Let's get right to business...

Handheld : like this:

+-------------------------+
|                         |
\                         /
 \                       /
  -------         -------
         |        |
         |        |
         ----------

               ^
you hold it with your hand here

absolutely not useful for OCR, mostly b/w, not recommended for anything

sheet fed:
looks like inkjet, can scan only separated sheets of paper (just
like you feed paper for an inkjet)
No good for books, anything more than sheet thick/folded
Good: sometimes inkjet printers could be upgraded to sheetfed scanners
by purchasing a scan head

flatbed:
flat thingy with a window on top, looks somewhat like a really flat
copier - you put your object on the window and scan...

the best and all, not really expensive lately

for SOHO, I recommend an A4 flatbed via parallel - it's cheap and good.

HP scanners are excellent and expensive, but I've had an experience
with UMax, and it's great while 2 times cheaper

Ashok Bhiman wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> What are handheld, flatbed and sheet fed scanners? What purpose is each
> useful for? What is recommended for SOHO? What are the price ranges? What
> are good brands?
>
> TIA for your answers.
>
> Ashok Bhiman
> [log in to unmask]
>
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