The best document scanner has to have great speed, plenty of features for the average user together with a few more advanced image enhancement features, it has to be reliable, it must not jam all the time and it needs to be good value for money
Here is our list of what we, as a digitization center with over 10 million documents scanned, consider to be the best document scanners you can buy.
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Our choice Raven Pro Document Scanner | A4 | 8.5 in. x 11.7 in. | Wi-Fi (2.4ghz), Ethernet | 60 | 120 | 100 sheets | 6000 sheets | Click for more info |
Popular choice Fujitsu fi-7160 | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | USB 3.0 | 60 | 120 | 80 sheets | 4,000 sheets | Click for more info |
Epson DS-575W | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | SuperSpeed USB 3.0, Wireless and Ethernet (optional) | 35 | 70 | 50 sheets | 4,000 sheets | Click for more info |
Fujitsu Scansnap IX1500 | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | USB 3.1, WiFi | 30 | 60 | 50 sheets | 400 sheets | Click for more info |
Let’s have a look at each product in particular.
Raven Pro Document Scanner
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Raven Pro Document Scanner | A4 | 8.5 in. x 11.7 in. | Wi-Fi (2.4ghz), Ethernet | 60 | 120 | 100 sheets | 6000 sheets | Click for more info |
Coming back to the device, this is a really interesting A4 digital sender. What does this mean? It means that it’s mostly built to be an electronic courier, that everyone uses to get paper documents digitally sent to others.
For this, it comes fitted with both a Wi-Fi and an Ethernet connection. The ethernet connection is really nice to use inside a company, as you can plug it to your network, and get data across. The Wifi feature is nice on the other hand that it allows to have no cables and also easily scan to mobile devices.
Why we think this is one of the best scanners? Simple, it has a really large touchscreen that is sensitive enough and provides great feedback to the user. Also, you don’t need a PC to attach to the scanner for it to work properly.
Fujitsu fi-7160
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fujitsu fi-7160 | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | USB 3.0 | 60 | 120 | 80 sheets | 4,000 sheets | Click for more info |
Where to start? Well with the speed. 60 pages per minute might not seem a lot, but what is more impressive is the way this scanner goes on and on. Very rare paper jams and multifeeds. Te rollers installed are made from a really good material, and they need less cleaning than in other scanners.
Then we have the scanning quality. Fitted with a CCD sensor, the quality of this and other Fi scanners is just superb. Manually, from the driver, you can even set it to 1200dpi. It’s a really really nice machine that provides great colors and image reproduction.
But what is really great about this scanner are the drivers and scanning software. Starting with the driver, the Paperstream IP, this has so many features, that some of them you’d never expect to find on such a small scanner.
Then it’s the Paperstream Capture, which is a really nice scanning software that comes bundled with the device when you buy it.
Epson DS-575W
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Epson DS-575W | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | SuperSpeed USB 3.0, Wireless and Ethernet (optional) | 35 | 70 | 50 sheets | 4,000 sheets | Click for more info |
Yes, this is an A4 device, which can hold around 50 sheets in its ADF and a daily duty cycle of 4000 sheets. It can reach an optical resolution of 600dpi, and will work through a Twain or ISIS interface.
It also comes bundled with a lot of different software. For example the Abbyy Finereader sprint is able to create numerous file formats, such as Word or PDF from images that have been OCR’d.
Then optionally you can get the Epson Document Capture suite, which is a scanning software with decent features, but it will never be near when compared to the Paperstream Capture.
All in all this is a realiable scanner, so if the budget allows it, go for it. It’s really small so it won’t take much space on the desk of your office. At the same time, it has an average weight, so you can easily move it around if necessary.
Fujitsu Scansnap IX1500
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fujitsu Scansnap IX1500 | A4 | 8.27 in x 11.69 in | USB 3.1, WiFi | 30 | 60 | 50 sheets | 400 sheets | Click for more info |
Let’s start with the scanning speed. It scans around 30 pages per minute in simplex mode, but it also has a duplex mode, which will scan both sides of a paper at once.
The optical resolution is 600dpi and the capturing sensor is CIS. This makes it a good choice for standard documents, and probably not the best solution if you want to scan images. For that, see the FI 7160, it will do the best job in its class.
This scanner works with USB or Wifi. But we are more interested in the Wifi connection. It makes it perfect for you to scan and send documents instantly. It has a touchscreen to allow for easy transfer, but it’s not the biggest screen. It does not offer the ease of use of the Raven, but it will still work quite well.
Besides that it works as standalone, it also comes with a lot of software apps. For example, it has the Abbyy Finereader for ScanSnap as the OCR solution attached to it. Also, the Scansnap Home is a great tool to manage the scanning process and different features or settings.
So which one is the best document scanner?
From the start I must tell you that the best document scanner you can currently get is the Fujitsu Fi 7160. As a machine, I don’t think this there are many more complete equipment out there.
But is it our choice? Unfortunatelly no! While as a scanning device this is clearly a 10 out of 10, it is missing some of the features we are currently looking at when we buy scanners.
That is why our winner is currently the Raven Pro Document Scanner. First of all it is cheaper than the Fi 7160. It has a large touschreen an can be connected directly through ethernet or Wifi. It will work as a digital sender, but can also give you good scanning results when used as a standalone device.
It’s not as feature rich as the Fi 7160, definitely. But at the same time, we are looking for devices that can do most of the tasks that are usual. While the Fujitsu is definitely the more complete machine, some of its features are only useful for production scanning.
The other two, the Epson and the IX1500 area also great devices, but they are good entry level scanners, which should be considered if your budget is lower.
We are curious to know which is your favourite or consider to be the best document scanner out there and why?