Ok. I just found out the drivers for my scanner don’t work with Windows XP and there won’t be any new ones that do. So I’m in the market for a new scanner. I want to use it to scan textures for CG projects.
What should I look for?
Can it be had for under $200.00?
Thanking you kindly.
o can i ask what your scanner is??
becasue my scanner had NO XP drivers, but i found a program that will make windows 200 drivers run on WinXP and now it works fine.
you run the program and select the driver, then it spits out an XP version of the driver.
mine was a “MUSTEK 1200CU plus”
pretty much anyscanner over 600dpi will be sweet (you never really need to scan higher than 600dpi)
its only the colour balance and accuracy that you should worry about.
to test this i suggest you go inot the store, make sure their monitor is ICC colour compliant (international colour consortium)
this will mean that what you see on the screen should be exactly what you see once printed.
if they don’t have it adjusted ask them too becasue it is a 5 min thing to do. (i could send you test patterns if you need, and tell them how to use them)
then scan in a document IN THE STORE STILL. and compare it to the paper original!!!
closest scanner wins. (i would do that and they shouldn’t mind as long as you buy one LOL)
hope that helps
Alltaken
Another good tip is to scan PART! of a bank note (scanning the whole thing is forbidden in most countries, i think). So you can see how the scanner handles fine details.
I don’t agree that 600dpi would be enough, if you want to scale pictures up, you need more. No problem, because 1200dpi scanners are not that expensive anymore.
Another thing is the software. Best would be a software to calibrate the scanner and a testchart. Cheap scanners often don’t have this. Also, a better scanner software like Silverfast or LinoColor would be fine.
Often you find good bundles (I bought my first crappy scanner to get Photoshop 4 (Full) for really small money!)
Daniel
wow!!! microsoft was around back then? 
Thanks guys.
Well the one I have now is a Visioneer 3100. It’s about 4 years old. It’s 300 x 600 dpi and has 30 bit color depth. I hadn’t thought about calibration software. I’ll look for that. If you could link me test pattern Al that would be great.
Doesn’t everyone use Windows 200?
Hey, which program is that? I have problems with my scanner too. (Plustek P8 scanner)
Ok. So here’s what I got. I don’t know squat about these things so
I’m just reading the jist of it from the box here:
A Microtek ScanMaker 4850
USB
CCD (charge coupled device) scanner.
2400 X 4800 dpi optical resolution
48 bit true color
16 bit analog to digital converter
35mm slide/filmstrip adaptor
batch image scaning
Standard or advanced scanning controls
It has a bunch of 3rd party software as well.
The total after tax and 1 year of extra store coverage was $117.85.
How’d I do?
Hey, alltaken. Which program did you use to get your scanner to work on WinXP? It’s kinda lame that i have a good scanner and i can’t use it 
i have a Canoscan N1240U. it’s small, high quality and not too expensive. if you are looking too buy one i suggest you have a look at this one.
d52477001