There are various different aspects of the scanners that we've considered during this roundup, but without doubt the most important facet is the quality of the scans produced, in conjunction with pricing. The other issues have some bearing, of course, but quality is the main bone of contention.

Without any shade of a doubt, the best quality scan was produced by the Canon model. None of the others came near and we've seen scanners that cost the best part of a grand fail to produce as fine an image as the N1220U did.

Next best in quality terms was the Visioneer 5600, which produced an impressive image; very similar to but just a shade sharper than the Microtek unit. Both of these scanners' test scans were only really faulted by being a touch on the pale side and not picking out as much detail as the incredible quality 1220U scan.

Following up the rear, we have the average quality Epson unit, which boasted good colour representation though it was slightly grainy, and in last place the Hewlett Packard scanner, which was quite disappointing.

Overall, we'd have to give our seal of approval to the CanoScan N1220U with its incredible image quality and top notch design work. The only area it falls down on is the so-so driver software.

A close-run second place goes to Visioneer. While it may have lagged behind the Canon in scan quality terms, it still produced a very good image, and twice as fast to boot. For those on a budget, it's also extremely cheap; nearly half the price of the CanoScan N1220U, in fact.

An honourable third place mention goes to the Microtek SM4600 which is a well above average scanner, producing some great scanning results, although it lost out to the Visioneer on grounds of speed and price.

The Epson scanner performed adequately, but should have done better given its price, and the Hewlett Packard fell behind due to the poor quality of the scans it produced. However, if you have an old PC with no USB ports, only the 4300C still supports the parallel interface. Time to upgrade, perhaps!