Say you have two photos that look identical in sunlight, but one was printed on an ink jet printer using dye-based inks, and the other is a traditional silver halide print. There's an important shortcoming to this approach. So, at the risk of oversimplifying a bit, the scanners are calibrated to convert the colors that the sensors see into the red, green, and blue values they would see if the light source had a smooth spectrum.

Colors under those conditions look different than they would if the light source had a continuous smooth spectrum like the sun's. Most scanner bulbs shine with three distinct, strong peaks in frequency-the three colors for scanning-each in a different part of the visible spectrum. The key to six-color scanning is a second light source. Both offer six-color scanning for prints, but only the G4050 offers six-color scans for film. And although both contain transparency adaptors in their scanner lids, the G4050's is larger, with room to scan 16 slides at once, for example, compared with only five for the G4010. The two are essentially identical when it comes to scanning prints, according to HP: They both have an optical resolution of 4,800 pixels per inch (ppi), but the G4050 adds hardware-based dust and scratch removal for film. The other is the HP Scanjet G4010 Photo Scanner ($150 street). The G4050, which is aimed at home users who are primarily interested in scanning photos, is one of two HP six-color scanners. But what's new-and very much different-about the G4050 is the option to scan in six colors instead. So does the default setting for the Hewlett-Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner ($200 street). That's because the scanners you're used to all use three colors for scans. But I'll bet you haven't heard about six-color scanning. You've almost certainly heard of six-color printing, with the extra ink colors making it easier to print at true photo quality.

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