Selecting A Flatbed Scanner

The problem is that the numbers don't represent actual sampled pixels. In the past, advertising literature sometimes didn't make this critical distinction. This isn't to say that interpolating on the scan is not a wonderful feature for some workflows.

A less critical yet potentially confusing practice for the uninitiated is the use of such acronyms as dpi, spi and ppi to refer to optical resolution (ie. dots per inch, samples per inch and pixels per inch, respectively).