It is generally accepted that the future of both storage and printing is digital. In case of text, it means scanning followed by conversion using optical character recognition. The development of large format scanners was impelled by the need for converting large drawings and images into digital format, as required in digital archiving, image acquisition, and customized reproduction. Other applications were realized in the areas of digital conversion of manuscripts, traditional art and fabric designs. Typical image widths range from thirty-six inches to forty-two inches, though widths of up to sixty-two inches are commercially available. Such scanners usually use several small format sensors to increase the format width and are available in color as well as black and white. The former are more expensive and are used only for more demanding tasks than ordinary data entry.

Charge-coupled device (CCD) has been traditionally used to capture the image. The earlier method of three-pass scanning, which used a different color filter for each pass, is being replaced by the single-pass method. A relatively new imaging technology using contact image sensors (CIS) is becoming popular for low-cost applications requiring less power and no warm-up. Though CCD scanners have a wider color gamut and a larger dynamic range, CIS scanners have better resolving power and higher geometric accuracy. This makes scanners using CIS ideal for digitalizing technical documents. These scanners are also more compact and easy to carry. However, owing to its better chromatic accuracy and better depth of field, CCD technology retains better image quality near an open spine and is thus suitable for scanning books, portraits, and paintings.

The choice of a large format scanner naturally depends on the application in mind, which dictates the type of the scanner, imaging technology, permissible thickness of the medium, resolution, width of format, speed, etc. Some of the leading manufacturers of large format scanners are Colortrac, Oce, Contex, Altek Corporation, ACTion Imaging solutions, ANAtech, CST, Vidar systems, and WideCom.

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