I need to get a scanner and don't know exactly what the dpi numbers mean??

Question

I see that there are different dpi resolutions like 600 x1200 or 1200 x 2400 etc... What exactly do these numbers mean and is there a big difference between the two. Is the 1200 x 2400 much better than the 600 x 1200 or does it not matter that much? thanks

Answer 1

Dots Per Inch, the more dots per inch the better the scanner.

Answer 2

First - what do you want a scanner to do? Scan photos? Scan black and white? A general purpose scanner that will do a little of everything without expecting it to scan like a $1500 scanner? When you decide what you want, then the DPI will resolve itself. And, do you want an all-in-one machine - scanner-printer-fax? A stand-up or a flat-bed?

For my scanning purposes, I chose a Visioneer 7100 USB flatbed scanner for several reasons: 1. It was made to operate on Windows XP. 2. It is a flatbed. 3. It will scan everything I ask it to and I don't demand perfection. 4.The documents I scan can be converted to MS Word and while I do lose some formatting, the basic document is still there. 5. Price and availability. I bought it several years ago through Buy.com.

Answer 3

Dots Per Inch, resolution, more DPI=higher quality scanning

Answer 4

DPI is dots per inch
it refers to the quality of the scanned image
higher the dpi, higher the quality and also higher the memory required to store the scanned image
higher DPI scanners are used to scan pictures while lower dpi scanners are used to scan text etc. only the quality differs