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Paper-less solutions? Scanners, software?

S

SamNeeds

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 28, 2007
178
0
Hi all - I'm looking to go as paper-less as I can when it comes to documents in my house. I was reading Marco Arment's post on his paper-less solution and the OCR software he uses but for what I'm willing to pay, his would just cost too much. Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M costs upward of £300...

I've currently got a Canon all-in-one printer that has a scanner, so I may be able to make use of that, BUT, I find that all a bit clunky.

So, I was wondering what suggestions you had, on the cheap, for going paper-less. My bonus/desirable feature, if possible, would be OCR.

Any suggestions?
 
By clunky I mean there are 2 or 3 buttons I need to press on the scanner itself before it starts actually scanning. Then once it's scanned, I need to specify various bits within the Image Capture app in OS-X.

Nothing is wrong with Canon; it's a perfectly able printer and scanner. BUT, I'm really interested in something that is a load it up, press one button and it does the rest type solution.

Does that make sense?
 
SamNeeds said:
By clunky I mean there are 2 or 3 buttons I need to press on the scanner itself before it starts actually scanning. Then once it's scanned, I need to specify various bits within the Image Capture app in OS-X.

Nothing is wrong with Canon; it's a perfectly able printer and scanner. BUT, I'm really interested in something that is a load it up, press one button and it does the rest type solution.

Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Whenever you ask about a peripheral, then you should give the specific model of the peripheral. You have not given the model of your "problematic" Canon AIO.

I am wondering if your "problem" simply an artifact of the fact that you are using an all-in-one rather than a dedicated scanner. Perhaps the only way for the AIO to know that you want to use the scanner functionality is to push those buttons. I own two dedicated scanners, a Canon flatbed at home and a Fujitsu duplex document-fed scanner at work. Neither requires me to push buttons.

Back to my original point: If we knew which AIO you have, then we could read the owners manual to help you out. Without this information, then you must read the owners manual yourself.
 
The reason for not giving the AIO model name or number is that I don't intend to use it, hence why I've posted this topic to gather suggestions and opinions of solutions that others use.

MisterMe said:
Whenever you ask about a peripheral, then you should give the specific model of the peripheral. You have not given the model of your "problematic" Canon AIO.

I am wondering if your "problem" simply an artifact of the fact that you are using an all-in-one rather than a dedicated scanner. Perhaps the only way for the AIO to know that you want to use the scanner functionality is to push those buttons. I own two dedicated scanners, a Canon flatbed at home and a Fujitsu duplex document-fed scanner at work. Neither requires me to push buttons.

Back to my original point: If we knew which AIO you have, then we could read the owners manual to help you out. Without this information, then you must read the owners manual yourself.
Click to expand...
 
Instead of scanning your docs - do like I do, take your camera or even the iPhone 4 cam, take a couple if pictures in HiRes - this works faster and the result is ALWAYS better than an average scan.

Trust me on this !!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
CHSeifert said:
Instead of scanning your docs - do like I do, take your camera or even the iPhone 4 cam, take a couple if pictures in HiRes - this works faster and the result is ALWAYS better than an average scan.

Trust me on this !!

...
Click to expand...
Oh, yes! Whenever I need to perform a duplex scan of a stack of 50 sheets, I find that my iPhone 4 camera is just the ticket.

SamNeeds said:
Solution found - http://www.getdoxie.com/product/doxie/features.html
Click to expand...
Pink hearts! I wonder if that scanner is on state contract.
 
SamNeeds said:
Solution found - http://www.getdoxie.com/product/doxie/features.html
Click to expand...

So what's so special about this? Mere 600dpi and non-flatbed scanner? Looks kind of crappy to me. My Canon LiDE100 flatbed is 4800dpi and costs less than half of this thing.

If you scan all your documents to high-quality PDFs, and have a full copy of Adobe Acrobat - OCR is already built right into the Acrobat. There is nothing extra needed.
 
On the cheap? I dunno. I bought the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 last year and have been moving towards paperless. It is great. I use the Rack2-Filer software which works perfectly for me. It is included in the deluxe bundle which costs even more though.
 
Taank said:
On the cheap? I dunno. I bought the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 last year and have been moving towards paperless. It is great.
Click to expand...

I promise you don't need to spend $1500 to go paperless. I spend $65 on my Canon flatbed scanner / software, and my house is 100% paper free ;)
 
hitekalex said:
I promise you don't need to spend $1500 to go paperless. I spend $65 on my Canon flatbed scanner / software, and my house is 100% paper free ;)
Click to expand...
I have this scanner. It is not $1500; the scanner model is the Fujitsu Scansnap S1500. Wonderful scanner. It costs about $400. However, it is duplex, sheet-fed, and works with more versions of MacOS X than that thing with the pink hearts.
 
I have the Neat scanner. It works great and organizes everything for you. I've had it for a month or so now and works great for papers and receipts. Only thing is make sure you order the right one. I told my wife to order the one for the Mac. She ordered one but it was the PC version. I ended up having to send it back and they sent me the correct one. It was my mistake but they were good about it. I just had to pay for shipping the original one back.
 
MisterMe said:
I have this scanner. It is not $1500; the scanner model is the Fujitsu Scansnap S1500. Wonderful scanner. It costs about $400. However, it is duplex, sheet-fed, and works with more versions of MacOS X than that thing with the pink hearts.
Click to expand...
I'm very impressed with this scanner. Both for Windows and Mac, it is a professional grade system. I wish more of my gear worked this well.
 
My take is that in the long run your better off spend the money on a quality scanner like the Scansnap S1500 than you are wasting money on an all in one. The only thing all in ones have going for them is a low up front cost. Other than that they tend to be crap. I have the predecessor to the S1500, the S510M, and it is without doubt well worth the money I paid for it.
 
If you are scanning mostly documents, then a flatbed really is painful for more then a few sheets.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago. I wanted a Fujitsu SnapScan but couldn't justify the money. I ended up going with a Canon imageFormula P-150 document scanner. Still a little pricy ($250 US), but less then the Fujitsu's. The only trouble I had was finding the Mac software, Canon USA did not have it on their website for some reason but Canon Europe did (since it looks like you are in the UK, you should be all good). Not sure how it compares to the Doxie but I have been very pleased with it.
 
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