

This is something many creators overlook as it's often taken for granted - but make sure your scanner has a MacOS driver before making a purchase. A good scanner for artists and designers will be the stand-alone desktop sort, preferably a flatbed type with a lid you can press down on your documents (as below).Ĭredit: iStock Do most scanners work with a Mac?

What makes a good scanner for art and design?įirst up, put away any notions of a bulky beast pulled straight out of your 9-to-5 office nightmare. If you're reading this and find you're nodding your head, then read on to find all the specs and advice you need when shopping around for your first or next scanner - and find our most recommended scanners out there below with a summary of each device and price tag. You could invest in a handheld Pantone Capsure if you want - but a decent scanner can easily be half the price of this kind of colour capture tool, so it really just depends on your budget. You might also want to capture the certain shade of a colour in a magazine or book that's inspired you, to then sample from your scan for a digital project you're working on.

If the lighting's wrong for your shot, then expect an inaccuracy with the facsimile created that simply doesn't occur with a scan. While a lot of artists and designers do linework on their tablet devices, there are also many who vouch for doing outlines in ink before scanning onto a device for colouring digitally.Ī scanner can also be invaluable for adding graphics, illustrations and type to vectorise for a digital piece, a designer knowing that the capture from a scanner will always be truer than that from the shutter of a camera. The usefulness of a scanner these days provides for an interesting flashpoint in the relationship between traditional and digital art. Whether wanting to scan in linework or capture full blown graphics, our choice of the best scanners out there for creatives has something for everyone.
