Editing Image scanner (section)

== Output data ==
Some scanners, especially those designed for scanning printed documents, only work in black and white, but most modern scanners work in color. For the latter, the scanned result is a non-compressed RGB image, which can be transferred to a computer's memory. The color output of different scanners is not the same due to the spectral response of their sensing elements, the nature of their light source, and the correction applied by the scanning software. While most image sensors have a linear response, the output values are usually [[Gamma correction|gamma-compressed]]. Some scanners compress and clean up the image using embedded [[firmware]]. Once on the computer, the image can be processed with a [[raster graphics editor]] (such as Photoshop) and saved on a storage device (such as a [[Hard disk drive|hard disk]]).

Scans may be stored uncompressed in [[image file format]]s such as [[BMP file format|BMP]]; stored [[Lossless compression|lossless]]ly compressed in file formats such as [[TIFF]] and [[PNG]];  stored [[Lossy compression|lossy-compressed]] in file formats such as JPEG; or stored as embedded images or converted to [[vector graphics]] within a [[PDF]]. Optical character recognition (OCR) software allows a scanned image of text to be converted into editable text with reasonable accuracy, so long as the text is cleanly printed and in a typeface and size that can be read by the software. OCR capability may be integrated into the scanning software, or the scanned image file can be processed with a separate OCR program.