Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software

NO BULL: Scan Speed Part 2

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

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Why a new measure of large format scan speed is needed

When purchasing a wide format scanner, a fast scan speed is usually believed to aid productivity. The faster it scans, the faster you're finished.

As a result, the speed at which a large format scanner scans a technical document is regarded as one of the more important buying criteria. Unsurprisingly, all manufacturers place great emphasis on the speed of their devices.

Within the wide format scanning community many argue that the importance of scan speed is exaggerated when striving for image quality. Objective advisors will tell you that while a fast large format scanner is more helpful than a slow one, raw scan speed is only one of the many actions which will ultimately influence productivity based on scanned image quality.

All wide format scanner manufacturers use different criteria to rate speed. This makes it impossible for a buyer to compare one scanner's specified speed against another's. Among the traditional scan speed measurements quoted by the major manufacturers we have, for example:

Contex: - Scan speeds (inches/sec): Scanner speed while scanning 36-inch wide document at 400 dpi Turbo (effectively 400 x 200 dpi).

Colortrac: - Scan speeds (inches/sec): Scanner speed while scanning 24-inch wide document at 200 dpi.

Graphtec: - Scan speeds (inches/sec): Scanner speed while scanning ISO A0 document at 400 dpi in High Speed and Normal Speed modes.

Image Access: - Scan speeds (inches/sec and metres/minute) while scanning an unspecified document size at 150, 300, 600 and 1200 dpi.

Because there is no uniformity within the different wide format scanner manufacturers' data it is difficult, if not impossible, without a calculator and a high IQ, to use this information comparatively. For this reason, many in the large format scanner industry have suggested the need for one standard large format scan speed test that could show the speed of one wide format scanner relative to another.

To better understand the claims some manufacturers make for Scan Speed, read our No Bull - Scan Speed article.

Caveat emptor

When considering scan speed, buyers need to note the optical resolution the speeds were measured at and if there are any qualifying phrases, notes or small print. If there are, the scanner's real speed is possibly being manipulated. Sometimes the problem is that there are no notes! For example, Contex OEM GTCO Calcomp has quoted Contex's quality compromised Turbo mode speeds with no qualification whatsoever.

Then there is Graphtec's use of "High Speed" and "Normal" scan modes, both of which are quality compromised, just like Contex's Turbo mode. Graphtec's literature does not tell you this in the small print. Colortrac scans a small (therefore fast) document size at a low (therefore fast) resolution. And therein lies the rub. There is just too much diverse information wrapped up in self-interest and too little comparative buying advice.

As we have stated many times before, buyers must take manufacturers' published scan speeds with a dumper load of salt!

Many in the wide format scanning industry want a new test of large format scanner speeds, one which all manufacturers can sign up to for the purposes of comparative clarity. It is an ideal which we welcome. However, the reality is that just as many in this industry want any new measure of speed to show their product to be the fastest. As a result, there is much that is self-serving in Contex's new measure of productivity.

It is not the hoped-for new measure of specifying scan speed but something altogether different. In measuring productivity in drawings per hour, Contex has cleverly wrong-footed its indignant rivals with some impossibly high numbers which most outside the Contex community roundly condemn as unachievable in a Real World drawing office.

Let's look at exactly what Contex are claiming for productivity.

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