A standalone scanner that still standing
Remember when things didn’t do everything? Your phone made phone calls, your camera took pictures and your pocket calculator did sums. Back then, you had a printer to get stuff out of your PC and a scanner to get stuff in. They were separate machines for a reason: a printer is nothing like a scanner. They don’t share any parts.
Naturally, this total lack of similarity inspired manufacturers to bolt the two things together, and the resulting multi-function devices (MFDs) have taken over. The result is like the old joke where the police inspector issues a warning about ‘cut and shut’ car thieves from the wheel of his Vauxhall Fiesta. It’s ridiculous and yet we’ve fallen for it.
MFDs can be handy, but their built-in scanners aren’t always up to much, and if you already have a printer you don’t want to buy both. So there’s still a place for separate scanners, and here’s one that’s compact and affordable. Unlike more expensive models, it has no backlight, so you can’t scan see-through materials. It’s a pain to do, though, and there are more efficient little machines for those of us with boxes of 35mm slides to digitise.
The CanoScan LiDE 220 handles anything flat up to A4 size. You can scan with the lid open, but it can close even over fairly thick books. It’s also possible to use the scanner on its side, if that helps. As usual, once you’ve installed the software you can scan directly from most image-handling programs. Resolution goes up to 4800 dots per inch – enough to blow up a postage stamp to twice A4 – and you can convert scanned text documents to editable word-processor files with reasonable accuracy.
The LiDE 220 took 15 seconds to get a preview, then the same to scan a full page at a fax-quality 150 dots per inch (dpi), or three more seconds for print- quality 300dpi. A standard 6x4in photo took 21 seconds at a sharp 600dpi and a minute and eight seconds at 1200dpi for 4x enlargement. That’s not super-quick, but the results were worth waiting for, well focused and with accurate colours across a wide range.
VERDICT
For basic photocopier-type scanning there’s nothing wrong with an MFD, but if you need better quality this fits the bill.
SPECIFICATIONS
4800dpi scanner • 48-bit colour depth (selectable) • Requires Windows XP or later or OS X 10.6 or later (Windows 10 and OS X 10.11 updates available) • 41x252x366mm (HxWxD) • 1.6kg • One-year warranty