Or, a slightly more technical solution, of a low rez b/w LCD display on the front next to all the controls showing an apporximation of the current copying area (small video camera underneath?)

That way you can see exactly the area, so if you are after a certain table out of a book, or a certain article, you can align the book correctly.

Yes, I think an LCD preview would be an excellent improvement. It's a real pain to copy something and find that you've cut off the last line.

-- Drew

I'm with [Blurred] on this one.

How many whynot geeks to fix a light bulb in a copier? The light bulb idea is simple enough and the light bulb will allow a seeing person to know if paper is well placed. LCD overcomplicates & might appeal only to techheads/geeks.

How much are you prepared to pay for the photocopier with a LCD or small carema underneath? As an alternative, you can buy a three in one printer with copying and scanning function. You can simply scan the page and check in the computer to see whether you have got everything you want in a page. If yes, then can press the print button on your printer to make a photocopy.

Related Products: HP has just come out with two “see-thru” scanners. One puts the image you want to scan face up on some flat surface, put the see-thru canner (which is nothing but a thin piece of glass with some electronics) on top of the image, and voila – you can see exactly what you are scanning!

I assume that it will not be long before they apply the concept to copiers as well.

Limbak:

Cool! That'd help me scan flat surfaces (for things like video game textures).

I'd still need some way to protect the glass, though.

HP See-Thru Scanner

This scanner has a window on it. The scan head passes over the window, allowing you to align whatever you want within the window. Whatever is in the window will be scanned.

Neat idea, however, this seems more economical than an LCD preview, but a lightbulb is a great, almost "cheap" idea for visualizing a few pages, however, once you intend on scanning or copying pages of a book, this becomes much easier.