Scanning

A scanner is a device that analyzes an image (such as a photograph, printed text, or handwriting) or an object (such as an ornament) and converts it to a digital image. The scanned result is a non-compressed RGB image which can be transferred to a computer's memory. Some scanner compress and clean up the image using embedded firmware. Once on the computer, the image can be processed with Adobe Photoshop and saved on a hard disk. In common use, scanned pictures are stored on a computer's hard disk, normally in image formats such as JPEG, TIFF, Bitmap, and PNG. Some scanners can also be used to capture editable text, so long as the text can be read by the computer in a discernable font. This process is called Optical Character Recognition (OCR).