A3 sized scanners?

Jeff Lynne · 23 Feb 2009 at 15:33

I've got a fair amount of old newspaper cuttings that I need to scan and being the awkward size and shape that they are scanning them on my current scanner would be a PITA.

Whenever I've seen scanners in warehouse type computer shops I've never noticed any that scan e.g. A3 sized documents, do these things exist and are they within the purse of the common man?

Thanks for any help...

bremen1874 · 23 Feb 2009 at 16:10

There are plenty of A3 scanners out there from all the normal manufacturers (Canon, Epson, HP, Fujitsu, etc.).

You can pay anything between £100 and £10,000 depending on what your requirements are. The scanners I used to deal with would scan 60+ A3 duplex pages a minute but you paid for the privilege.

Depending on the quantities you're talking about it may be cheaper and easier to get someone to scan them for you.

lsg1r · 23 Feb 2009 at 16:21

yeah plenty of options but as said really depends on requirements/cost. A quick google for a3 scanners show they start around 80 quid for a cheap brand, but remember they're not the smallest of items

.

Jeff Lynne · 23 Feb 2009 at 16:56

What it is I've got this stack of cuttings, they're very dear to the owner and I wouldn't feel right giving them to someone else to do so I need to do them myself.

Yes, size is an issue as regards storage and using it as I'm pretty cluttered in here but I think it's worth having in the long run.

And £80 sounds good to me!

bremen1874 · 23 Feb 2009 at 17:13

An £80 A3 printer will be dog slow even scanning in black and white or grey scale.

Are you just dealing with a few dozen scans or thousands?

Jeff Lynne · 23 Feb 2009 at 18:57

6 thick ring binders full of newspaper cuttings. They have to go back to the owner so I'd like to have them as scans and he has the originals

bremen1874 · 23 Feb 2009 at 19:06

With a cheap scanner that'll take what seems like forever.

The quickest way would be to photocopy them and then get a bureau to scan them. If you can provide nice clean copies to be scanned then it shouldn’t cost a fortune.

Pred · 23 Feb 2009 at 20:58

^^ What he says.

Photocopy them.

Jeff Lynne · 24 Feb 2009 at 10:55

Pred said:
^^ What he says.

Photocopy them.

Thats a bloody good idea, but aren't photocopier huge or have they made significant advances now that they don't have to be?

bremen1874 · 24 Feb 2009 at 13:49

I wouldn't suggest that you buy your own photocopier for a small job like this.

Jeff Lynne · 24 Feb 2009 at 20:54

Thats fair comment but I don't have access to one at home or at work, which kind of blows that idea out of the water.

ceego · 24 Feb 2009 at 21:00

Jeff Lynne said:
Thats fair comment but I don't have access to one at home or at work, which kind of blows that idea out of the water.

a lot of stationary stores have them and only charge like 2pence a sheet sometimes..

EDIT- or public libraries generally always have them..

Jeff Lynne · 24 Feb 2009 at 21:44

Appreciate that but there are lots of these things. I'd need to be there all day and then some more. Lets just suggest that it's porn that I'm copying just to take away the public element

lsg1r · 27 Feb 2009 at 14:22

forgot I posted on this.

If the ring binder is made of lots of a3 sized or flat papers rather than just random cuttings you might be able to use an adf (auto document feeder) adapter which can be bought for some scanners, the problem is that these aren't cheap, my a4 one was a good couple of hundred.

I'd still say the best option is the a3 scanner (space allowing

) and just take time over it so to speak as whether its a photocopy first you still going to have to scan it somehow.

caithomas44 · 27 Feb 2009 at 17:19

an A3 scanner for
380 will be fine for newspaper cuttings, just be aware of the time involved. If you want somthing quicker then just ask someone at university or in a big company to scan them in using a photocopier. Most institutions have a jpg or pdf option now, you can even go to a printers and wtach them do it if you want to be careful, won't take more than 30 minutes with a good photocopier connected to a pc