Big Scanner, Better Images

Microtek's ScanMaker i800 accommodates legal-size documents on roomy scanning bed and produces crisp scans of graphics and photos.

Richard Jantz

Microtek's ScanMaker i800 scans legal-size documents.

If you work with graphics and photography, a flatbed scanner like Microtek's ScanMaker i800 can be a vital tool. This $400 device offers excellent image quality plus extras to add sparkle to your photos and film.

The ScanMaker i800's capacious 8.5-by-14-inch scanning bed handles legal-size documents and can scan more photos simultaneously than a standard flatbed with a letter-size scanning area. The 14.5-pound i800 is also better suited for scanning items like large maps, drawings, paintings, and books.

In testing a shipping version, I admired the scanner's overall image quality and was especially impressed with its ability to perform automatic color restoration on faded prints and aging 35mm slides. I made good use of its Digital ICE feature (a Kodak-licensed utility that automatically removes dirt and some scratches from both prints and film), which now includes Brush and Eraser tools for manually fine-tuning the degree of correction.

Using the i800 is easy, thanks to a host of one-touch buttons that activate common tasks, such as scanning photo prints and converting paper documents into text or PDF files. I tested the i800 via its USB 2.0 connection and found its performance about average compared to the speed of other models that share its 4800-dpi resolution.

The unit's fat bundle of software includes a choice of scanning drivers (ranging from simple to advanced), an image organizer, an optical character recognition tool, and a LAN application. Microtek's documentation is thorough.

The versatile ScanMaker i800 is a good choice for scanning batches of print or film images and larger documents.

Microtek ScanMaker i800

This legal-size flatbed scanner delivers good image quality at a fair price. Price when reviewed: $400 Current prices (if available)