Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software

HOT NEWS:

Contex scanners: Now available in black

Contex HD4230

Contex has updated its G600 large format scanners which will be called the HD (High Definition) Series in future. Now sporting a coat of black and silver paint, the new look, new name Contex HD Series of wide format scanners offer an advance in data transmission speed and, after years of claiming it, finally offer "true" 600 dpi optical resolution.

Contex supplied publicity material describes the HD Series as Contex's "next generation of professional wide format scanners". It claims "technological and stylistic enhancements" and "even greater image quality and flexibility" and "promises an excellent return on investment for full-service copyshops and reprographic companies". The HD Series, say Contex, is "more than just a face lift"!

Given Contex's past statements, we have learned to take their claims with a shovelfull of salt. So, we are pleased that there is now a new set of brooms sweeping clean in Contex's marketing department. Unfortunately for them, the claims of their predecessors for features Contex did not truly have but which now finally appear in the HD Series reduces the newsworthiness of their announcement.

The HD Series raises a stack of questions about the future direction of "Contex-based CCD scanners". Is the HD Series a competitive response to other products in the market - or are Contex buying time for new CCD products in future? Is this a limited response, much like the G600 was? Scanners4CAD analyses the pre-release and publicity material. Here's our report.

Contex / Vidar HD Product Names

Contex's colourful old product names - Chameleon, Crystal, Cougar, etc., - have been dropped in the HD Series in favour of a naming system that more clearly describes each wide format scanner.

For example, the Chameleon G600 is now the HD3630 while the Cougar G600 is the HD3650. The first two digits indicate the scan width - both are 36" wide scanners. The second two digits indicate colour scan speed, with 30 indicating a slower colour scan speed and 50 indicating a faster one.

Below is a comparative list of the old and new names for Contex and Vidar large format scanners (Vidar are manufactured by Contex). It appears that in future Vidar scanners will share the same name as Contex scanners. We wonder if this is the first step to Vidar scanners being discontinued?

Contex old nameVIDAR old nameNew name
Premier G600Flash 600eUnchanged
Hawk-Eye G36Nova 36eUnchanged
Toucan G25Lynx 25eHD2530
Puma G600Titan 600eHD4230i
Magnum G600Latitude 600eHD5450
Chameleon G600Select 600eHD3630
Cougar G600Atlas 600eHD3650
Crystal G600Surveyor 600eHD4230
Chroma G600Spectra 600eHD4250

The Base and Plus options, which offer different scan speeds, have been retained.

The Hawk-Eye and Premier

Significantly, two large format scanning products are not included in the Contex HD Series. These are the Contex entry-level Hawk-Eye G36 and the monochrome only Premier G600 wide format scanners. Scanners4CAD expects the Hawk-Eye and the Premier large format scanners to be replaced by first generation Contex CIS products at the end of April 2008.

(See: RUMOUR: Contex CIS large format scanner to be announced.)

Interestingly, the Contex press release says the HD Series "promises an excellent return on investment for full-service copyshops and reprographic companies". It makes no mention of AEC, CAD and GIS, previously a target market for these scanners, a market which is best served by CIS technology. It also refers to "Contex's CCD-based scanners", a statement which Contex presumably only need to make in order to distinguish their CCD scanners for their forthcoming Contex CIS scanners. Well, we think so, anyway!

The New HD Series Features at a glance!

Here is a list of the new features in the Contex HD Series large format scanner range:

  • Colour - black and silver is the new look!
  • Optical resolution - 600 dpi at last! (in some models)
  • Extra camera (in 42" models, to achieve the 600 dpi)
  • Improved Speed - xDTR (USB 2.0 interface only)

Everything else stays the same, including ...

  • Shape - same as before - no change
  • Size - same as before - no change
  • Weight - same as before - no change
  • Scan accuracy - same as before - no change
  • Image capture - other than 600 dpi optical in some models, no change
  • On-board image processing - same as before - no change
  • Media transport - same as before - no change
  • Illumination method - same as before - no change
  • Options - Base and Plus versions - no change
  • Software - same as before - no change
  • Energy Star 2007 - still not compliant!*

*The Contex HD Series Brochure claims that "Contex HD Series scanners are ENERGY SAVER-compliant".

As ENERGY-SAVER is not a standard, it cannot be said to be "compliant". The industry standard is Energy Star 2007, something which Contex do not comply with. As a result, Contex use the term "Energy Saver" to describe their method of powering down the HD Series scanners into an energy saving sleep mode.

We hope that this is simple mistake on Contex's part and that this is not a return to the bad old days of making misleading claims.

Colour - black and silver is the new look!

Contex Crystal Contex HD4230
Old look ... ... New look

Like Colortrac, Graphtec and HP scanners, the new Contex HD Series will be painted black.

Optical resolution - 600 dpi at last!

Four Contex scanners - the old Chameleon, Cougar, Crystal and Chroma - have been upgraded to true 600 dpi optical resolution:

Old nameNew nameOld optical resolution (dpi)New optical resolution (dpi)
Premier G600Premier G600      508508
Hawk-Eye G36Hawk-Eye G36200200
Toucan G25HD2530424424
Puma G600HD4230i600600
Magnum G600HD5450508508
Chameleon G600HD3630508600
Cougar G600HD3650508600
Crystal G600HD4230508600
Chroma G600HD4250508600

In the 42" models (old Crystal and Chroma), the upgrade has been achieved by including an extra camera inside the scanner.

The upgrade to 600 dpi optical resolution will marginally improve scanned image quality. However, it is a benefit which Contex has claimed for years and which has been available in other large format scanners for even longer, since 2002 from Graphtec and 2004 from Colortrac. It is long overdue.

600 dpi optical resolution is nice to have - who would want less than today's standard? However, when the truth is told, it is more than most CAD operators will use in practice 99 times out of 100 when scanning technical drawings! This "new" feature is all about ticking check boxes to ensure that Contex come up to par.

Goodbye to "real" dpi?

In their G600 scanner series literature, Contex referred to their 508 dpi scanners as having a "resolution" of 600 dpi. Many readers assumed that this "resolution" figure was optical resolution. Examination of the small print however revealed that Contex's "resolution" was in fact "real" resolution, a term concocted by Contex and described by them as "the real performance indicator obtained from Contex high quality CCDs and optical lenses, and patented, advanced digital processing".

So, now that the HD Series has "true" 600 dpi optical resolution is it goodbye to "real" dpi? We sincerely hope so, although the signs are not encouraging!

The only "true" 600 dpi G600 scanner which Contex had was the Puma, a large format scanner described as having "800 real dpi". Will all 600 dpi HD scanners now be referred to as 800 dpi? We sincerely hope not.

Worryingly, we now see IDEAL Systems, Contex's US distributor, describing the Hawk-Eye G36 (200 dpi optical) and other G600 Series (508 dpi optical) wide format scanners as "1200 dpi". Could these descriptions be an attempt to show parity with scanners from Image Access and Colortrac that scan at 1200 x 600 dpi optical resolution, the highest available, but which save at 600 dpi optical?

Improved speed

The one big physical improvement in the Contex HD Series is a faster data transfer rate from 18 to 32MB/s. Contex have achieved this by using a new and improved USB 2.0 chipset. They have called this feature xDTR, which stands for Extended Data Transfer Rate.

Contex claim that xDTR allows an HD Series wide format scanner to run at full speed on wider documents without slowing down due to bandwidth overruns. On most large format scanners, wider documents will slow the scanner down as more data is passed to the PC, the traditional bottleneck. By increasing the bandwidth from the scanner, more data, i.e. wider documents, can be passed to the PC without the scanner slowing down.

"Nobody", claims Contex's Brian Honeycutt, Product Manager, Wide Format Solutions, "not even USB hard drive makers or other device makers, are able to transfer data at USB 2.0's theoretical limitation of 48MB/s. Even the built-in USB on most PCs cannot accept data faster than about 30-32MB/s. Some computers (and other USB scanners) using different (cheaper) USB 2.0 chipsets cannot perform better than about 18MB/s. Contex is at that limit now and that means we can outperform any USB scanner".

Note that although Contex are now claiming faster scanning speeds, their published speeds remain the same. The difference is that Contex now claim to be able to match their published speeds.

... but still the same old software

Fast as the HD Series may be, raw scanning speed is only part of the story! By itself scanning speed does not guarantee productivity.

If you are dealing with less than perfect drawings, it's our experience that true productivity comes from the scanning software and its manipulation of the image. While Contex can now boast faster scanning speeds, the user's real rate of productivity may be restricted by Contex's unchanged WIDEimageNET scanning software.

Why is this? Quite simply, if you need to fine tune settings, WIDEimageNET's current mode of operation requires repeatedly scanning backwards and forwards over parts of a drawing. It is poor by comparison to Colortrac's excellent ScanWorks software. Colortrac's SmartLF scanners may not be as fast as the Contex HD Series but with ScanWorks' ability to scan once, adjust settings in real-time until satisfied, then save the image, you get a more productive way of working - particularly with poor quality technical drawings that need thresholding.

Contex will argue that their back-and-forwards mode of operation allows image processing to take place within the scanner ("on-board processing"). This gives better results than image processing that takes place within the PC, like Colortrac's, because it is working with rawer data. However, if any such advantage exists, it is irrelevant when scanning limited colour and black and white technical drawings.

Conclusion

Contex say that the HD Series is "more than just a face lift". If that were true, they would probably not have to make that statement!

On paper, other than the new black colour, there is NO change at all. Contex have been publishing 600 dpi resolution for years and although their scanners may be faster now, their published speed specs remain the same. So, why the fanfare of trumpets welcoming "true" 600 dpi optical now, we ask?

Contex are probably hugely relieved that they no longer need to mislead CAD users and others about the optical resolution of the HD Series! It is important for Contex that on this most critical of all large format scanner purchasing issues they can now come clean with their claims for their wide format scanners. Instead of hiding behind "real" resolution, we are pleased that at long last Contex has an undisputed right to claim 600 dpi optical on their "new" HD3630, HD3650, HD4230 and HD4250 scanners.

However, the reality is that there is little "new" in the HD Series when compared to the G600 Series, which itself was barely different from the Tx, Cx, Sx and XL scanners that preceded it. Essentially, the HD Series adds little to a wide format scanning platform whose origin, design, chassis and core technology is rooted in the early years of this, if not the tail-end of the last, century. With the possible exception of xDTR, the HD Series will have difficulty convincing Scanners4CAD that it provides "the most advanced scanning technology available today".

However, the HD Series will provide copy shops and other graphics professionals with more of the same image quality and reliable performance that they are accustomed to. Old as its underlying technology may be, the HD Series is based on a robust and reliable product. Many with an implicit belief in the Contex brand-name will unquestioningly see the HD Series as providing the best graphics results money can buy. As such, the HD Series is likely to provide graphics professionals with solid service for years to come.

This rather begs the question "if Contex are now pitching the HD Series at graphics users, what about AEC, CAD and GIS users with technical drawing scanning requirements?" The answer to that is "wait-and-see"! We expect a much more exciting product announcement from Contex shortly!

Contex:
http://www.contex.com