Canon CanoScan LiDE 110 Review

The Canon CanoScan LiDE110 Color Image Scanner is separate from the usual scanners that you get nowadays. It is hard to find another flatbed photo scanner today that does not include film scanning. If the only photos you want to scan are prints then that can be a problem, because adding the ability to scan film adds cost.

The LiDE110 offers features similar to those seen in the LiDE 100, including 2400 pixel per inch (ppi) optical resolution and reasonably high scan quality. Moreover, it does not come with too many software support, except for the included MP Navigator EX scan utility which offers limited photo enhancement and photo album features along with a built-in optical character recognition, which is also known as the OCR. The OCR module helps to scan and translate the image of scanned text into a searchable PDF file or an editable text file in a single step.

In fact, scanning with the LiDE110 is easy, because the interface available for using its scan utility is quite self-explanatory. The buttons let you copy, e-mail, scan to PDF, or run the AutoScan feature. The AutoScan analyzes the image and automatically chooses which predefined settings to use, although you can change settings to modify this feature. In addition, Twain and WIA drivers will let you scan from most Windows software that includes a scan command. If you want to try and improve the AutoScan feature then you can adjust settings in the Twain driver. The driver offers both an “Advanced mode” and a “Basic mode” with fewer choices, but simpler to use. It also allows users to adjust settings such as resolution, contrast, and brightness, and also offers some digital enhancement features, including dust removal and backlight correction, which make it easy to improve the scan.

The lack of an automatic document feeder makes LiDE110 a poor choice for multi-page documents, but it can handle occasional light duty chores turning hardcopy documents into editable pages or searchable PDFs. Overall, the scan quality is somewhat improved compared to the LiDE 100's quality, which was already reasonably good. In particular, the LiDE110 output shows noticeably better contrast. In any case, it's certainly good enough for scanning and reprinting photos to hand out to family and friends.

LiDE110 is clearly not the most adequate choice if you’re looking for an office / home office equipment, or if you need functions such as film scanning. However, if you want will be dealing mostly with photographic prints and more simple activities such as dealing with your average documents for study-related needs, then the LiDE110 might just be enough. To put it simply, it combines a reasonably high scan quality, an user friendly approach and digital enhancement features that will let you improve on your originals—with almost no effort in many case—makes it hard to beat for the price.