The Portable Scanner vs Heavyweight Photocopiers

Once upon a time in 1778, a German scientist by the name of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg came up with dry electrostatic printing, a process by which images are replicated by means of electrostatic charges. The invention died a sudden death, its principles never realized, and during those time people reproduced documents manually using longhand.

It took years to perfect the technique of copy images. It was 1938 when Chester Carlson finally invented a process known as Xerography. It is similar to the work of Lichtenberg in that it uses electrostatic charges. Unlike previous attempts at photocopying, Carlson’s invention used a selenium-coated cylindrical drum instead of a flat plate. It was introduced to the world as Xerox 914. Xerox became the number one brand to trust when it comes to copiers.

Photocopy machines enjoyed a long streak of fame. It found its place in business, education, government settings. The machine copies imagines and immediately reprints it on paper. It is fast, easy and cheap. But with everything else going digital and the never ending campaign to reduce paper consumption, the photocopier might have a rival within its midst.

The fact that paper is perishable through time makes digital copies of documents and photographs the better option. Based on the concept of telephotography, the same technology that made telegraphs a hit, the image scanner came to life. A scanner copies images and makes softcopies and transmits them to a computer. Now in its digital format, the document can be enhanced to restore its original quality, especially when it comes to old photos. Image processing might seem a little too slow, but the scanner produces better quality images than photocopying machines. While the original scanners needed to be hooked up to a printer in order to reproduce documents, newly released scanners are bundled with printers making it similar in effect as photocopiers.

The photocopiers still continue to exist—in their bulk, heavyweight form. But the scanner, despite being the younger competitor, has shown so much growth in such a short span of time.

Portable gadgets come in handy for anybody who is on-the-go, and by that we mean nearly everyone. There are portable computers, portable printers, and now the portable scanner. It lets you scan important documents even when you’re on the road. A portable scanner looks like a stick, but they can cover documents as large as legal sized papers. Some portable scanners even have the same features as regular ones such as duplicating and automatic document feeder.

Although not closely related in terms of how they work, scanners and photocopiers have long been pitted against each other like sisters in the same battlefield. But without a doubt, scanners of all shapes and sizes have creamed photocopiers, making the latter in danger of extinction. From Lichtenberg’s era to Carlson’s, the photocopying machine showed progress with the speed of a turtle. Even when it reproduces at cheaper prices it’s still the underdog to its younger rival. Scanners lives up to the expectations of its user and continues to evolve to cope with their growing needs.