In addition to just an eraser, I have found it very useful to select an area and either erase inside or outside the area. I use this a lot in Nuance's Paperport. I too work with old documents and newspapers. Erase outside comes in handy to clean up staples, tears, smudges, etc. on the borders. Erase inside comes in handy to clean up sections of a document or unwanted newspaper articles near the desired article.