Given that we have been working in the scanning industry and we have scanned millions of documents up until now, we thought it would be a good idea to do the research for you and help you find the best A3 scanner for you
We’ve checked the specifications, performance and features of over 200 scanners. Here is our definitive list of the best A3 scanners that you can buy, some which are A3 flatbed scanners with ADF included
The machines will vary from professional business products that specialist scanning bureaus use, to devices that can be used at home or at a low usage consumer site.

Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Epson DS-50000 ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.53 in | USB 2.0 Type B, Wired Network (optional) | 15 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Click for more info |
Canon DR-M1060 ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 2.0 | 60 | 120 | 60 sheets | 7,500 sheets | Click for more info |
Popular choice Panasonic KV-S5055C ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 3.0 | 80 | 160 | 200 seets | 300 sheets | Click for more info |
Our choice Canon DR-G1100 ![]() | A3 | 11.7 in. x 16.5 in. | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 | 100 | 200 | 500 sheets | 25000 sheets | Click for more info |
Canon DR-6030C ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 2.0 SCSI-3 | 60 | 120 | 100 sheets | 10,000 sheets | Click for more info |
Let’s have a look at each product in particular.
Epson DS-50000
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Epson DS-50000 ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.53 in | USB 2.0 Type B, Wired Network (optional) | 15 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Click for more info |
We have found out when working on it that for this kind of A3 flatbed scanner you should focus on niche applications, such as very thin or very thick paper, fragile documents or just about any paper document that can’t be run through an automatic document scanner.
We ran for example old crumpled documents, and the results were interesting. The lid really helped us to flatten the documents, and without it, the results would not have been very nice. Even when the page was not completely flat, the CCD sensor made sure that every area of the document is captured.
This factor would increase its versatility from scanning documents for the office to being a full on photo scanner. Practically it will offer the best of both worlds, a really good scan quality and also fast scanning.
As you see, this makes it perfect for A3 scan sizes, so it fits into that niche. Still, it’s not the cheapest flatbed scanner, so don’t expect paying a low price for it.
Why I would recommend this scanner is that it comes with a bulletproof warranty. Practically you can find an Epson dealer to fix or swap your machine, just about anywhere on this planet.
All in all, it’s a nice scanner, but it’s missing the key feature of a great A3 document scanner and that is an automatic document feeder. You can also check the Plustek Opticpro A320 as an alternative, or Canon Canoscan Lide models, they could also do the job. All of them, including some Epson Perfection or Epson Expression models would be a much cheaper option.
Canon DR-M1060
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canon DR-M1060 ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 2.0 | 60 | 120 | 60 sheets | 7,500 sheets | Click for more info |
We have managed to run it close to 60 A4 sheets every minute, when we repeated the speed tests. The duty cycle is expected to be around 7000 sheets on a daily basis, which is good enough for most office work. Remember, this is a color duplex document scanner, so both sides of the document will be captured at once.
Out of our selection, this scanner is quite compact to say the least. It’s outside dimensions are significantly lower than most other devices we feature, especially for an A3 document scanning device. I managed to move it around the office without extra help and could connect it easily to the computer.
The scanner has a good scanning software, because they updated the old Capture Perfect bundled app. Now it’s called Capture on Touch. While it’s nowhere near as good as Kofax Express or even the Fujitsu Paperstream Capture software, it does come for free, bundled which each Canon document scanner. From our experience, with this software and given the volumes you will scan with it, it should be enough.
All in all, this is a great A3 scanner, especially if you want one that is really small and compact. It’s not my personal favourite, but I would trust it over an HP scanjet scanner any day. For example, the F1 flatbed OCR scanner is a million years behind it and it’s only an A4 in size.
Panasonic KV-S5055C
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panasonic KV-S5055C ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 3.0 | 80 | 160 | 200 seets | 300 sheets | Click for more info |
For example the most important aspect of it is the scanning sensor. It uses a CCD sensor, which is different to just about any other Panasonic scanner. That is why I think they released this scanner, to stack it up against other CCD scanners from time to time. What I do like, is that with this image sensor you can really do color photo scanning, and results will come out great.
I was really anxious to get my hands on this device, especially for the quality of the image. The color depth is amazing, when comparing it to a CIS scanner, even though the dpi resolution is identical to a counterpart with CIS. Your photo and documents will come out really great, and I think this is one of the excellent choices to make when buying a device for A3 format scanning.
You can get 1200×1200 dpi with this scanner, but only as an interpolated resolution, not as an optical one, as would be the case with a Fujitsu scanner. What you can try is the flatbed attachment though, this could help for more pretentious work. I ran the device at 600dpi to scan some photos and I must say i really liked it. Not the highest quality on the market, but there or there about.
Anyway, this is a really good scanner, especially for entry level A3 scanning. It’s more expensive than let’s say a Canon DR-M1060, but it has a bigger ADF and can also be used for low volume production.
What I like about it, besides the 80ppm scanning speed is that I could scan face up, meaning it can hold around 200 sheets.
Scanning face down is not so simple, especially when scanning A3 documents. You constantly need to see how the paper moves through the scanner to make sure scans come out clear.
The software bundle also includes the Image Capture Plus, which is quite a decent capture software. Also, being included in the bundle, it comes for free. So you will also be saving money on the software side.
Canon DR-G1100
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canon DR-G1100 ![]() | A3 | 11.7 in. x 16.5 in. | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 | 100 | 200 | 500 sheets | 25000 sheets | Click for more info |
This A3 scanner can go against many more expensive document scanners on the market. Let’s take the scanning size for example. It will go a little above A3 in width but it also features a long document scanning mode. For example I like to run A3 documents on the manual mode on it. The feeder runs continuously and I just feed one page after the other.
The scanning speed is around 100ppm which is enough for production work. I have seen this scanner used in offices where they’d be scanning 10-15 thousand sheets everyday. It still amazes me when I scan on it, how good it is at keeping up with the rated speed.
The driver has a lot of productivity features that you will like, from the blank page skip, hole punch removal and other small features that add up when you are doing large volume scanning.
The software bundled with the scanner was initially the Capture Perfect software. I never like that software. For me it seemed outdated and sometimes we had really bad errors when scanning.
Now though, Canon has fitted this scanner with a new software called CaptureonTouch. This is a great scanning app and while it may not be up there with more expensive capture software, it will do its job quite well.
A thing I really love about this A3 Canon scanner is the price. Especially now that a newer model has been launched, this device can be found discounted at a really great price. If it were me, for larger scanning projects, I would always use this device. It just runs reliably enough to trust it in even the most daring circumstances.
Canon DR-6030C
Product | Format | Scanning area | Connectivity | Sheets per minute | Images per minute | ADF Size | Daily Duty Cycle | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canon DR-6030C ![]() | A3 | 11.69 in x 16.54 in | USB 2.0 SCSI-3 | 60 | 120 | 100 sheets | 10,000 sheets | Click for more info |
It has a daily duty cycle of around 10.000 sheets, but if you’re scanning that much, you are way better of with the DR-G110 model. These scanners capture only low volumes of documents on a daily basis, and even though it has the ability to scan A3, we would not suggest you use it for production purposes.
One thing I would use it for is if you are scanning A3 exclusively. For that, the scanner has a decent scanning speed and the 100 sheet ADF is good enough. It connects through an USB cable, so if you’re scanning really high resolution documents, it might take a while for the transfer.
What also helps is the straight scanning path, which is especially good for A3 documents. The scanners that have a U shape paper path do not help, especially when documents are longer, thiner or damaged.
Still, the faster and more expensive DR-G1100 is a superior sheetfed scanner to say the least. But the DR-6030Cis good enough for office jobs and also for smaller projects you might have from time to time. It’s also a bit closer to a portable document scanner, but we insist that you should not buy it to include it in your portable scanners fleet. test
Which is the best a3 document scanner?
Well, from our thest we definitely came up with some conclusions, and we think this will help you make up your mind.
The best device in the test was the Dr-g1100 and that is no comment. Besides the scanning software, which still lags behind Fujitsu or Kodak, I really enjoy running this device. It feeds documents so reliably that we still keep 2-3 devices in the office just so we have a machine that we know will deliver on each scanning project. Not to mention the price of the device, you really can’t beat it.
In terms of image quality, the Panasonic KV-S5055 was my choice. I ran it constantly for photos or other high quality colored pages and the colors look amazing. Just as you would expect it. With the DR-G1100 they still look good, but I found the Panasonic to offer much more in terms of gamut of color.
Last but not least, we have the Canon DR-6030C. This is sort of like the cheaper alternative. It’s good enough to scan most of your office documents, but it does not have the quality of the Panasonic KV-S5055 or the production capability of the DR-G1100. Still, it did not put a foot wrong when testing it, so it’s still a reliable device, as long as you don’t have huge scanning volumes.
So in no particular order, for a bigger volume go for the Canon DR-G1100, and for an entry level, the DR-6030C is the one to go for. As a middle ground, the Panasonic KV-S5055 is also a good choice which I would take into consideration. You can also find some Panasonic models rebranded as Xerox Documate scanners, but they will come with different drivers, software and manuals.
Which are your best A3 document scanners and have we missed some models you think should have made this list?