From Digital Publishing Solutions

The type of investment required depends on scanning needs and the scanner chosen. Quality standalone large-format scanners can be found in a wide range, with monochrome scanners typically ranging from $7,000 to $25,000 and color scanners typically ranging from $11,000 to $30,000. Specialty scanners can go as high as $150,000.

"The price point hasn’t changed much over the last five years," states Fay, "The cost of a large format scanner is about the same, but today you get more for your money. Five years ago you couldn’t touch a good color scanner for $25,000. Now you can get one for $10,000, like the Océ CS4032—we can’t keep it in stock."

De Winter-Brown adds, "You can get a monochrome scanner for imaging most technical documents for less than $7,000 or you can go up to $35,000 for a high-accuracy, high-resolution device for specialty applications. Our Colortrac SmartLF 4080m, 4080c, and 4080e scanners are all priced under $10,000."

Of course, price depends on how loaded you want your scanner with accessories like stands, receiving trays, and software. Fay continues, "Options include viewing software for editing and enhancement of scanned documents on remote PCs, archiving software for indexing and retrieval, software for scanning single documents into a set with pre-programmed configurations, and accounting software to enable bill-back capabilities."