 0.28 out of a possible 0.5. Dark colors and hard-to-reproduce fluorescent samples from Pantone swatches all came out well.
Using a wizard activated from the TWAIN screen, you can proceed interactively step-by-step through the scanning process. The wizard wasn't completely debugged in our beta version, but scanning novices will find it useful and novel.
The SnapScan is a fine entry in the under-$400 range-snap it up.
--Info File--
Agfa SnapScan
Price: $389
Pros: Scanning wizard; 32-bit drivers
Cons: 24-bit color only; letter-sized scan bed
Platforms: 3x, 95, NT
12/96 Reviews HW: Agfa SnapScan 800-685-4271, 508-658-5600
WinMag Box Score: 3.5
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