Automatic document feeders--increasingly a built-in feature--take the tedium out of feeding loose sheets. Some high-end flatbed units come equipped with superfast feeders and the imaging guts to match. Panasonic's KV-SS55EX, for example, can process an impressive 52 single-sided sheets per minute at 150 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution; it also handles double-sided documents. The cost: more than $8,000. For $2,245, the Ricoh FS2 can give you ultrahigh resolution of 1,200 dpi--way more than you need unless you're doing graphic-arts applications. You can also find special adapters for imaging from media like 35mm slides. Keep in mind that flatbed models take up at least 15-by- 20 inches of space.
Desktop-sheetfed scanners are the best choice for offices where workers need to do their own thing. Smaller than an in-box, a sheetfed scanner can sit on a corner of your desk or snuggle between your keyboard and monitor. Visioneer even makes a keyboard with a built-in black-and-white scanner: you just feed documents one by one into a slot located above the function keys.
For large quantities of loose paper or photos up to eight inches wide, you might consider Microtek's Color PageWiz ($159) or Visioneer's PaperPort Strobe ($249). Their built-in automatic document feeders gobble sheets up as you drop them into a slot one by one (some of these machines let you stack up to 10 sheets at a time). Resolution is usually around 300 dpi --more than adequate for handling documents destined for OCR processing and pictures that are going to be posted on Web pages. And if you don't need to deal with bound materials, sheetfed scanners have some serious advantages over flatbeds: prices that dip below $200 and footprints as small as 5 by 11 inches. Low resolution, however, makes them inappropriate for desktop publishing. The top speed of five pages per minute is attainable if you're willing to settle for 100 dpi; raise that to 300 dpi, and the speed drops to one page per minute.
The special-use category is crowded with contenders that can perform tasks beyond the reach of flatbeds and sheetfeds but that are not as versatile. One of the niftiest special-use scanners is the Argus Scan100 ($200). Using its little pop-out tray--like the one on a CD-ROM drive--you can image small opaque objects like stamps and coins or transparent media like color slides and black-and-white negatives. Then there's Storm Technology's Easy-Photo Drive: feed a color photo up to five-by-seven inches into its mouth, and seconds later your picture is scanned. And the machine's $169 price tag--plus rebate--won't devour your graphics budget.
What your computer does with imaged data is at least as important as how it collects those data.
Up until last year, separate programs were needed to control the scanner, recognize characters, manipulate graphic images, and perform other functions. Today PaperPort Deluxe, Pagis Pro 97, and NewSoft's Presto! PageManager Suite ($49) combine those functions in a single package. Click a button on the virtual desktop of any of those programs, and you can launch the scanner, perform OCR, and drag and drop images into virtual folders for filing.
The programs also work easily with other applications and hardware. Want a paper copy? Simply drag a miniature image of the scanned item onto the virtual desktop's printer icon. Or drag the image onto the fax icon if you want to fax it or onto the E-mail icon if you want to send it as an attachment.
Although the most dramatic improvements in imaging are related to text, graphic imaging is also getting better. Tony Zalatoris of Davison Smith Certo, an architectural firm in Westlake, Ohio, used to prepare renderings--depictions of architectural designs in two-dimensional settings--by hand. He'd cut and paste pictures or clip art onto a graphic that he then sent to an offset printer. With NewSoft's View-Office PowerSuite, the Macintosh equivalent of Presto! PageManager, he scans in a photograph of the setting and electronically cuts and pastes the building, automobiles, and other scaled figures, creating a lifelike rendering for his clients. The total cost: around $300 for ViewOffice and a Mustek flatbed scanner. An Epson Stylus Color Ink Jet printer completes the task.
For all the progress it's made, imaging technology still can't cope with handwritten materials. The technology that could decrypt free-form cursive writing is locked in prolonged infancy because available recognition engines require program and memory resources beyond the realm of personal or business computing. So you can keyword-search those 2,000 pages of manual-typewriter-era archives, but your handwritten records--which can be saved only in graphics files--can't be searched.
One last thought: although it's true that imaging technology itself need not cost much, you may have to invest in expanded data-storage capacity--particularly if you plan to keep copious scanned information. Roughly speaking, each scanned text image takes up about 16 Kb of storage--about 1 Mb for 30 pages. Still, when you consider what you save in labor and paper costs, the trade-off seems well worth it.
David Abrahamson is a freelance writer based in Vienna, Va.
Scanning Horizons
Numerous companies offer a wide range of imaging hardware and software. The following list includes only vendors that are mentioned in this article.
Argus, 847-297-8900
Epson , 800-463-7766
Hewlett-Packard , 800-722-6538
Microtek , 310-297-5000
Mustek , 800-468-7835
NewSoft , 800-436-4365
Panasonic , 800-726-2797
Plustek , 800-685-8088
Ricoh , 800-955-3453
Storm Technology, 888-438-3279
Umax Technologies , 800-562-0311
Visioneer , 800-787-7007
Xerox , 800-248-6550
