Image Access WideTEK CIS scanner Contex large format scanners

NO BULL: Scan Speed Part 2

Contex define large format scanner productivity in "drawings per hour"

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What is large format scanner productivity?

Almost all outside the Contex camp agree that Contex's new specification is not a complete measure of large format scanning "productivity".

If you ignore the partisan loyalties of wide format scanner distributors and their resellers, there are two main user groups with an interest in the imprecise nature of wide format scanner productivity. The first are those who need to scan fast and are unconcerned about quality or are scanning for print which often does not require a high resolution. The second are those for whom scanned image quality is important in increasingly greater degrees.

Large format scanning service bureaus and archivers

Contex defends its claim for "productivity" by invoking the needs of wide format scanning service bureaus and document archivers. It justifies its measure of productivity on the basis that it describes the need of high volume scanners to archive thousands of large format drawings very fast at low resolutions in high speed "batch" mode.

Contex believes that the need for wide format scanning service bureaus and document archivers to scan very fast at low resolution provides it with an excellent case for calling its speed test a measurement of productivity. We must admit that there is something to be said for this argument. Many scanning service bureaus and archivers do scan very fast in order to get bulk wide format jobs finished quickly. They would agree that getting it done fast with little or no commitment to quality represents productive work for them.

Scanners4CAD think little of those who scan fast at low resolutions without thought for the future consequences of poor image quality. Such work may be productive now but the images produced will likely have image quality problems later. It is only when they are required to be used that, perhaps, they will be examined for the first time and the problems of image quality noted. However, the loser will not the one who scanned so productively. Instead, it will be whoever employed them to scan on a false promise of suitable quality in the first place. A fear of future image failure is one reason why many scanner operators spend more time getting a better quality image today.

In condoning fast low resolution scanning, Contex are reminding us of their 200 dpi Hawk-Eye which they sold as "suitable for CAD". It was unsuitable and unproductive for applications which required image quality. Contex did not offer any qualifications for the Hawk-Eye then - just as they are not doing for their productivity test today!

But wide format scanning service bureaus and archivers can be victims too. Contex's new documents/hour specification will create unreal expectations among this user group who use and need raw speed the most. However, experienced large format scanning service bureaus and archivers will immediately sense that there is something extravagant about the numbers Contex are claiming. They will know better than anyone that the numbers are unrealistic.

Unlike Contex who scanned pristine same-size sheets in Batch mode with Auto-size switched off, scanning bureaus and archivers will be working with old and imperfect documents, probably in different sizes. Not for them the luxury of multiplying by four the numbers scanned after 15 minutes. No, the first group of people most likely to be most disappointed by Contex's new measure of productivity are large format scanning bureau services and document archivers.

Real World Users

This is a huge group of people who include scanning bureaus and archivers. Among them are those who want to scan hundeds or thousands of wide format documents while others have a simple requirement to scan only a few a day or a week.

This group is generally looking to get the best scan they can get in the time they have. Most will approach their scanner with a wide format document which they will either Auto-size or enter its size manually. Only after a few seconds, probably at least as long as it takes a Contex scanner to scan two A1 documents at the productivity specification speeds, will the user be ready to select a resolution. This too will take time.

In the Real World, productivity is more about the usefulness of the scanned image than the speed it was scanned at. The time it takes to unroll a faded, torn drawing, dust it off, feed it in, select a resolution, scan it, clean it, restore it with thresholding values, (maybe go back and scan it again at a higher resolution in order to get a better result), give it a meaningful file name and finally save it, all those actions will be included in the "productivity" of most large format scanner users. Scan speed plays just one small part in the bigger, time-consuming pursuit of genuine, all encompassing productivity!

For most scanner operators, productivity is the measure of how many good scans they can achieve in a reasonable period of time having used several features of the scanning software to enhance the image and ensure that they get the best possible, most usable result from fairly poor drawings. Contex's new "productivity" rating ignores the time-consuming activities that ensure the sort of productivity demanding users understand.

So, is it possible to show a productivity as a specification?

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