Looking for scanner suggestions :)

[TKR99]

Hi guys
I make my own handmade cards & use digital papers for producing many backgrounds to layer the card designs onto, as well as creating my own digital papers. However, if I scan anything using my current HP Scanjet 3300C and then print the colours never come out as they should. While I know much probably comes down to the printer I can see from the scanned image that the problem is starting there, as the colours are never as they should be, instead being consistently paler. I'm reluctant to fully jetison the Scanjet as I got it specifically so as to be able to scan in my 3D cards (more modern scanners don't have the same depth of field) but could switch to photographing them if I have to.

At any rate, I'm really just looking for some vague ideas of a good quality but inexpensive scanner (i.e. under £60) that will be able to colour match relatively well and provide good sharp clear scan images at least - after that, I can then fight with the printer to get its settings to match!

My printer is a Canon IP4700 using refilled inks (TBH, I just invested in a whole set of original cartridges at Christmas but found little difference in output other than the fact that they only lasted a week by comparison to 3 on the refills!).

Any suggestions would be hugely welcome just so I can get an idea of models & types as I've just no idea of whats good, bad or otherwise out there, so with a very limited budget of £30-50 I don't want to waste money on a "pig in a poke" job.

Thanks

[ktony]

Where color matching is in question, I strongly suggest looking into calibrating your devices if possible. (I have a device to create profiles for my monitor. I use provided manufacturer profiles for printing.)

Another approach is to work with the color controls in your scanner software to achieve better results. I am assuming (rightly or wrongly) that there is some mode which would let you adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation. The way I scan involves previewing, and then tweaking the image before the final scan. This is still something of an art as the preview won't correspond exactly to the final. However, with some experience you get a sense of how they relate to each other.

Bottom line is that an inexpensive scanner may or may not solve your problem. If the budget is limited, try to do what you can with the equipment you already have.

EDIT: Your description of the scans being pale suggests that brightness might need to be reduced, and/or saturation increased as a starting point.