Benq Scanners

What’s most impressive, though, is the way that you can scan direct to a variety of sources with the single press of one of the five on-scanner buttons or a single click in the provided MiraScan software. This kind of arrangement makes scanning for a range of uses very easy. For example, choose to scan to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and with one click the scan is initiated, the supplied copy of ABBY FineReader is launched, the scanned page is passed through the software, and you are presented with a copy of the text to start editing on screen. It is easy and fast. Other options include scan to Palm--handy if you have a Palm PDA, and copy--for making photocopies via your printer.

Along with FineReader you get a copy of ArcSoft PhotoImpression which is fine for image editing and ArcSoft PhotoBase for organising your scans neatly.

The five buttons on the front of the scanner light up like Christmas tree twinklers during the scanning process, which is a little disconcerting, and make noises too--though these can be turned off. The scanner itself is a little on the large side, and might find its home under, rather than on many desks. But it is good value for money, and if you don’t mind those flashing lights, a fair choice--Sandra Vogel