The multimillion army of office scanners has long won institutions all over the world. Today, flatbed document scanners and multifunction devices (MFPs) surprise no one — they live in every office. But for fastened documents and any materials in the binding there is a special class of scanning equipment — planetary scanners, among which the renewed ElarScans stand out since they combine rich set of important and even unique functions performance and versatility with economy.

Rooted in libraries

The impact for the development of planetary scanners was the need to digitize books in libraries. Scan library materials "face down" on flatbed scanners it is inconvenient and unprofitable - due to damage to the spine and extremely low productivity. As a rule, books, especially old ones, are not opened completely, or even readers are prohibited from doing so. The need appeared for devices for safely scanning books that cannot be fully opened. It was these developments that became crucial in shaping the final appearance and functionality of modern planetary scanners.

“Book scanners" began to be mass-produced, basic technologies were developed and the requirements for devices of this class were formed. It soon became clear that they were needed not only in libraries and not only for books!

Paper strives to digit

Today, despite the development of electronic business processes, the volume of paper documents is often continue to grow. In many industries, due to legal requirements or the specifics of the business, abandoning paper documentation is simply impossible.

To improve the efficiency of information management in companies and institutions of various profiles, there is an urgent need for digitization of both new documents and accumulated archival materials. It is particularly difficult to scan stapled and bound papers and all kinds of laced documents. That is why multipurpose and high-performance devices are needed that are capable of ensuring high quality, speed and convenience of daily digitization.

Professionals have specific requirements

Earlier, to solve these problems, companies looked for office scanners. However, all sorts of multifunctional devices and «document cameras» are inconvenient since they do not have a book cradle for such work. However, many models of planetary scanners originally made for high-quality «archival» digitization of rare books and valuables in archives and libraries are simply not feasible to use in offices because of their high price (up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and even higher), slow performance, and excessive characteristics.

Obviously, a corporate office, a bank, a town hall, or an insurance company needs economical planetary scanner, which should be a convenient alternative to office devices but remain a planetary scanner with the advantages of this class of technology. For many years, professional equipment manufacturers have ignored the market demands. The progress of digital cameras in the 1990s has led to numerous attempts to build up own-made copy-stands using a camera on a tripod and a computer with self-made or simple driver software. Such DIY devices are of course unsuitable for professional use.

How to make a great scanner? First, digitize a 100 km high stack of papers

The first original “ElarScan” was presented in 2013; its development incorporated the results of the progress of digital cameras with a matrix CMOS sensor, and vast experience in digitizing hundreds of millions of archival documents. Naturally, ElarScan has absorbed all the best and has become a kind of “dream scanner”, intended not only for use in organizations and institutions, but also for re-equipping professional companies which digitize a customer documents.

With the expansion of manufacturing, ElarScan became a workhorse for wide range of professional consumers. The leading positions and quality of ElarScans have already been supported by hundreds of implementations, continued sales growth and expansion of the geography of supplies: ElarScans are already operating on five continents, exploring new industries. Now many industrial, legal and financial companies are reducing digitalization costs, centralizing internal corporate services and implement unified service centers, equipping them with efficient ElarScan planetary scanners.

How ElarScan saves money

Financial are good at calculating costs. The effect was impressive: apart from the convenience of work, productivity increased, the amount of documents registered and filed in the accounting system increased by 40% over one month. Employees began to work faster. In addition, the bank reduced operating costs and wages by eliminating the use of staff on weekends - the cost of scanning one page was reduced by more than 13(!) times.

Expanding Applications and Industries

The demand for universal planetary scanners is also growing in the public sector. Federal bodies, municipalities, registration services, public offices efficiently fill up their databases and registries, improve a quality of service through professional digitization of bound and large-format documents, incoming and archived records.

According to statistics, several thousand professional planetary scanners of the ElarScan class are sold around the world annually. Further expansion of supply and implementation is predicted - not only to the traditional fields of archival projects, libraries, museums and universities - but also due to increased use in municipal services and corporate offices.

Elarscan’s simple scanning rules

If a document can not be unbound to apply sheet-feed scanners, then the scanner should see it from above, and the original should be placed face up. Thus, operator sees what he scans, there is no need to pick up and turn over the document to flip the pages, lifting up a ton of paper per shift — unlike using any flatbed scanners or MFPs.

Even before pressing the SCAN button, operator sees on the screen what the scanned image will be - already after future cropping and pre-processing. So, unlike many other scanners, there are much less to rescan the images which really looks not at all what was expected.

There is no need to have separate scanners for photographs, passports, albums of drawings, maps, painted papers, etc. , no need to take a photos of dimensional 3D items: even when they all are mixed in collection, a universal ElarScan can easily scan them — simply plug it in. By one click of a button, you can double the optical resolution, so you don’t need a separate scanner for particularly precise work and small parts and fragments. Powerful professional software provides control of the scanner, functions and projects, includes a rich set of post-processing filters and output formats, creation of multi-page PDFs with text recognition for 50 languages, etc. Directly from the scanner, you can send ready-made collections or electronic folders of documents to the server and the Internet: verified, finalized, indexed.

For comfortable work, the scanning time itself should be much less than it takes to turn the page or replace the original. ElarScan has precise laser focusing and a high-quality scan takes only seconds.

When digitizing documents, you often need to achieve the best reproducing of details of a single important element. The macro-module control buttons on the front panel of ElarScan allow you to enlarge a fragment or object to maximum optical resolution in a second - and you immediately see on the screen both the size of the area and the precise value of output resolution.

Powerful semi-automatic and economical models

Demanding customers choose high-resolution ElarScans with lifting and folding replaceable flattening glasses, automatic adjustment of the cradle to the original, and the ability to work in the automated “just turn the page” mode. ElarScans provide the highest level of quality, productivity and ergonomics for digitizing bound and book originals, including delicate and deformed historical sources.

At the same time, the new compact ElarScan A2-400 version 2023 has redefined the view of a “simple” planetary scanner. For the first time, the power of a versatile cradle, digitally controlled variable optical resolution, real-time live preprocessing and the broadest range of project and processing management supported by professional software are combined in a compact, cost-effective scanner. The new A2-400v.5 is already being delivered and has received well deserved high praise from professional customers.

Advanced and renewed remains affordable

Despite the continued improvement of the design, the development of professional embedded software, as well as inflationary price increases inevitable in the modern world, the vendor’s desire to expand sales and maintain ElarScan’s position as “the most affordable and versatile of powerful professional” scanners remains fundamental.

New models are emerging that more accurately meet the requirements of classic customers - libraries and archives, municipalities and universities. But at the same time, the progress of ElarScans is designed to accelerate the implementation of effective digitization technologies in new industries - including financial institutions, corporate offices, and industrial enterprises. We’ll see what time will do.