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: 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: Good colour recognition, easy for beginners
Disadvantages: Speed and build quality

...I was sort of forced to buy a new scanner after our company HP6100 had broken, and we had nearly run out of our yearly budget then, so my decision was to buy something that was much cheaper, but good enough to be used frequently and for various purposes. Agfa Snapscan Touch seemed a good choice, having good reviews in computer magazines and being available immediately (I would have had to wait then for other Agfa models). So we bought it and in a while put it to (good?) use. I must say I had a feeling something was wrong right from the start. In a while, my feeling grew to the extent that everything seemed to be wrong. I guess my previous experience with HP and Epson scanners was to blame. Now, after nearly 2 years of continual use I got used to this scanner's peculiarities, but still consider them to be oddities rather than... 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: 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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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... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to use, easy to install and very good quality scanned pictures
Disadvantages: Needs to be switched on before you boot up your computer or it may not function as it should

...Around 10 months ago I decided to have a go at building a website to record our baby's life, and wanted it to include a selection of the hundreds of photo's we have. So I there for needed to get myself a scanner. It needed have a parallel connection, not sure why I am a bit computer dyslexic when it comes to technical talk. Any way we had a look on Jungle.com and came across the Agfa snapscan 1212p flat bed scanner for the price of £81 and decided to get that one as it sounded good and had quite a bundle of software included in the price, such as page keeper, print house, a few others and ofcourse their installation software for the scanner (Scanwise). I am not sure if it still comes with the same software as it was almost a year ago that we got ours, so it may pay to check around if you are interested in the snapscan. Well... Read review

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Advantages: Affordable, fast scans, good quality, crisp colours, easy installation, choice of drivers
Disadvantages: Advanced driver can be overwhelming, parallel port connection

...is a little slow, due to the parallel port connection, but not as slow as some I've seen. The advanced driver offers more features, but can be a pain to use. It does offer more, especially if you have a damaged or discoloured photo, but is probably too difficult to use for the novice user, although practice does bring it's own rewards. Summing up, the AGFA Snapscan 1212P offers top-quality in this price range and as far as I am aware the only difference between the 1212P and the 1212U is the connection. Also don't be fooled by scanners offering incredible resolutions and colours as even for the most intensive uses 600dpi at 24bit is perfectly acceptable.... 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: Good price and good functionality
Disadvantages: The scanner must be on when you boot up your computer if you've got Windows 95

.... As I've said the SNAPSCAN 1212 is just a standard scanner, but at a good competitive price. The benifits of this scanner include the user friendly, processional software that comes with the scanner to scan and modify your pictures. I bought it just for this reason. One thing I have against this parallel port version is the fact that if its not turned on when you boot up your computer it will not work until you boot up the computer with the scanner turned on. So if you didn't have it turned on when you booted up and you decide you want to scan something you have to restart the computer with it turned before the software will let you scan. I think this problem applies to Windows 95 users only!... Read review

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