Flatbed scanners, which function like copy machines, often operate with the touch of one button and are ideal if you want to scan family photos or news articles. There are also higher-priced scanners specially designed to scan photos and photographic film, but these are geared toward professionals. Some can even scan images as large as a full newspaper page. Scanners connect to computers through a variety of interfaces. Some are faster than others and they affect how quickly a scanner captures an image.
Some scanners use the computer's parallel printer port to connect.
This is the slowest connection method. Bone up on scanner lingo Scanner shoppers will find it helpful to understand some scanner terminology. These are the most common terms. The higher the bit depth, the greater the number of colors. Almost all scanners on the market today capture 30 or 36 bits of color or more than a billion distinct shades.