scannerWhile many different types of scanners are available — flatbed, sheet-fed, color, and black-and-white, just to name a few — they all perform the same function. Hence, it’s easy to define precisely what a scanner is: Scanner. (n) A machine that reproduces an image from a source object, producing an identical digital image for display or processing.

There — that explains everything, at least for technotypes. In plain English, a
scanner “reads” the image from an object (typically a piece of paper) and
then creates a copy of that image as a picture file on your computer.

Most of the work you do with scanners these days, however, is performed as
I describe in my definition: For example, you want an image from a magazine
in a form you can use with a document you’ve created with Microsoft Word.