Scanner
Scanner is an optical device that optically scans documents, images and printed text convert it into a file format or digital format that may be used in the personal computer. You can use the scanner with special software to read text. When used an optical character recognition software, a scanner can convert printed, handwriting text into a digital file format that can be read by a word processor. The common types of optical scanner devices are i) Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) ii) Optical Mark Reader (OMR) iii) Optical Character Reader or Recognition (OCR). OCR’s are expensive though better the MICR.
The most common types of scanners are Flatbed Scanner, Sheetfed Scanner, Handheld Scanner, Drum Scanner, Photo Scanner, Film Scanner, Slide Scanners and Portable Scanners, etc.
Some of the scanner manufacturer companies are : Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Canon and Fujitsu etc.,
The most popular Optical Character Recognition (OCR) softwares are : ABBYY FineReader, OmniPage, Simple OCR and Zonal OCR etc.,
