Digital BW, The Print

Both, actually.  Scanners scan at what ever number of bits the hardware is
able to scan at, no matter what the number of bits is that are returned to
the computer.  That number of bits can be anywhere from 10-16.

If the scanner hardware scans at 12 bits, it still puts those 12 bits in a
16 bit word, since the unit of increment is 8 bits for "unpacked" data.  So,
in order for you to get "high bit data", the scanner has to support it, and
the software has to be able to ask the scanner for it.

Austin


> -----Original Message-----
> From: bellis33624 [mailto:bellis60@...]
> Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 12:10 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Is 16 bit scanning a function of hardware,
> software, or both?
>
>
> I think the subject line says it all. The software (Newcolor 5000)
> that came with my Linoscan 1400 scanner scans only in 8 bit. If I
> switch to 16 bit software, such as VueScan, will this enable me to
> scan in 16 bit or is the ability to do that a function of the
> hardware as well as the software? Thanks, hopefully this isn't a
> really dumb question.