Raven Original Document Scanner

Product	Format	Scanning area	Connectivity	Sheets per minute	Images per minute	ADF Size	Daily Duty Cycle	Price
Raven Original Document Scanner	A4	8.5 in. x 11.7 in.	Wi-Fi (2.4ghz), Ethernet	17	34	50 sheets	1500 sheets	Click for more info

The Raven Original Document scanner is what we hold to be the best desktop scanner at an attractive price.

For starters, it can scan on its own and it doesn’t need a computer to do that. Once you’ve placed it on your desk, all you need to do is to use the built-in wireless connection or ethernet port to connect it to your network and you can start scanning. You don’t even need to connect it to anything because it has a USB port in which you can plug in a USB flash drive and scan directly onto it. It has a generous 7 inch touchscreen with which you will be controlling every aspect of the scanning process. You can rotate the layout orientation of the document, crop the image. You can also do automatic deskew and have it detect blank pages automatically. There is no other desktop scanner at the moment on the market that can offer this from any other manufacturer. It has an automatic document feeder ADF capacity of 50 sheets with anti-jam technology also known as multi-feed detection.

What is average about this sheetfed scanner is the optical resolution with just 600 DPI and the fact that it has a scan speed of 17 pages per minute. But bear in mind that no time is wasted because you don’t have to open any kind of scanning software and connect to the scanner beforehand. This device offers you the possibility to scan directly to the cloud too, either to Google Drive, Dropbox or Evernote or to Raven’s own cloud which has an interesting Optical Character Recognition feature. This is very similar to what the Fujitsu IX1500 offers. It is something new to move the entire OCR process out of the computer workstation and into the cloud.

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

The Fujitsu ScanSnap IX1500 is our second best desktop document scanner. It doesn’t have the big touch screen that the Raven has but it still has one which allows it to be a standalone scanner. You can place it on a table in the middle of the office and every user can scan on it to multiple destinations using Scan to E-mail, FTP server or to a network destination. But it does have a scanning speed of up to 30 pages per minute which is much better.

Connectivity-wise it has both USB 3.1 with which you can also connect to a computer through a USB cable and store the digital images there, be it Mac or PC(No TWAIN drivers here either but there are drivers for both operating systems: Windows and Mac Os) and Wi-fi.

The image resolution coming from its CIS Contact Image Sensor is the same at 600 dots per inch, so you get the same number of pixels, the paper size is also up to A4 format and like the previous desktop scanner it can scan directly to the cloud. What you get extra with this scanner is the ability to scan A3 documents by folding them and running them through the duplex scanner. Both sides are scanned and then stitched together into an A3 image.

It also provides more RGB file formats for scanning like JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP Bitamp. This can be a deal-breaker in some scanning projects. There are some Digital ICE features you get like Dust Detection and Streak reduction to clean the scanned images work nicely especially for scanning photos. The RGB color depth is the same at 24-bit for color scanning and 8-bit for grayscale.

The OCR software is better too because in the software bundle you will find the ABBYY FineReader app that will convert all of your high-quality scanned images into searchable PDF files or Word documents with editable text.

Epson ES-400

Product	Format	Scanning area	Connectivity	Sheets per minute	Images per minute	ADF Size	Daily Duty Cycle	Price
Epson ES-400	A4	8.27 in x 11.69 in	SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and Ethernet (optional)	35	70	50 sheets	4,000 sheets	Click for more info

The Epson ES-400 is a cheaper desktop scanner which has a more limited set of options but it still does most of the scanning tasks. It is actually the fastest desktop scanner we featured here in this article with a scanning speed of 35 pages per minute. It is unusual for a cheaper scanner to have the highest scan speed. Nothing special about the pixel density coming from its CCD sensor, which is on par with the others at 600 dpi.

When connecting it to your personal computer, note that you can only use the integrated USB port with the option to purchase extra ethernet network connectivity. Epson markets this as a desktop scanner for home so it is expected to be a single-user device. The automatic feeder can stack 50 documents in it and finally, we have a device with TWAIN drivers. The speed and the ability to connect it via TWAIN along with the price are its main advantages. It bundles the Epson ScanSmart app together with the Nuance Omnipage OCR (Now it is called Kofax Omnipage after Nuance’s acquisition). The feed rollers aren’t as reliable as on the other document scanners we featured here because they only last up to 100,000 scans.

As far as image adjustments go, there is auto crop, blank page detection and a background removal feature using its proprietary Epson Image Processing Technology. It also features an ultrasonic sensor for double feed detection and deskew technology.

If you pair it with an Epson Perfection V39 or V600, you can create a flexible scanning system which should cover most of your needs.

Canon ImageFormula R40

Product	Format	Scanning area	Connectivity	Sheets per minute	Images per minute	ADF Size	Daily Duty Cycle	Price
Canon ImageFormula R40	A4	8.5 in x 14 in	USB 2.0	30	60	60 sheets	4000 sheets	Click for more info

The Canon ImageFormula R40 is the newest desktop scanner we will be featuring here meant to compete directly with the ES-400 at a lower price point. It only has USB connectivity which for a scanner from 2019 having no network connectivity or mobile connectivity is not very good, but it does scan 30 pages per minute. It is clearly an entry-level desktop scanner.

With the buttons on the front of the scanner you can start scanning and stop the device or select the job. There is no LCD screen. It is shipped with Canon’s CaptureOnTouch app and also ReadIris for OCR conversion and The software provides the most basic document management features. The idea with this device is that it doesn’t do much but what it does, it does very accurately. The OCR is good and the software works flawlessly.

If you are looking for a flatbed version, Canon offers the Canon CanoScan Lide flatbed scanners.

Which is the best desktop scanner?

All things considered, the Raven is our pick for best desktop document scanner because of the touch screen, intuitive features, USB flash drive support, cloud connectivity and design. The Fujitsu IX1500 comes close because it offers some complementary features like scanning to JPG and TIFF together with the feature to scan A3 documents and much better OCR software.

If you are looking for a cheaper desktop scanner, the Epson ES-400 is our favorite because of its superior speed and low price. The R40 offers better OCR and a better document feeder.