Document Scanners

I have had the HP ScanJet 7400c for about 2 years now. This is a legal sized scanner that you can buy with a document feeder if need be, an option that I chose not to get.

The results are excellent and it has given me flawless service. It's a little noisy when doing high resolution scans, but at least it's very fast, so the noise doesn't last too long.

It does come with a trial version (scaled down version) of Iris OCR, which I haven't found to be very good. Dirt on the page and exclamation marks throw it off completely. I'm sure that the full version is better, but I can't tell you which is the best OCR out there - Omnipage, Paper Port or Iris - maybe others with more experience in that area can offer some advice.

 

ScanTango

Our ScanTango software now works with:

Fujitsu fi-4120C and C2
Fujitsu fi-4220C and C2
Fujitsu fi-5110EOX (ScanSnap)
Fujitsu fi-5110C (OEM version of ScanSnap)
Fujitsu fi-4010C

All are duplex, B&W, Grayscale, Color except for the 4010 which is simplex only.

If you are looking for raw speed, go with the 4120/4220 models. If you are looking to hold down costs a bit, go with the 5110.

ScanTango is completely AppleScript-able and scans directly to both PDF and multipage TIFFs. It can also export single images to JPEG, GIF, etc. One nice thing - it allows you to rearrange pages in a PDF, delete pages, merge PDFs, and copy and paste pages between PDFs. And for you legal eagles, you can also redactor erase areas of any PDF pages.

For OCR, if price is no object, try Omnipage. I use ReadIRIS have found it to do a good job. Much less expensive, too.

You can download and try ScanTango for free at www.scantango.com