Anyone recommend a fast scanner?

M

Marianne

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I want to buy a new scanner for my home-based business but have the following criteria: -

  • It would need to be able to scan A4 pages at a reasonable speed, e.g. maybe 20 pages a minute or faster? I already have a four-in-one scanner/photocopier/fax/printer but it takes about a minute to scan an A4 page which is just too slow for my needs.
  • The resulting file would need to be relatively small, e.g. one A4 page = around 10K or 20K. My current scanner creates files that are around 1MB for each A4 page. I heard that if the scanner driver creates .tif files it helps.
Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Hi Marianne,

Can you give some details about the scanner you have and the software that you use with it?

It sounds like you just need to reconfigure your current scanner to scan at a lower resolution. I don't think it would scan 20 pages a minute but you could speed it up significantly by reducing the resolution, which would also produce the smaller files that you want.

Stef
 
Thanks Stef,

The 4-in-1 is a Samsung SCX-4216F and the software that came with it is called Samsung SmarThru Version 3.01.358

Regards.
 
Hi Marianne,

I've had a quick look at the user manual for that printer/scanner/fax in the following location:

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...=20050804131318734_SCX-4x16Series_English.pdf

and it looks like you can change the settings using the SmartThru software in the Samsung Scan Manager (see page 104, section 6.5). There are 2 fields here that can be used to change the quality / size of the scan i.e. the Image Type and the Resolution.

Reducing the number or colours used or the number of Dots Per Inch (DPI) should reduce the time to scan and the size of the files. I suggest you try a few different combinations of these settings until you get a scan that is quick and small enough for your needs but still at an acceptable quality.

Let me know how you get on with this. Just curious, can you tell me the type of output you get from the scanner e.g. pdf, jpeg, postscript etc?

Regards,
Stef
 
Thanks Stef,

I played with the DPI and the colours and certainly there was an improvement, but even at the lowest DPI (75) it still took about 15 seconds to scan an A4 page and at that resolution the page was mostly illegible.

You see, I'm contemplating a move to a paperless office and for that to be a practical reality, I'd need to be able to scan a document as quickly as I can photocopy one. Mind you, cutting down the DPI really did have a great effect on reducing the file size which was the other concern.

The resulting files are JPG.

I do appreciate your input - it's been educational!
 
Hi Marianne,

That's fine, I just thought it best to see what your current scanner was capable of before investing in a new scanner.

Do you have a rough idea of how much you want to spend on a new scanner? If you give a rough budget, I'll have a look around when I have some spare time and suggest a couple of makes/models.

Once you have a model in mind you can check the prices around town or order from the internet etc.

Stef
 
Dell are offering their 3115CN multi-function laser device for €799 plus VAT - I have some Dell products already and have had no problems with them. Their spec sheet doesn't tell you what their scan speed is but I can ask when the time comes.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p....aspx/print_3115cn?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

Someone else offered me what sounds like a higher-spec multi-function, the Xerox 8560 for €2,700 plus VAT plus service contract.

Obviously I'd prefer the Dell price if it will do the job.

I guess the budget I had in my head was around €1,000 but if an absolutely wonderful machine came along, I wouldn't be averse to paying more. (I'm saying that using the protection of AAM anonymity - in real life I'd never say such a thing. ;) )
 
Gosh - that seems like an impressive machine and price. Is this the one you're talking about?
 
Sorry Marianne, I have restricted internet access

model number below:

Fujitsu SCANSNAP FI-5110EOXM-
 
The Xerox Documate 262 Scanner is very small and very fast. It scans at 33 ppm. Here is a review of it on pcmag
[broken link removed]
 
Thanks very much beefy2003 and bobk - one more quick question - do either of you know what size files the Fujitsu or Xerox machines create if you're scanning at, say, 200 DPI?
 
Great - thanks to everyone who has replied.

Now I'm just trying to figure out what my storage capacity is. If we say 30K per page, per beefy's example. There's 1 million K in a GB and I have a 160 GB external hard drive. So I figure I could save over 4 million pages, right?
 
Put it this way i have about 13 filing cabinets full of document scanned and it only uses 9GB on my server.
 
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