Barcodes questions
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Laser Barcode Scanners
The most common and longest in use technology for scanners has been the laser. Laser scanners have been the industry standard for reading linear (1D) barcodes and have excellent reading performance. With a laser scanner, you are aiming the laser horizontally across the black and white bars in a code which either absorb or reflect the light. This reflected light is picked up by the scanner to determine the pattern of the code and the information embedded in it. For standard linear barcodes, this has been a reliable, cost saving scanning method. However, when you start dealing with poorly printed codes that do not reflect/absorb the laser properly or 2D barcodes you will find a more robust scanner type is needed.Imager Barcode Scanners
Imagers vary from laser scanners in that instead of trying to read the reflected light, you are essentially taking an image of the barcode. The imager is optimized to distinguish the high contrast black and white barcodes which it quickly analyzes to determine what code type it is to decode it properly. Since an imager is not relying on reflected light and can read the barcode in any direction, you can read codes faster and even poorly printed ones that a laser never could. There are some imagers that are only optimized for 1D barcodes but most will read any type of barcode including stacked and 2D codes. There is a significant price difference between imagers and laser scanners but if you need to read anything beyond basic 1D barcodes or have issues with the performance of your current scanners an imager will provide more aggressive and capable reading.