Handheld scanners are smaller, portable versions of their desktop cousins. Like a flatbed scanners, they scan documents, drawings and other flat media, turning them into digital files you can store, edit or email from a computer. The handheld scanner’s sophisticated miniature electronics put all the basic functions you’d expect in a desktop model, plus digital document storage, into a device you can pack in a briefcase. he handheld scanner has built-in software to manage internal housekeeping chores such as organizing its memory, capturing image data from the detector array and processing the image into standard JPEG and other computer file formats. The software checks the quality of a scan and prompts you to rescan the document if it detects a problem. Other software, which runs on a computer, interfaces with the scanner and does further processing tasks. The desktop software also lets you edit, crop and correct color, brightness and contrast problems in the scanned image. Other software performs OCR-type processing, converting the image into text you can edit with your word processor.