If you're scanning photos for professional reasons, you'll want a high-quality scanner. If you're making an online album of family vacation pictures, you can probably get by with less. Some users routinely scan letters and documents to store in an electronic filing cabinet. Optical character recognition. You can scan a document and use OCR software to translate it into a word processing doc that can be edited, cut and pasted, etc.
Flatbed scanners look like the top of a standard copy machine.
PC Magazine Editor Michael Miller says they're usually the best choice today. Click for full story. Stick the edge of the photo into a slot to feed it through and out the other side. Until recently, sheet-fed scanners were more affordable, but flatbed prices are closing in. Click for full story.