re scanners going the way of the fax machine or, worse, the now all-but-dead trade of film stripping in the graphic arts prepress production workflow? Hard copies of medical records still are scanned, of course, and I use a desktop multifunction printer (MFP) to scan and digitize original receipts from business trips, but what about scanning customer artwork on high-end drum and flatbed devices? Do companies still do that, or is it considered archaic technology by today’s digital prepress standards?
“From a production print perspective, … it [scanning] is not a key application,” admitted Lisa Weese, product marketing manager at Canon Solutions America. “If our customers are doing scanning, most already have scanners in place.” And, as people in the industry know, scanner hardware tends to be durable equipment that does not break down very often.
“We do not offer stand-alone scanners,” Weese continued. That being said, “what little bit of scan work our customers potentially might have, they can accomplish … using one of the scanners on our production engines such as the imagePRESS, varioPRINT DP, or imageRUNNER ADVANCE series.”
In the wide-format space, scanning “is an active marketplace,” countered Steve Blanken, GM of scanner manufacturer Contex Americas. But he also acknowledged that large-format scanners have become “almost a commodity, with prices driven way down.” Contex’s business, traditionally in computer-aided design (CAD); architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC); and geographic information system (GIS) markets, has encroached into the graphics market.
“Print shops are looking to expand and grow,” Blanken explained. “Many of them are getting into printing for artists that involves critical color matches, where they have to use [Adobe] Photoshop post-scan. They may be matching color to existing Pantone or logo colors or even to another printed image. Accuracy and color fidelity are key considerations with these applications, so the pricing is not as sensitive,” Blanken pointed out, yielding better profit margins.
Contex’s 18x24-inch HD iFlex flatbed model features a digital camera for higher quality. “It can copy a 24x36 image with an auto-stitcher built in,” explained Blanken. The firm’s rollfed scanners measure up to 54 inches wide. The HD Ultra rollfed scanner, available in 36- and 42-inch widths, sports a charged coupled device (CCD) digital cam that captures details of maps, drawings, posters, and fine art. Now Microsoft Windows 8 compatible, the HD Ultra was recognized by readers of Wide-Format Imaging magazine as a “Top Product” in 2013 and 2012. It is designed to meet the needs of high-productivity archiving teams, scanning professionals, and reprographics departments. For technical Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) project work, the Contex 44-inch IQ Quattro 4400 can scan A0/E sized documents in just 3.5 seconds.
Other scanning opportunities are coming from the legal (courtroom displays) and quality-control marketplaces. In the latter example, food and pharma labels printed on web-offset presses need dosage or ingredient legibility verified. Contex may place a device at the end of the press to scan every hundredth label. “This is a hot market,” Blanken reported. “It’s all about avoiding litigation. You need to be able to see details,” he added, to ensure that the letter E isn’t mistaken for the numeral 8, for instance.