In a recent discussion with one of our education-based GIS customers, we asked why they had chosen an IDEAL / Contex large format scanner and separate inkjet printer over a name-brand large format multifunction integrated inkjet scanner/copier.

The customer said, "I'm actually very happy to talk about this. We purchased the (multifunction inkjet copier) as a proof-of-concept for a GIS related project we were doing involving a lot of map scanning and digitizing. We have very active Geology, Archaeology and Cities departments here and our libraries are a government repository for maps as well."

The customer went on to describe the limitations the multifunction unit had for their GIS application:

1) The unit was essentially packaged to be a copier, and as such, the support for the scanning and saving functions was not what it should have been. We found it very dumbed down and limiting.

2) The unit is a two rather than three camera device and we seemed to have a lot of problems with both stitching and line thickness (making digitizing difficult) though we had (the inkjet copier manufacturer) in to service the machine a number of times.

3) We found that both documentation and the (inkjet copier manufacturer's) expertise for the scanners was difficult to come by -- they seem to have one or two people in the entire corporation sufficiently trained in their use. Because the (inkjet copier manufacturer) is repacking scanners and software made by someone else and adding these to their inkjet printer, customers have no rights to direct scanner manufacturer support and can draw support only from the (inkjet copier manufacturer).

4) The scanning software is provided only as a complete image for the attached kiosk touch screen unit, which runs a stripped down version of the operating system (for our model, Windows 2000). The kiosk computer is limited in storage space and capability and we would have liked to use a separate, more powerful, more network-compliant workstation, but alas we could not as the software cannot be separated.

The customer continued, "I could go on, but I believe you probably understand where I am going with this. While such a unit might be useful for some environments, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone attempting to do anything like what we are doing. Thus far, we have been happy with the faster, cleaner IDEAL / Contex scanner we purchased. It has three cameras, stitches correctly, and we can use any workstation we wish to control it via firewire. In addition, we can print to any inkjet printer via our network connection, which makes for easy, efficient printing.

We have also found IDEAL to be very responsive with customer support. IDEAL has a number of individuals able to train and to answer questions on pretty much everything we've asked for. And, the IDEAL / Contex scanner requires considerably less support than the stripped down scanner model provided by the (inkjet copier manufacturer). We found both the WideImage scanner operating software and the WiseImage raster editing software that IDEAL provided to be highly effective".

Because the multifunction inkjet copier that the customer has is not the newest model, we asked if they had considered purchasing any of the newer, more recent multifunction inkjet copier models.

The answer was clear, "We chose specifically not to purchase one of the newer scanner/copier combos because our research indicated that it would have most of the same problems I have already described. We looked at a number of different manufacturers including some of the more graphically oriented manufacturers and the IDEAL / Contex scanners had the right features at the right price point for us.