Thanks again everyone. SWMBO was on her crusade this afternoon - I just need something that works! Someone told her an Ipad would photo documents and convert them to crisp black and white, talk to any printer and output without buying any software or interconnect cables. I have no experience of anything Apple so could neither confirm nor deny any of this or even guess if it might be the answer.
We do have a Samsung, long in the tooth tablet but it doesn't do any of the task any better than my Samsung phone. Her Samsung phone is grinding to a full stop due to a 15GB hidden file that nobody has been able to remove.
I am quite happy with the old scanner/linux Mint laptop and Gimp solution but SWMBO demands something she is familiar with namely Windows or a new, cheap, tablet yet to be sourced. She did download the trial version of VueScan (VeiwScan?) but it failed to run and then she got a request for money to make it go and baulked at the whole thing as it seemed like a scam.
I will get her to transition to Linux Mint, eventually and then at least we will be on common ground.
Rans6..................