It has a glass plate under a lid and a moving light that scans across it. Like a photocopier you can make copies of photos, paper documents, books, magazines, maps, letters, or even objects with a relatively flat surface like coins, leaves or fabric.

However unlike a photocopier the copy is created in your computer’s memory rather than as an image on a piece of paper.
This means we can store the images as we would the photo created by taking a picture with a digital camera, and similarly can edit it, send it in an e-mail, show it on a website, or print off copies of it.

To use the scanner we use software which allows the computer to operate the scanner and to translate the information that comes from it into an image. This software is called a TWAIN driver, which is just a programme which allows image programmes to use any scanner.

Your scanner is connected to the computer and passes electronic data from the device to the computer to create your image.

To use the scanner open the lid and place the object that you want to scan on top of the glass bed.

Open your image program and select the option to import an image from the scanner. The way that this option does vary dependent on the software that you are using. In some instances you will see a scanner icon on the toolbar which will perform the same function.
There is usually a preview option which makes the scanner make a quick run past the glass and produces a low resolution thumbnail image so you can check out how it is positioned. You can used this thumbnail image to define whether you just want to scan in a portion of the bed. For example if you are scanning in an image from newspaper you can mark out the area of the image alone rather than scan in the whole sheet if need be.

When you are happy check that you are using an appropriate resolution setting press the 'SCAN' button to continue and the scanner will move slowly past the glass bed to read the image. Ensure that the object is kept stable and doesn't move during the scan in order to avoid blurring or broken images.

The resolution of a scanned image is measured in DPI (dots per inch) which measures how many pixels are used in scanning in one inch of your source object. The larger the resolution you use the larger the image will appear, and the larger the image file will be.
To scan in an image which is to be displayed on a computer screen you don't need to use a particularly high resolution setting - up to 100 DPI should be enough to ensure that the image is pretty faithfully reproduced. Any more than that and your image will appear huge and occupy much more memory than is strictly necessary.

If you are scanning in a very small object and want to enlarge it then use a larger DPI setting to increase the resolution, but if you are scanning in something you want to appear smaller than life size on the computer screen reduce the DPI setting.

When you are uploading images to an entry on the Time Capsule website it is best to ensure that your image is not too large so it can be displayed easily on a normal sized computer screen. This will mean using a relatively small image, and so a smaller DPI setting would be more appropriate.

If you want to print the image off then it is a good idea to use a larger DPI resolution setting - so to print an image of a photo off it would be best to use a setting of say 300 DPI. This is because the printer is capable of printing at a much higher resolution than the computer screen is capable of displaying images at.

Just like the photos taken by a digital camera the image is stored as a data file you are free to play around with the image afterwards and make any adjustments that you want to.