PRODUCT PORTFOLIO: Tried & Tested - Heidelberg Topaz - The Topaz scanner was the first to combine drum quality with the practicality of a flatbed machine.(Brief Article)

The Topaz gave drum scanner manufacturers a run for their money when launched by Linotype-Hell in September 1994. It was the industry's first flatbed A3 scanner to produce scans of drum quality for under pounds 30,000, and was the successor to the Chromagraph S2000, the firm's first foray into flatbeds. The Topaz was intended for designers and printers that didn't have the money or the qualified operators to invest in a drum scanner, but who needed good-quality scanning. And it eventually came to be accepted by repro houses too.

Nearly 6,000 were sold in the five years between the Topaz's launch and its replacement by the Heidelberg NexScan in October 1998. …