Xerox 4700

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Xerox 4700	A3	600 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible)	24-bit Color and 8-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

When it comes to speed, nothing can really beat the Xerox 4700, an ultra fast flatbed scanner. It can scan a document at 300 dpi optical resolution in just 2.5 seconds. If you move fast enough you can reach a speed of 10 PPM color. You see, most flatbed scanners are made for people who want to scan high-quality photographs at a high optical resolution. This scanner was built to be productive in high-speed document scanning projects. The idea is that you don’t use this scanner for high-quality material but you use it as an extension to an ADF duplex color scanner in scanning projects where you may encounter fragile documents. That’s why it is so fast.

The price is not bad either, it is much cheaper than the A3 flatbed scanners by Epson. It has an optical resolution of 600 DPI and I know it seems low, but this pixel density is going to be enough for documents and even for photos most of the time. The paper size that it can scan is a huge plus because it can go up to A3 format. And since speed is the biggest factor here, most probably you will be scanning at 300 DPI to have the most productivity to batch scan. It uses a CIS (Contact Image Sensor) to scan and it can output a 24-bit RGB color depth in color mode and 8-bit in grayscale mode.

It can integrate with an automatic scanner so that they scan in the same folder and keep the document workflow and proper order of the pages. If you ever scanned before on multiple scanners you will know that it is important for document management and helps you scan faster. This way you have duplex scanning and flatbed scanning together. The scanner comes with TWAIN, ISIS and Wia interfaces so it’s surely compatible with the scanning app that you will be using.

You can connect this color image scanner to your computer using its USB 2.0 port and to your ADF scanner if you want to use them together. The daily duty cycle for this scanner is 10,000 color scans per day so if you will need to be quickly scanning documents to get even close to 10% of the capacity.

This fast flatbed scanner can output your scanned images into Bitmap, JPEG, PDF and TIFF formats. It comes with a software bundle that has: Visioneer Acuity with DriverPLUS, Visioneer OneTouch, ABBYY FineReader Sprint. The ABBYY Optical Character Recognition software is a great choice for scanning documents because it is fast and has a very good text recognition accuracy, plus it can convert to multiple file formats such as searchable PDF, Word Document DOC, Excel XLS and ePub. The software also offers some productivity features such as automatic image orientation and automatic crop so that you don’t have to waste that super-fast scanning time in Photoshop.

If the flatbed speed is not enough, you can try the Xerox Duplex Combo business scanner which has a sheet feeder with a 35-sheet feeder capacity for productivity and a flatbed document glass for high-quality scanned images in one device.

Epson Perfection V600

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Epson Perfection V600	A4	6400 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	48-bit Color or 16-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

The Epson V600 is a different type of fast flatbed scanner. It can scan a page in just 6 seconds at 300 dpi resolution which is still faster than most flatbed scanners. It is not slow by any means. But bear in mind that this is an A4 scanner not A3. So if you are working with large documents, you might want to go for the Xerox. It costs half as much as the Xerox but it is a more complete product. For example it has an image resolution of 6400 DPI from its CCD sensor. It is one of the fastest flatbed scanners with a high-quality CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor ever made and in terms of image quality, the best of the three. The CCD is backed up by a great light source in the form of the ReadyScan LED lamp that doesn’t take any time to warm up. The Epson will produce more vivid and accurate colors than the Xerox. This device connects to your Windows PC or Mac through a Hispeed USB 2.0 port. Along with product registration, you can find drivers for both operating systems on Epson’s website.

On the software side, this flatbed photo scanner comes with the following software in the package: Epson Easy Photo Fix, Epson Copy Utility, ArcSoft PhotoStudio, ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus OCR. Here you can see that it is more versatile as it has software for photo scanning with Digital ICE features like removing scratch marks and dust particles from photos and film (It can scan photo film and negatives and we will get to that) and easy one-touch photo retouching, thus reducing the need for post-scanning photo editing.

This speedy flatbed scanner can also scan film negatives and slides because of its high scanning resolution. Epson provide 2 types of film holders in the package that can cover 35mm film, slides medium-format film and other formats. You can also find additional 3rd party film holders on Amazon that can help you scan film and negatives faster and of all types and sizes, so while the scanner is digitizing one set of film rolls, you are busy mounting the next ones on an identical holder.

If you want the same high-speed flatbed negative scanner but at a lower price, then the Epson perfection v550 color photo image film scanner is a solid choice and it has the same scan quality. If you look at the scanners side-by-side there is literally no difference.

The Epson perfection v850 pro also has great scanning speeds, it allows you to scan more types of film but it costs almost 10 times more. Besides the Epson Workforce high-speed scanners line, Epson also makes large format scanners like the Epson Expression 12000XL-GA, but price-wise it is the same story.

Canon CanoScan Lide 400

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Canon CanoScan Lide 400	A4	4800 dpi	USB Type-C	48-bit Color or 16-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

The Canon CanoScan Lide 400 is the bargain of the fast flatbed scanners. It has a rapid scanning system that will output an image in just 8 seconds. So the scanner has the ability to scan approximately 5-6 pages per minute. Not as quickly as the Xerox but it costs about 5-6 times less. It has a scanning resolution of 4800 dots per inch with no interpolation, enough pixels per inch for documents and photos. You cannot scan film slides and negatives with the Canon though, just color images so if you want to scan film, the best option would be the V600. The Canon also has a great advantage, it can transfer the digital images at a rate of 5GBps thanks to its ultra fast USB Type-C port. The USB Type-C is becoming the standard in all office products. It is the fastest port on any scanner today. The Z-lid is a great feature because you can lift it up to scan bound documents.

Like the other two, this high-speed flatbed scanner is compatible with the two major operating systems and it comes with some included scanning software: IJ Scan Utility (Windows), IJ Scan Utility Lite (Mac), Auto Scan, Document Scan, Photo Scan, Custom Scan, Stitch Scan, and OCR (Optical Character Recognition), ScanGear MP Driver, Quick Menu. The OCR is integrated into the scanning software here so it is not going to be as good as the ABBYY but since its integrated it will help move things along faster. It will create a searchable PDF file out of the documents that you scan. You can also sync the Canon with cloud storage like DropBox, Evernote or Google Drive.

This desktop scanner has the best design out of the three document scanners featured here, it is very slim, just 1.7 inches thick. It has a vertical stand on which you can place it to save space and you can also scan vertically if you want to go through that annoying process. The alternative to this image scanner from Epson is the Epson Perfection v39. The price is similar, but the software is different and the Epson is thinner.

If the speed is not enough, you can just pair this device with a production scanner or duplex document scanner like a Brother ADS-2700W, a Canon Imageformula R40 or a Canon Imageformula DR-C225 and set up similar scanning profiles.

Which is the best fast flatbed scanner?

If you want the quickest flatbed scanner, it has to be the Xerox 4700. Its scanning speed is unmatched, it can integrate with faster ADF scanners and it has good enough specs to get the job done. If you want a mix of speed and quality, the Epson V600 fits that role perfectly. It can scan photos and documents fast but can also scan film. Not the quickest, but still very fast. If you don’t want to spend that much money on a fast scanner but you want a decent scan speed then the Canon Lide 400 is the one for you. The Doxie flip is an interesting proposition because it is fast in the idea that you don’t have to start your computer to scan, you just turn it on and scan to an SD card. It is an independent portable scanner, easy to carry around. The Canon canoscan 9000f mkii would have made the list, it being a high speed scanner but the 9000f mark ii is discontinued. Same for the Plustek opticslim. An alternative to flatbed scanners would also be using a document scanner. Along with the Fujitsu ScanSnap IX1500 and IX100 portable document scannerr, Fujitsu created the ScanSnap V600 which works like an A3 flatbed and might be faster for you when scanning office documents. You also have the option of buying a scanner with an automatic document feeder, the HP Scanjet Pro 2500 f1 flatbed ocr scanner or the more expensive HP 4500 network scanner. That way you have the best of both, a flatbed unit and a color duplex scanner. Same goes for the Xerox Documate Duplex Combo sheetfed scanner. If photos are what you specifically want to scan, then the epson fastfoto ff-680w is one of the best scanners for photos available.