As with area scan cameras, there are similar camera technologies for line scan cameras to capture different spectral ranges.

Monochrome line scan cameras are specialised cameras that capture only grey scale images and are generally sensitive between 400-1000 nm.

Colour line scan cameras generate information in the visible range between 400-700 nm. Like monochrome sensors, colour line scan cameras are now all CMOS-based sensor technology. Flat panel display inspection and high quality print inspection require high resolution with a high line frequency of the camera.

InGaAs-based line scan sensors are specialised sensors designed to capture images in the near infrared (NIR) range between 900 and 1700 nm. Applications include specialist biomedical applications, wafer and solar inspection, and high-temperature inspection and anomaly detection.

The simplest and most cost-effective option is to use a single line sensor, which is perfectly adequate for image generation.

However, line scan camera applications are often used at high web speeds where there is not enough light to expose the pixels. Dual line or quad line sensors capture four sensor lines simultaneously, but the brightness information is buffered accordingly and summed with a time delay to create the correct 'virtual single line'. The result is an image that is two or four times brighter.

With TDI (Time Delay Integration) line scan cameras, the lines are no longer exposed individually, but in larger blocks (stages) that the object passes through during the exposure. However, the stages are not triggered as individual lines, but as an entire image block. It is therefore essential that the movement of the object and the integration of the steps on the sensor are perfectly synchronised. Although this only works with flat objects, the object is also captured from different optical perspectives, so reflections on the object are averaged out. TDI sensors are many times more sensitive to light than single or dual line sensors.

Due to the resolution of single-line RGB sensors, the single-line principle has been modified for this type of sensor. A dual-line sensor is used, with one line sensitive only to green, while the other line is alternately equipped with a 1-chip colour camera and a colour filter mosaic with red and blue.
This allows the light sensitivity of the camera to be further increased, while keeping the structure of the sensor simple. The disadvantages of this technology are comparable to those of the single line, with better overall resolution and sensitivity.

Three lines are arranged one above the other on a single sensor, each sensitive to red, green and blue. The colour line scan camera now has maximum sensitivity at full resolution and produces very nice colour images.

A small disadvantage of this technology is the distance between the lines. In high quality cameras, this is one to three times the pixel size. This can have a disturbing effect when recording images if the movement of the tape is not linear, as the lines are recorded with a time delay to compensate for the line spacing. Edge artefacts are possible.

Square linear sensors are also common. In addition to the three lines for red, green and blue, there is another line that is sensitive in the infrared range.

An integrated triple prism beam splitter distributes the incoming light to three separate sensors, each receiving either red, green or blue light.

The benefits of this technology are high quality colour images with full physical resolution, as the sensors can be exposed and corrected for different lengths of time. Tight manufacturing tolerances and precise alignment of the prisms and sensors are important in order to display the image on three sensors with sub-pixel accuracy. Non-linear motion can also be captured with this technology, as the sensors are acquired simultaneously.
Disadvantages are the large size of the camera and higher manufacturing costs.