Selecting A Flatbed Scanner

Also misleading is the practice of designating optical resolution by listing both the 'x' and 'y' dimension resolutions of the scanner. The across-the-bed 'x' dimension resolution is limited by the number of elements in the CCD array. The lengthwise 'y' dimension resolution is usually a function of the stepping motor and necessarily involves pixel creation by interpolation, and thus does not represent true optical resolution. Therefore, it is best to ignore the higher number altogether whenever there's a difference, since Macintosh pixels are square and the operator cannot, therefore, take advantage of anything greater than the lower of the two numbers.