The scanner bed, also called the flatbed, is the glass plate on which a page or object is placed face down to be scanned. A moving sensor passes beneath the glass to capture the image.
Because the bed is part of the optical path, dust, marks, or smudges on the glass appear in scans, and a document that is not lying flat can produce blur or shadow. Keeping the bed clean and the original flat is the simplest way to improve scan quality.
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