Today, the world seems to get by with far less paper, thanks to technology. Still, there are many instances where a piece of paper is the only option. When you need to turn a document or photo into an electronic file, scanners are the way to go. Even if you find you rely on it less than ever, you’ll at least occasionally need one, whether it’s at work or at home.

Digitizing paper documents isn’t the only reason to have a scanner on hand. If you have printed pictures, you can scan and save them to preserve them indefinitely. You may even be able to touch up that decades-old photo of your grandmother and make up for some of the fading that happened while it was “safely preserved” in a photo album. At the very least, you’ll be able to scan and save them to a cloud-based storage service, where they can be accessible to you and your loved ones indefinitely.

Shopping for a scanner can be overwhelming, though. Most of the scanners on the market today are not only efficient and affordable, but they provide high-quality scans. Some are better than others in those areas, though, so it can help to know what your own needs are likely to be before you buy. If you foresee regularly needing to digitize stacks of documents, a scanner with a good feeder should be high on your list. If you have boxes of photos you need to save and send to the cloud, high-quality photo scanning is a must.

Unless you’ll have a tech guru on hand to set up and troubleshoot issues with your scanner, you’ll also want one that’s easy to install and use. Some scanners do a better job of getting you online and connecting your devices. Others require extra work to get online and add additional computers. Make sure you know what you’re getting into when you pull your new scanner out of the box.