IS+T PICS Conference 2001 - C. Loebich, D. Wüller
Abstract
The technical specification of scanners has always been used as a marketing instrument since the introduction of commercially available scanners. The scan resolution specified is, in some cases, an interpolated sampling rate, and the color depth is ‘improved’ by using ‘bit or bit depth enhancement technologies.’ However, these numbers do not tell the customer anything about the quality of images that can be achieved by a particular scanner and are, more often than not, misleading.
We were asked by German photographic and computer magazines to develop a method to evaluate the overall quality of scanners. We based our tests on developing ISO standards and procedures for digital still cameras and modified these to fit the specific characteristics of scanners. In this paper, we outline our methodology and discuss our results.