Scanners

A Scanner is a peripheral component of a computer that allows hard copies of images, documents, or even barcodes to be scanned into the system, thus giving the user a digital copy of an image and can therefore be edited.

I shall compare two different scanners and the subtle differences that could have an overall impact on what they can produce/generate out of them.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182569 - HP ScanJet G2410 A4 Flatbed Scanner

This specific scanner would be like for budget buyers, it would do the job but not get as high quality a scan compared to some more expensive scanners in the upper range. this being a flat bed scanner, scanning in one image at a time. It has the same colour depth as the slightly more expensive scanner that I aim to compare it to but its greyscale is only 8-bit compared to its counterpart which has 16-bit.

The resolution that this would scan any images in at stands at 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi (dpi = dots per inch) which is good but not the best around of course.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132646 Epson Perfection V500 Photo A4 Flatbed Scanner

comparing this scanner because it is more expensive and you can see the difference in spec...

This has a scanning resolution of 6400 x 9600dpi much higher than the previous scanner and would scan in much more crisp images that looked way more sharper than the other budget type scanner.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173096 HP ScanJet 5000 216 x 864 mm Sheetfed Scanner

This is a different scanner from the previous two, being far more expensive and having a sheet feed. This scanner would probably not fit around your average everyday desktop possibly found more in a job environment. Its optical resolution is low at 600 x 600 dpi for being in a job environment it's likely that this would be used for scanning hundreds of documents a day rather than the scanning of high quality images.

I'll make note on most nowadays, printers and scanners come combined all in one, saving space and usually saving on the pennies as well.

Hardware & Software of Multimedia

The essential hardware that is required I'd say for multimedia would consist of :
- Multimedia PC
- Printer
- Scanner
- CD/DVD Burners
- Digital & SLR Cameras

There are many different software packages that could be used to produce/development multimedia things. Such as the Adobe Suite consisting of

Adobe Flash CS3/4/5
Adobe Photoshop CS3/4/5
Adobe Illustrator CS3/4/5
Adobe Premiere CS3/4/5
Adobe Soundbooth CS3/4/5

and a number of others but what else could be used are the like of 3D programs (3Ds Max, Maya, Lightwave etc etc...)

All this would help in the aid of creating multimedia material.