How to Do Everything With Your Scanner- P19 pot

lots of image data. CD-R and CD-RW drives have recently come down in price considerably. (The latter allows you to rewrite a disk you’ve previously recorded on.) As with hard drives and high-capacity disk drives, a CD-R drive can be either internal or external. The external models are easier to install, but aren’t otherwise significantly less expensive. As of the writing of this book, you can find many excellent CD-R drives for less than $400. FIGURE 4-6 A Zip drive stores 100 to 250 megabytes on a disk. 74 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. FIGURE 4-7 A Jaz drive adds 1 or 2 gigabytes of storage space to your PC. CHAPTER 4: Install Your Scanner and Inventory Your Hardware 75 4 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Where to Shop for Additional Storage Devices Once you decide you do need to add some more storage space to your PC before scanning and image-editing full swing, it’s a straightforward task. The Microsoft Network shopping site offers you excellent resources for comparing features and prices of all types of external drives. The site, located at www.eshop.msn.com, shown in Figure 4-8, allows you to specify search criteria as to the type of peripheral you want (for example, a new CD-R drive), as well as your price range. You can even do a detailed comparison of the features of the models you decide you like best, based on your initial search. FIGURE 4-8 Comparison-shop for storage devices on the MSN website. Printer Capability Unless you’re content to view images on screen, you’re pretty much dependent on your printer to do your carefully scanned and edited image final justice. This book assumes you’re currently using—or are going to be purchasing—an inkjet printer, rather than a laser printer for your color photos. The reason for this is 76 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. that color laser printers are expensive. In fact, too expensive to be serious contenders for the home-based user. More importantly, you can get a result that is, for all practical purposes, just as good as a color laser printer using an inkjet printer. CMYK vs. Photo-Quality Printers That being said, there are two varieties of inkjet printers—standard and photo-quality. Either of them is a solid investment, but the photo-quality printer is designed specifically to produce great color photographs. On the other hand, a standard inkjet printer (also called a CMYK printer) might be quite adequate if you scan a lot of black-and-white images or text since you don’t need the capacity to reproduce a wide range of colors. How the CMYK Printer Works The standard type inkjet printer uses two cartridges. The first one contains only black ink, and the second contains three colors of ink: cyan, yellow, and magenta. Hence the moniker CMYK printers; the K stands for black since the letter B could be mistakenly assumed to refer to blue. These four colors can be combined to produce nearly every color imaginable, as explained in Chapter 2. There are also “three-color” printers on the market that don’t contain black ink. Instead, they produce black by combining the other colors. The result is inferior, and most users don’t feel that the cost savings are worth skimping on the black ink. The Photo-Quality Printer Photo-quality printers are specially designed to give you great results when printing color photos. This printer uses six different colors of ink, as opposed to the four colors used in standard CMYK printers. Why are more ink colors better? Because it means you can reproduce the colors of an image more accurately when you’re scanning at lower resolutions. The major downside to a photo-quality printer is—you guessed it—price. They’re generally 30 to 40 percent more expensive than their CMYK counterparts. Additionally, the replacement cartridges are about 30 percent more expensive. Shopping for a Printer Shopping for a printer on line has the advantage of convenience, and being able to compare lots of prices and specifications with a click of your mouse. A great place to start an online search is the ZDNet site at www.zdnet.com/products/ shown in Figure 4-9. CHAPTER 4: Install Your Scanner and Inventory Your Hardware 77 4 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. FIGURE 4-9 The ZDNet website is a great place to shop for a printer. Looking for a bargain on a printer? Don’t forget to check the Overstock.com website, located at www.overstock.com, shown in Figure 4-10. This site capitalizes on the mistakes of other Internet-based businesses—close-outs, overstocks, and even bankruptcies. You can get surprisingly up-to-date merchandise at a steal of a deal. Shopping in an office-equipment store has some advantages, too. The biggest one is that you can test the output of the printer. To make the most of this opportunity, go to one of the larger office supply stores that are likely to have several printers on display. Take a photograph with you that has lots of people in it. Accurate skin tones are some of the hardest shades to replicate and the easiest to discern if they’re a little bit off. You’ll notice a slightly greenish or yellow tinge on a face a lot faster than whether the t-shirt or lawn is off a shade or two. 78 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . disk. 74 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. FIGURE 4-7 A Jaz drive adds 1 or 2 gigabytes of storage space to your. than a laser printer for your color photos. The reason for this is 76 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. that color. Install Your Scanner and Inventory Your Hardware 75 4 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Where to Shop for Additional Storage Devices Once you decide you do