Buying Tips: COMPUCARE

	Scanner Buying Tips
	For most uses, go flatbed. Handhelds find their niche. Students and lawyers, take note: A handheld scanner will save you money over the long run if you often have to pay to make copies at libraries that don't allow you to remove books from the premises. Look for at least 1200-dpi optical resolution. Check your PC's USB port. One-touch buttons are a plus. Find a model that has pre-programmed buttons for photo scanning, e-mailing, and other common tasks. One-touch buttons can save you time and effort if you scan a lot of items. Advanced options get big jobs done. For business users and others who do high-volume or specialty scanning, advanced options such as automatic document feeders, transparency adapters, and a scan bed large enough for legal-size documents can make all the difference. Legal-size scan beds are also a huge plus for scanning large illustrations, diagrams, paintings, and labels (on product boxes, for instance), as well as tabloid-size pages.