Advantages: USB, Looks good, simple to use
Disadvantages: Yet another product with poor documentation

...The Agfa SnapScan 1212u is a USB flatbed scanner. It is mostly recommended for home use and maybe small business. The first thing you notice when you open the box is the dual Macintosh and Windows 98 support. Nothing mentionned about earlier versions of Windows. This is interesting if you own a PC besides your Mac and need to scan images to use on a PC. Agfa claims that its color capture is 36-bit and reaches over 68 billion colors. Its plate takes up to 600 (horizontal) x 1200 (vertical) in resolution and scans up to 9600 DPI. It ships with ScanWise, the Color It! image editor, and OmniPage LE. The latter is for text recognition, which I don't use very often, but a mate told me it is quite adequate. Installation This scanner is easy to install. First, you plug the USB cable from the scanner to the USB port of the hub. Second, plug... Read review

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Advantages: cheap, easy to install, fast, reliable
Disadvantages: bulky

...it does take a bit of space. The main specifications: *Flatbed scanner - desktop *Max Supported Media Size A4 (210 x 297 mm) *Dimensions (WxDxH) 37.5 cm x 53 cm x 13.9 cm *Weight 7.5 kg (Which is really what is stated on the overview) The cost of the scanner is under £100. All in all it is a good scanner and the price is very affordable. It is well reccommeded for home use.... Read review

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Advantages: Sturdy,esay to use and an extremely handy accessory.
Disadvantages: None really.

...There are so many scanners on the market to-day that there is no shortage of choice. However...they are not all the same.The Agfa E20 portays this to a point with its plethora of facilities and capabilities...and all for under 100.00 (u.k.) The Agfa E20 scans at photo quality (Thats about 1200x 1200 pixels per inch). Like all scanners these days tha Agfa E20 comes with the necessary software to use with O.C.R. (thats optical Character Recognition) which means that you can basically put a printed text douccument into the scanner and the text will be read by it and re-formatted into text for just about any wordprocessing software on the market. This means that one no longer has to type written or typed text into the computer by hand. Another great feature of the Agfa E20 is that the scanner is interpollated. This is a long word... Read review

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Advantages: well priced
Disadvantages: A bit larger than most modern scanners

...If you are looking for a well priced easy to use desktop scanner, look no further. In the past 12 to 18 months most hardware has seen dramatic price reductions and in the case of flatbed scanners there is no exception. The biggest problem here is knowing which makes and models will be most compatible to which computers, also what capabilities they have. The Dexxa 4800 Flatbed Scanner is very standard as far as looks go but handles virtually all types of materials to scan, if you placed your hand on the screen it would even scan that clearly. The scan range (resolution) is anything between 50 and 4800 DPI which I'm sure for anyone is more than enough, besides which the high end resolutions would take enormous amounts of memory and super powerful computers to be any use. For most people the Dexxa 4800 is ideal and will work easily... Read review

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Advantages: great high quality scans
Disadvantages: parallel port connection and average speed.

...When my old scanner broke, I went out looking for a reasonably priced scanner that delivers good quality scans. The scanner requires a parallel port, so that you plug it into the port that your printer would normally be plugged into. But don't worry you can still use your printer, the scanner has two ports in the back of it, one to the PC and then one to your printer. It is also easy to install and it has a very clear instruction book that explains everything easily. Even for a non-computer literate person, it shouldn't be too hard. All though not the faster of all scanners, it still scans at an average rate. Of course what you are scanning effects the time, and also at what resolution you are scanning at. Obviously the bigger the picture and the higher the resolution, the longer the image takes to scan. I normally scan at 600 DPI... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, good quality
Disadvantages: None

...I got the Snapscan E20 a few months a go for only £70 and it has proved to be a great scanner. It is USB so couldn't be easier to install, just plug it in, pop in a CD and away you go. The software is easy to use, and includes a photo editing and printing facility, aswell as an OCR option which basically means you can take take written text from paper and put it in to MS Word or another similar program. The scanner has a great resolution, 1200x1200 and the software can take this even higher by using interpolation. The scanner even comes with interchangable handles which can be changed to a few colours (4 are supplied). Pretty useful, but a neat touch. This is my first scanner but I am very pleased with it, definetly recommended.... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, scans come out pretty well too
Disadvantages: Not compatible with Windows 2000

...I've had the AGFA SnapScan 1212p for a few years now. I would agree that it's not exactly a slimline scanner, but then again, compare it with other scanners that are a few years old and it's nothing out of the ordinary. It's very easy to install in Windows 95 and Windows 98. Upgrading from Windows 98 to ME didn't make a difference, it quite happily continued working without needing to be installed again. I tend to use the TWAIN import feature in my paint package though, instead of using the software that came with the scanner. It's slow by todays standards but then I did pick it up for £20 on the bargain rail in PC World about three years ago! The speed is not a problem unless you're scanning lots of items, I am a fairly light scanner user so it doesn't matter to me. The resolution is fine as well, colour reproduction is pretty close... Read review

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Advantages: Very fast, good sharp image
Disadvantages: Slightly noisy

...I was looking for a good performance, cheap scanner for my student work. I saw a magasine review and it said that the Snapscan 1212u was the best. So I bought it for 70 pounds at my local PC World store. Installation was very simple, and took minutes with the USB connection, however the software has a futureistic look to it that takes a few seconds to get used to. The quality and speed of the scans is very good, and the 600dpi resolution is very sharp indeed. One slight annoyance is that the scanner makes a fairly loud rumbling noise as it moves over a picture. I would strongly recommend this product if you are looking for a home or gerenal use scanner. For business use, a 1200dpi scanner is better... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, parallel port, fast and friendly service, good software included.
Disadvantages: Erm, haven't found any yet, except the OCR (text editing) software was hard to setup properly.

...The Agfa Snapscan 1212p is my first scanner and what an excellent choice I made! The p stands for parallel port, such as your printer port. For those of us who are not lucky enough to have USB connections as our computers are not exactly upto date enough for this sort of technology finding a cheap parallel port scanner has become increasingly difficult. As far as I can tell Argos now do not do a parallel port scanner and Office World has expensive models. I was not going to pay £50 for a cable to change the cheap USB scanner to a parallel port connection, as that seemed a waste of money. I waited and tried to order one from a small company, but at the time my computer was not good enough for the software and did not meet the requirements. So I gave up. The other day when looking on a competitions site I came across www... Read review

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Advantages: Quality
Disadvantages: Lid

...The snapscan 1212U out of the box isnt small..slightly bigger than my 2 year old plustek..but with USB is a joy to set up and use..not only faster but oh so quiet when scanning! Believe me this is important at one o' clock in the morning.. with the family upstairs! My last scanner made a terrible screeching sound on every scan. 5-10mins after opening the box I was scanning..software supplied is excellent and generous and most important..image quality is first rate.. I can honestly say I was gobsmacked at the quality scans of this scanner..the only thing I can say negative..and its a small negative is to agfa regarding the scanner lid..it just doesnt feel solid enough when lifting,it can move slightly from side to side.but hey..im nit picking.If you want a fast sleek quiet and impressive scanner look no further than the 1212u.... Read review

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