Palm scanner

A reader arrangement for reading printed indicia, the reader arrangement including:

• a reader having:
• a reading beam source comprising a laser beam source that generates a reading beam continuously or repeatedly while the reader is held by a user,
• a reading beam detector, and
• a window through which the reading beam passes, the reading beam source causing an omnidirectional multiline pattern to come from the window,
• the reader having broad front and rear faces and narrow side faces, the window being provided in and recessed within the front face, the front face having an upper end and a lower end, the window having a midpoint that is disposed closer to the front face's upper end than to the front face's lower end;
• and
• a stand on which the reader is releasably mountable and pivotable about horizontal and vertical axes, the stand permitting the reader to be pivoted about a horizontal axis into a position at an acute angle to a vertical axis to direct the reading beam onto a surface on which the stand is disposed;
• the reader being shaped to be held by a user with the window facing away from the user for hand-held reading, and the reader arrangement being configured such that the reader is mountable on the stand with the window substantially unobscured for surface-mounted reading;
• wherein, when the reader is mounted on the stand in a position that causes the reading beam to pass through the window in a substantially horizontal direction, the reader arrangement has a height, a depth, and a width such that each of the distances defined by the depth and the width, respectively, is less than the distance defined by the height.