Agfa has announced a new USB scanner called the SnapScan Touch aimed at the iMac Generation. The scanner is easy to use and features a handle in six different colors. Five of these colors are similar to Apple's iMac colors. Agfa touts the push-button uses of the scanner making it easier for consumers to use. According to Agfa:
Agfa Corporation's Desktop Products Group today introduced the SnapScan Touch - a Universal Serial Bus (USB) compatible, landscape-designed flatbed scanner best suited for home and small/office environments. The SnapScan Touch incorporates USB compatibility, with a revolutionary, simple-to-use push-button system for scanning directly into e-mail, fax or printer.
The SnapScan Touch is a hybrid peripheral - able to perform on both PC or Mac platforms and available with six different translucent color handles each providing a refreshing and unique look to the scanner. (The colors of the six translucent handles are silver, blue, red, teal, orange, lime and purple).
On the right side of the scanner is a touch pad shaped much like a paw, which supplies the user with options to e-mail, fax or copy directly from the scanner at the press of a button. Each button can be set to the option most desired by the user - and switched at any time.
The SnapScan Touch has an optical resolution of 600 by 1200 ppi (which can be interpolated up to 9600 ppi), 36-bit color depth and a scanning area of 8.5 by 11.7 inches.
In addition to ScanWise, other software packages bundled with the SnapScan scanners include: MicroFrontier Color it! (image editing software) and Caere OmniPage LE 5.1 (OCR software) for the Mac.
The scanner is shipped with an application interface called ScanWise. ScanWise uses an easy interface to handle scanning functions. Again, according to Agfa:
ScanWise Features
ScanWise users will be impressed by the simplicity of the interface, which consists of four-tabbed menu cards on the left and a preview box to the right of the screen. The four-tabbed menu cards are logically ordered to lead the user through the simple scan process. The first determines the type of original to be scanned and the second incorporates the destination of the scan. The third menu allows automatic or manual color and tone changes while the fourth provides intuitive size settings.
Novices will appreciate the high level of automation that the interface provides including the "Guide Me" mode, which leads users sequentially through the four menus and provides additional tips for optimum results. More experienced users will benefit from the manual override settings which allow greater control over the whole scanning procedure.
Each time ScanWise is launched, the software locates resident applications with which it can communicate and determines the optimum settings for the scan dependent upon the final destination. ScanWise can communicate with image editors, web browsers, fax, e-mail, printers, word processors and OCR programs.
Agfa says that the SnapScan will be available in June priced at US$129.
Agfa
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