Scanning the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 - A Closer Look
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One thing’s for sure: the LiDE’s spec sheet didn’t lie. It was very small and extremely light compared to other scanners.
I put a 3.5” floppy in the picture for size comparison purposes. As I noted before this scanner is very small. After taking this picture, I started to think about the fact that I might need to scan something larger than a piece of paper or picture, like a text book. Canon was one step ahead of me with its ingenious “Z-hinge” lid design, seen below
Lifting the lid from the back side (or the side that’s not meant to open) allows you to unsnap the edge which then, if you use your imagination a bit, looks like a “Z.” With this unsnapped, one can easily fit thicker media into the scanner. The flat side facing up in this picture folds in flush against the bottom of the lid when not in use which allows it to look as flat and thin as it does in the picture with the floppy disk.
Something else that came in the box is the doughnut looking stand you see pictured below.
I thought this was a cool feature when I read about it on the web but I couldn’t tell how exactly it was supposed to work. The little button/clip you see on the top has a tiny overhang at the end of where it curves downward, and sticks out a fraction of an inch. On the back of the scanner there is a small square divot. When setting the scanner vertically into the groove, between the doughnuts and line up the clip, the divot snaps into place. Amazingly enough, that tiny overhang is enough to keep the scanner balanced vertically. The stand’s front doughnut sits low enough to allow the lid to swing open. No worries about the lid swinging open; it hooks slightly so that you have to lift up on it a touch to get it open. These are some well thought-out designs. Note that when scanning a document in this position, there will be a bit of a lip where the imaging surface meets the plastic. When placing it, I needed to balance it before closing the lid to pinch it in there. Below you can see the scanner utilizing the stand.
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