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Going paperless: Sheet feed, not flat bed May 9, 2009

Posted by Clint Foster in Apple, Gadgets.
3 comments

November 14th, 2009 update: Fujitsu finally released a new version of ScanSnap Manager that corrects a problem in Snow Leopard: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/support/sl_download.html

I bought a sheet feed scanner a couple of weeks ago in preparation for moving. My immediate goal was to scan all the %^#@ real estate documents related to my move so I could toss the originals. But my longer term goal was to scan every scrap of paper I’ve got. I don’t want to move boxes of tax documents, receipts, college papers, etc. ever again.

Although I already had a flatbed scanner, I could never get excited about using it for this purpose because it’s too much work. So I began researching sheet feed scanners that work well with a Mac. I got the contest down to the Epson GT-1500 and the Canon Image Formula DR-1210C. But then I read the customer reviews on the Apple site for the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M. I ended up buying it (through Amazon for $50 less than the Apple store, I’m sorry to say). It turned out to be one of the most useful devices I have purchased in some time. It is tiny, beautiful and fast. It reads both sides of the page at once, and it can reliably handle about 10 to 15 sheets at a time. Best of all, it requires a minimum amount of busy work to get documents scanned into your computer with reasonable default settings.

To turn it on and activate the software you open up the sheet feeder. After that, the work flow is as follows:

  • Load a set of sheets into the feeder.
  • Press the Scan button.
  • Sheets are slurped in (both sides) at a rate of a few seconds each.
  • On the OS X desktop a dialog prompts you to give the PDF file a name and location.
  • Toss originals into the recycle bin. Woohoo!

It’s pretty efficient for getting rid of piles of paper quickly. I do a stack every morning with coffee.

If you want to take it with you on your next camping trip, it will fit nicely in your backpack alongside your portable espresso maker. And it works on USB power (albeit at a slower page rate).

Unlike the slightly pricier Epson and Canon models, it doesn’t do OCR. But if you have a reasonable filing system this may not matter to you.