Plustek expands book-scanning flatbed scanner line
updated 10:30 am EDT, Fri June 19, 2009
Plustek adds A300 scanner
Plustek has launched a new, large-format scanner, the A300, in its OpticBook series of flatbed scanners. The scanner line consists of four different models geared for scanning books and other bound documents, with technology designed to correct curvatures and eliminating shadows caused by the depth of book scans. The series now includes the OpticBook A300, the OpticBook 3600/3600 Plus and the recently-released OpticBook 4600. The new A300 scans large format (12x17 inches) A3-sized pages at a 2.4-second pace, with support for thick books without requiring unbinding. The device also features automatic PDF conversion and optical character recognition (OCR) technology.
The OpticBook 3600 and 3600 Plus are real-time scanners, allowing users to capture collections one page-turn at a time. Both offer auto-turn orientation for switching between even and odd page numbers, while fixing distortions associated with scanning the curvature of book spines. The OCR offerings can convert text into a number of document and photographic formats, including PDF (3600 Plus only), JPG, TIFF and BMP. The OpticBook 4600 adds faster scanning speeds over the 3600 models, at 3.2 seconds for an A4 page.
The OpticBook 3600 carries a price of $300, while the Plus version adds PDF conversion for $360. The 4600 retails for $700, although pricing information for the A300 has not been released. The entire series supports Windows 2000, XP and Vista platforms.
