| ★ HARDWARE ★ SCANNER D'IMAGES ★ SCANNER DART / DART SCAN ★ |
| LE SCANNER DART: UNE REVOLUTION (CPC Revue) | DART IMAGE SCANNER (Amstrad Action) | Dart-Scanner (CPC Amstrad International) | MASTER SCAN LE PIEGE A IMAGES DE VOTRE PCW |
You would be forgiven for laughing if someone said a printer could be used as an input device. This was certainly my first reaction. But Dart Electronics (of lightpen fame) has done it. Using a combination of hardware and software with an Amstrad DMP 2000 printer, they have produced an alternative to the video digitizer. Before you go rushing down to your local Scanner stockist bear in mind you need a DMP 2000 or 3000. The reason is that pari of the hardware the scanning head - slots into the print head of the DMP. It will fit only in these two printer models. The Dart kit also includes an interface that slots into the expansion slot of any CPC model and software that gets everything ticking. The interface, which has a through-connector, can quite easily be mistaken for a hunk of plastic - the only distinguishing features are a knob on one side and a wire leading to the scanner-head.
Setting up the Scanner is no more trouble than eating your breakfast: plug the scanner-head and interface into the appropriate orifices, stick a vane on one side of the printer (which prevents it going too far left) and run the software program. To input a picture, front-load it as you would ordinary printer paper; use tractor-feed and ensure the paper-thickness adjustment is set to thick-as-possible. The software displays a list of options: choose "scan" (making sure the printer is switched on) and you're away. Dart's gadget scans across your paper, turning a line into a series of black or white dots - which appear on screen and in memory. Then the printer rolls up one line and the scanner reads it. Simple. The exact opposite of putting ink on paper. If nothing appears or the screen fills up with black lines, turn the knob on the interface: it controls the brightness level. I found it fairly easy to produce good results. Occasionally, however, the scan-head would catch on the side of the picture it was reading. This resulted in the printer doing loud impressions of a farm tractor. "Minutes to scan," claims Dart's blurb, but in truth it needs 10 to 15 minutes. Worse is the lack of grey-scaling. The pictures are black and white - nothing in between. When scanning you have several options. For example, you can scan one or two screens, and choose the magnification: x2, x4 and x6. With x 1, the screen image is the actual size of the original: about 8 inches by 5. The software can perform a few other tricks:
Although sluggish, the software contains enough to produce stunning pictures. It also allows a certain amount of tidying up and playing around. You could incorporate scanned pictures within AMX Pagemaker or build up an art gallery after they have been given the Art Studio treatment. The Dart Scanner is a fun package that may. unfortunately, be out of reach for many people's pockets.
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