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Extra large format scanners

Colortrac: Big, Bigger, Biggest!

Colortrac sneak 56" extra wide large format scanner model in under the radar.

On Colortrac's web site, under a heading on which says "Coming Soon!", we have spotted that the British wide format scanner manufacturer has quietly inserted an as yet unannounced new product, the SmartLF Gx+ 56, which it claims is "the widest, highest resolution CCD extra large format scanner on the market today!"

Colortrac say they plan the first shipments of this "ground breaking" 56" image width, 600 dpi optical resolution scanner "in March 2009".

New Colortrac SmartLF Gx+ 56
Here it is!
Colortrac's new SmartLF Gx+ 56
compared to a 42" scanner.

Available in Colortrac's standard battleship grey, the SmartLF Gx+ 56 can be seen displayed alongside a 42" scanner.

All very mysterious and very interesting! Remember, you first read about Colortrac's new SmartLF scanners on ScannersCAD, the Number One News Site for Large Format Scanning!

Contex, Colortrac's great rivals, have a CCD-based 54" model in the HD5450, previously the Contex G600 Magnum. This has 508 dpi optical resolution and uses fluorescent tubes. Contex say an LED option is available. We wonder just how practical it is to put LEDs into a CCD scanner designed for fluorescent tubes? What is certain is that Colortrac's SmartLF Gx+ 56 scanners use a purpose-designed LED illumination system which is much more environmentally friendly and efficient than older fluorescent tube technology. Fluorescent tubes are on the way out.

LED illumination only comes on when scanning. Besides being greener, LED lighting provides the user with an instant on scanning capability, low power consumption and extra long life. One great benefit of LED illumination is that it genuinely requires no warm-up, unlike fluorescent tubes which do need to stabilise before they are suitable for precise color capture. Colortrac's combination of CCD technology with LED lighting will provide its SmartLF Gx+ users with practical operational benefits and power savings, something which Image Access has offered its WideTEK users for some time.

Available in monochrome, color and express color versions, the SmartLF Gx+ 56 mono and color versions are, like all Colortrac SmartLF products, "easily upgradeable via the internet (email)" to a higher model. This allows users to buy a mono or color model now and upgrade later to color or express color versions when the need arises. The Gx+ version accepts media up to 2mm / 0.08" thick. A Gx+ T (Thick) variant with motorized thick media (MTM) suitable for scanning artwork on board, etc, up to 20mm / 0.8" thick is available. Due to the mechanical differences, standard Gx scanners cannot be upgraded to a Gx T. We assume this will be the same for the new Gx+ 56 and Gx+ T56.

Besides 56" image width, other key features in Colortrac's SmartLF Gx+ 56 are 600 dpi optical resolution, high speed USB2 and Gigabit Ethernet connections and SmartLF All-in-One software included as standard. There is no mention of the number of CCD cameras used. Presumably this will come with a formal product announcement. As Colortrac is well-known for its innovation, we look forward to seeing this new scanner. There is probably more to the SmartLF Gx+ 56 than meets the eye.

We asked Colortrac's Sales and Marketing Director, Peter de Winter Brown, about the SmartLF Gx+ 56. "Not now," he said. "I'm far too busy". And so he should be. Colortrac only recently began shipping the new SmartLF Ci 40, a CIS-based technical document scanner which they say they "can't build fast enough!" The demands of selling these new products probably contributed to de Winter Brown's telegraphic brevity.

Curious readers wanting to see more should click here.

Now you know as much as we do! Watch this space.