Purup-Eskofot makes flatbed scanners for professional pre-press use.

Purup-Eskofot is best known for its large format flatbed scanners in general and copy-dot flatbed scanners in particular.

The immediate predecessor to the Vincent, the Purup-Eskofot EskoScan 1318, however, did not fare well in the recent Seybold test of high-end flatbed scanners.

Purup-Eskofort Scanner

Whereas most high-end flatbed scanners have a CCD array of 8000, the Purup-Eskofot EskoScan, and also the supposedly new model, the Vincent, have only 6000.

Yet the EskoScan cost a whopping $47,000, which means it cost more than the Fuji C-550 Lanovia. Seybold's quality rating put this expensive Purup-Eskofot EskoScan 1318 scanner about in the same league with the Imacon, which costs only about a third as much (the Imacon did not fare well in comparison with the Creo or Fuji, but cost considerably less).

I have no personal way to judge the differences between the EskoScan 1318 and the Vincent. The exterior looks absolutely identical except in color. The specs look remarkably similar as well.

The software looks just fine. The workflow speed is considered high. But this does not help if the price is in the stratosphere and the quality is in a lower atmosphere.

The Purup-Eskofot web site was in disarray and/or confusion earlier this year but I would imagine they have solved these problems by now.

At Seybold San Francisco (where the Vincent was introduced as a new model), I asked Purup-Eskofot whether the would make a scanner available for an independent review, and they declined. I guess since they had not done so well with the Seybold review they were playing it safe. Actually the real reason is that most pre-press equipment companies are still not accustomed to the Internet, and especially not to the freedom of information on the Internet. They can control an in-house review (where the reviewer has to come to the company headquarters, and where corporate technicians usually do the scanning). They can also control direct sales to traditional prepress companies. But there is a growing market for high-end scanners in innovative situations. All kinds of people are opening up service bureaus, and many come from backgrounds other than traditional (conservative and highly experienced) prepress backgrounds. This new market is more open to innovation and wants to get their information from the internet. This is the market served by the FLAAR network of web sites.

Testing a scanner in the company's own headquarters is a totally unrealistic way of finding out how a scanner really functions in a graphics studio. In real life you are on your own. You do not have a corporate technician from Purup-Eskofot resident in your studio. Besides, a crucial part of any review is whether a reasonably intelligent person can figure out how to run the equipment on their own. Another key aspect of a FLAAR review is whether a piece of equipment continues to work with the 30-day return period or 90-day warranty period (or six month) has expired.

We award Purup-Eskofot an "E" for Effort. They know the prepress world quite well, and their "white papers" target this market. But if you simply want an outstanding scanner for a wide variety of uses (such as digitizing your slide archives or scanning materials or textures), we recommend you go for the Fuji C-550 Lanovia (which costs roughly the same as the Vincent and did considerably better than the Purup-Eskofot in the Seybold tests), or you select one of the Creo EverSmart scanners. The top of the line Creo EverSmart scanner is their Supreme, rated as about the best flatbed scanner on the market (as reflected in its $54,000 price). There are modest-priced Creo EverSmart scanners as well, such as the Jazz+, at a reasonable $15,950. Actually, you could buy TWO Creo scanners (the Jazz+ and the Pro) for the price of the Purup-Eskofot EskoScan 1318.

If the Purup-Eskofot improves their scanners and if such an improved model is available for real-world testing, we will be glad to bring you the results. In the meantime, we have seen the Heidelberg Nexscan at several trade shows such as GraphExpo and in March 2000 at CeBIT computer trade show in Hannover, Germany. Purup-Eskofot was nowhere to be seen.

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If you need help deciding what high-end professional flatbed scanner to select, you can e-mail the main reviewer at FLAAR, Nicholas Hellmuth. Just be sure to specify roughly your needs (what do you scan, 35mm, medium format, 4x5), what is the end product of the scan (posters, calendars, printed, wide format, or whatever), and your realistic budget. e-mail: FLAARMAYA@aol.com. Dr Hellmuth will do his best to answer personally.

For us to answer you personally, however, please do not ask a question that is already covered in the pages of the web site. Please check out the Directory of all scanner pages, before you contact us.

We would provide a phone number, but the FLAAR crew is either in Germany or Guatemala or checking out digital imaging equipment at a trade show in the USA. You can write in German, Spanish, French, Italian, or naturally English. No, FLAAR does not sell scanners (this is a non-profit institute) but we can definitely suggest reliable sources.