Epson ActionScanner PC User Setup Information - What You Should Know Before Sc - Page 4

How SCANNERS WORK All scanners convert areas of light and dark into digital data for your computer. One of the most versatile scanners for general office use is the flatbed scanner. Scanning an image on a flatbed scanner is a lot like using a photocopier. Here's how it works: ) 1 You place your document (a photo, book, or any image that you want to scan) face-down on the glass and close the cover. ' 2 Using the scanner software, you select a few simple settings to adjust the way the image will be captured; then you scan the document. ' 3 Inside the scanner, a light bar moves over the image and the reflected light falls on a bed of photosensitive cells. The cells "read" the image, interpreting it as a series of tiny dots. Each dot is called a pixel, or picture element. The carriage scans one line of pixels at a time. b 4 The software converts the values of each pixel into data that the computer can understand. When the entire document is scanned, the resulting image appears on your monitor. b 5 You can print the image as it appears on-screen or you can manipulate it with image editing or graphics software to get the results you want.