In 1999 I bought a Flatbed image scanner and started to scan and digitize my documents with great anticipation, but I was not happy with the results.

I had thought the scanner to be the magic bullet I was looking for. Here at last I thought I had a tool I could use to convert my documents to digital form and also preserve the look and feel of the original. My first scanner was a cheap one that came bundled with some software to correct the colors of the output images. The images were grainy in appearance and not what I was looking for. In the summer of 2000 I went to a computer show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City to find a better scanner. I got to try the HP 6350CSE, which was the top of the line model they had back then. The resolution was so high on my drawings from my childhood you could see the texture of the fibers in the paper. As soon as I left the show I went straight over to J&R Computer World and bought one. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth every penny. I started scanning my old school note books from the past. The saved and backed up image files were so good I was able to rip the books up and throw them away.