The Best Scanners For Black And White Artwork: 2024 List
Brandon Forder Apr 25, 2024 1:00 PM
A good art scanner is just one piece of technological equipment that an artist may wind up requiring as their career develops. Whether you're a scanner novice or an experienced user wishing to upgrade, it might be challenging to evaluate the various alternatives available and make a final decision. To help you make an educated decision, we have produced a list of the top scanners for black and white artwork.
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Types of Scanners
Scanners come in a wide variety of forms and capabilities, and they all have specific uses. There are scanners that are better suited for photograph scanning and others that are better suited for document scanning. To begin your search for a scanner, you must first determine the medium of the artwork you intend to scan most frequently.
Support for Different Art Mediums
We use watercolor paper, sketchbooks, canvas, hefty cardstock, metal, plastic, and many more materials in our work as artists. Therefore, a flatbed scanner with a retractable top is ideal for scanning artwork because of the varying thicknesses of different media.
Support for Different Artwork Sizes
Even high-quality art scanners normally have a maximum scanning area of A4 or letter size, or around 8.3 by 11.7 inches, until you start paying a lot of money. You can scan larger artwork (A3+) in sections and then sew them together using the included "stitching" software, which is standard on all of them.
Bit Depth / Color Depth
The term "bit depth" or "color depth" refers to the number of bits used to store a single color in a pixel. You should aim for a scanner with a depth of at least 32 bits and preferably 48 bits so that the colors and color transitions in your artwork are preserved when scanned.
Scan Speed
Speed is an important consideration if you intend to scan several photographs or documents. The number of pages scanned in one minute is a common measure of a scanner's speed.
The typical scanning program can process 30 pages per minute while scanning documents. The situation may change, though, when scanning higher-resolution paintings. Traditional art must contain sections with rich color detail and shading in order to be scanned. These may cause the machine to run slowly, but this is acceptable. After all, you should only ever use the highest-quality copies of the source images.
Keep in mind that due to the sheer volume of papers, professional scanners will require a scanning speed of 30 pages or more. A slower pace may be preferable if you're looking for a product for commercial scanning purposes, but it's not essential for personal use.
Scan Resolution
Only the greatest scanners won't compromise image quality in the slightest. A high resolution is always necessary for artists since it enhances details like color, texture, tones, and hues.
To get the best quality scans, the resolution should ideally be around 600 x 600 dots per inch (dpi). Depending on the document being printed, this may be the highest resolution that is unnecessary. However, the scan resolution is crucial for artists because it determines the final image quality.
Connectivity
The most reliable art scanners will include a cable for linking the gadget to a personal computer. This feature is essential for saving scanned artwork. Some current choices may be connected to a computer through USB. This is the most used format, and it is included on many scanners.
Conversely, a high-quality flatbed scanner may have wireless connection options with a PC. This indicates that the item communicates with the PC via Bluetooth. Keep in mind, though, that wireless ones can be rather pricey, so you may not want to spend a lot of money on them.
Flexible
Check to see that your scanner can handle a variety of document types. Cards, playing cards, envelopes, artwork, creatives, photographs, and other similar items fall under this category.
Price
When picking an art scanner, cost should be one of your primary considerations. There are art scanners that are better investments than others. While it's crucial to stay within your financial means, you shouldn't skimp on the art scanner's quality just because you need to keep costs down.
How do I get a high quality scan for art?
The resolution (in dots per inch, or dpi) of your scanner is the primary factor to think about. Pay close attention to the specifications while shopping for a scanner, as this is where you will find details such as the device's maximum resolution. It's also recommended that artwork be kept in pristine condition before being digitized to avoid problems with dust and faded colors.
What kind of scanner do comic artists use?
You need a scanner that can produce both high-quality photos and text if you wish to scan comic art. It's possible that portability is more crucial than size if you're drawing these comics from thumbnail sketches. In that situation, portable comic book creators may find the Fujitsu S1300i to be an ideal solution.
Can watercolor, acrylic, or oil paintings on canvas be scanned?
High-resolution, color-accurate scanners may successfully scan these.
When it comes to digitalizing artworks, which is better, photography or scanning?
Scanning is preferable since it can gather more information.
Our recommendations for the top art scanners are at an end. In this piece, we covered all you need to know to pick the best scanner for your specific requirements. As a follow-up, we provided suggestions based on specific applications.
As a first step, we talked about the most important factors to consider while choosing scanners. In that section, we discussed the importance of considerations like bit depth, scan speed, and scan resolution while shopping for a scanner for an artistic profession. After that, we went over each of these criteria in depth, leaving behind suggested ranges for each of them.
We provided scanner recommendations based on our findings. Those who don't have access to both a flatbed and a conventional scanner aren't getting our highest recommendation. Readers can identify with these scenarios and pick a scanner that meets their own needs.
