I have a large number of legal sized documents that I would like to scan in. Can someone recommend an excellent legal sized document scanner for use with their Mac platform? I would prefer recommendations based on personal experience. Thanks.
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Legal Document Size Scanners for Mac
- Thread starter johnjay1776
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Jessica, that's interesting and thanks for the feedback. I'm a little confused though. Every scanner that I've ever worked with has drivers/software that are needed for the operation of the scanner. If I pick any scanner with a legal size scanning bed, how does Snow Leopard scan it in? I mean, where would I go to tell the OS to scan the document in? Thanks.
Image Capture is an app in your apps folder on your Mac and scanning in SL is now native.
I just tossed a document in on my Epson CX7450, which has a bed size that is slightly longer than 11" but it is not "legal" length. I hit scan and it scanned the entire bed but then basically focused on just the document. You can also set it to detect separate documents.
Honestly I heard of this feature in SL but never thought to try it. Since I had to do a clean install of SL due to something I did wrong in another app, I realized how much crap I didn't want to load back on. In Leopard I HAD to install the scanning software for it to work in photoshop and outside of photoshop. Now, it is native to my OS and that's awesome.
Here are screen shots for you, hope they help. Also showed a shot of scanning options. You will see how it detected the entire bed of the scanner. But it put a bounding box around what it "thinks" was my document. It also (see the center) has an option to rotate orientation.
Click to zoom and note that I have zero scanning or printer software on this machine and have not after doing a 7-pass zero out data erase of my main drive. It really is a beautiful thing. I hate to sound so excited over it, but I really am.
Curious, aren't most flatbed scanners "legal" sized . . . I've not seen too many that are merely "letter" sized, particularly ones with ADF
I've seen just that with AIO printers (models made by Brother). But by feeding it in the ADF, it will scan legal sized documents. It moves the paper past the image capture (CCD) portion as it's fed through the ADF. The bed however, is just letter sized. But they do make some with legal sized beds if you want.
I sincerely appreciate all your replies. The Image Capture application is very nice to know about!!
Contrary to another post in this thread, all of the flatbed scanners that I have ever encountered are letter sized. Since these legal sized documents I am trying to scan date as far back as 1852/1859, I don't have the option of feeding them through anything as they'd just crumble to pieces.
I looked at some of the legal sized bed scanners that are out there and they are $800.00 plus. I don't think I want my documents scanned that badly although it would be wonderful from a preservation perspective.
I had scanned them on the letter size flatbed that I have but it's very messy. I have to scan 80% of the page and then double up the scan to get the remaining 20%. A very "dirty" solution ... :| Thanks again, though.
Contrary to another post in this thread, all of the flatbed scanners that I have ever encountered are letter sized. Since these legal sized documents I am trying to scan date as far back as 1852/1859, I don't have the option of feeding them through anything as they'd just crumble to pieces.
I looked at some of the legal sized bed scanners that are out there and they are $800.00 plus. I don't think I want my documents scanned that badly although it would be wonderful from a preservation perspective.
I had scanned them on the letter size flatbed that I have but it's very messy. I have to scan 80% of the page and then double up the scan to get the remaining 20%. A very "dirty" solution ... :| Thanks again, though.
If your primary concern is a legal flatbed at low cost, take a look at this (DCP-8080DN). B/W printer, but it can scan in BW or color. It's mac compatible, and the MSRP is $350USD. If you look, you should be able to get it for a little less (at least work out to the equivalent of free shipping).
I haven't used this particular model, but a different one (color version w/letter sized bed). But it works well, and others seem to like the brand as well. What I can tell you that might mean something to you, is the consumables are less expensive than HP.
Legal sized bed scanners do exist, and you don't have to spend $800 for it, assuming you're not after a proper color photo grade unit.
But for some strange reason, it comes with a laser printer attached.