Contemporary imaging technologies have become very progressive, ensuring that the quality of scanned images is maintained. However, this doesn’t mean that document image scanners are free from the probability of having functional problems that can impair the image quality. For instance, scanners are essentially electro-mechanical devices that are susceptible to suffering from damage induced by gradual wear and tear. This kind of damage is often visible in the form of subtle changes that start appearing in the quality of images being produced. Common issues that can lead to such scanned image quality problems include:
Problems of Scanner Lamp—the scanner lamps tend to gradually decay over a period of sustained usage, i.e. they don’t burn out at one go. This means that the image quality starts to suffer slowly, until the images develop a decipherable problem, indicating there is some internal problem with the scanner. Such scanner lamps tend to go dimmer with every passing day. This causes unwanted changes in the color, gradually impairing the color gradient.
Failure of CCD Element—failure of the CCDs is among one of the common scanning equipment problems. CCD represents the image-sensing element in the scanner. When a CCD starts to malfunction, small specks of fuzzy print start appearing in the document images. The image problems caused by a CCD failure are usually not detectable to human eyesight in the beginning, but eventually they start to impair the image quality considerably, apart from reducing the OCR and barcoding accuracy.
Defocused Optics—this problem surfaces due to the scanner’s continuous vibrations that can displace the scanner’s optics, creating problems in their alignment which eventually causes resolution problems. Apart from this, grease, dirt, paper dust, carbon, toner vapor and ink tend to create a gradual covering on the surface of optical parts, causing fuzziness in the images.
Variations in Scanning Speed—there is always a fear of mechanical wear and tear of electronics that are prone to drifting out of their adjustment. This can cause variations in the resolution of the scanner. Such variations can induce image fuzziness in just one part of the page, or across the entire image, depending upon the severity of the problem.
Challenges in Scanned Image Quality Assurance
It should be noted that while scanned image quality assurance is promised by the providers of scanning equipment, the above listed problems often surface without any warnings. Most of the office copiers and scanning machines are retailed without maintenance contracts. The retailers here only put forth meticulous preventive schedules and rigorous maintenance methods that are usually impractical to follow. Among the bigger, more progressive scanning machines, even the maintenance tips are not very clearly provided, since these machines are sold with the promise of a ‘lifetime of un-serviced performance’.
Scanned Image Quality Assurance Solutions
The only way to ensure that such problems don’t creep into an office scanning system is to keep a check on the overall scanning quality via analysis of the scanned files, using dedicated Diagnostic Software—such software is able to monitor the document’s quality on a regular basis, clearly indicating any underlying problem. The data obtained through such software programs should be saved to develop a long-term log of the overall scanner performance. Such a scanner performance profile can be used for evaluating the durability of a particular brand of scanner or for planning a rigorous maintenance program for such machinery.