
A flatbed scanner is ideal for preserving photos or making copies of your passport, while an automatic document feeder (ADF) is perfect for photocopying tax forms. Depending on what you need to scan, you might want to look for a particular kind of scanner.

If you regularly need to scan significant quantities of double-sided documents, you'll want to make sure your printer's scanner supports duplex scanning.ĭuplex scanning is the ability to scan both sides of the same document without having to flip the page over yourself.

We measure the maximum height of the hinge in inches and millimeters. If the scanner has extendable hinges, this means you can raise the lid to cover over the item you want to scan to give you those white edges. This black space means more ink or toner gets unnecessarily used, which costs you in the long run. Aesthetically, this doesn't look good on a scanned image, but it's especially a problem if you need to print your document. However, if you don't close the cover over your item, the light can't reflect, so you end up with black edges around the scanned item. So if your item is smaller than the size of the flatbed and the lid covers over it perfectly, the edges of your scanned item are white.

The lid cover has a white panel that reflects the scanner's light. Extendable hinges let you close the cover over your item for a proper scan. If you've tried scanning a thicker item-like a spiral notebook, a textbook, or a manual-on a flatbed scanner, you might have noticed that the lid doesn't close over the item properly.
