Labs

HP's Scanjet G2410 is the cheapest scanner here, which makes it easier to forgive its drab looks and the way the lid's hinges lift out of their runners so easily. The low price also means it comes with only HP's Solution Center software. This lets you launch the scanner interface application, configure the functions of the scanner's Scan and Copy buttons, sort your scanned images and use the IRIS optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert a scanned page into editable text.

The scanner's TWAIN interface was irritating to use and hid a number of useful settings, such as the option to increase the colour depth of scans, in the Preferences menu. Most annoying of all, the TWAIN interface closes after each scan and doesn't

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retain either previews or settings, which can make scanning multiple documents very tedious. You can set the software to stay open after each scan, but this works only if you're using Solution Center and not scanning from a third-party application such as Photoshop Elements. We also had problems with the auto-crop feature, which is supposed to crop the scan area to fit your document. It often got this wrong, selecting a 6x4in area of an A4 document, for example.

With a low optical resolution of 1,200x1,200dpi, scan quality was unremarkable. We found that bright colours on original documents looked faded in our scans, and fine detail looked fuzzy in our highest-resolution scans. The Scanjet G2410 was also one of the slowest scanners here, taking more than a minute to scan a single 6x4in photo. We were more impressed with the OCR software, which accurately converted a scanned A4 document into text. If this is the primary reason you want a scanner, the Scanjet G2410 is unbeatable value.

For basic photo scanning, where you're not overly bothered about the sharpest, brightest results, this scanner is good value, and its powerful OCR software makes it suitable for office work, too. It's slow, however, and its poor colour reproduction and low scan resolution mean that there are better choices for photo work.