Epson ES-1200C - Manual (Page 37)

Electronic color printers use laser, ink jet, or other
technologies to produce color or gray scale images that
range from coarsely patterned to nearly photographic
(often called continuous tone) quality. It is best to see
samples from a color printer before you decide to use it.
These printers are usually used for small quantities of color
images or for preliminary proofs of images that will be
printed on a printing press.
File size
Printing presses are for high quality and high volume work.
You scan and edit your images and then send the files to a
service bureau or printing company, which uses high
resolution phototypesetters (also called imagesetters) for
high quality text and gray-scale images. For full-color
images, you scan in color and then use your image editing
software to manipulate the image and produce color
separation files. If you plan to do this, see the guidelines
below on resolution and then follow the instructions in
your software manual for making separations. Your service
bureau or printing company should also provide helpful
information.
Computer screens require lower resolutions than most
printers. If your scanned image will be viewed only on a
computer monitor or screen and will never be printed,
you can use lower scanning resolutions for top-quality
work. Remember that the scanner can read and save up to
16 million colors. If your computer can display only 16 or
256 colors, you will not be able to see all of the quality of
the scanned image.
In gray scale and color, use the lowest resolution that gives
acceptable quality for your printing or display method because
high resolutions mean large files. An A4 or letter-size full-color
scan at 300 dpi uses as much as 25 megabytes (MB) of disk
space.
2-12 Scanner Basics