You might not want a bulky desktop document scanner. A personal scanner is much more convenient for small home offices. But will it work quickly enough to be worth the purchase? Let’s take a look at these two models to see which one meets your needs.
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Mobile Document Scanner
Let’s see if the ScanSnap S1300i fits on your desk and into your routine. It weighs less than 5 pounds and measures 11.2 x 3.9 x 3 inches in size. Once you open up the top panel, it reveals a feeder tray. It can scan up to 12 two-sided pages per minute in auto mode, although its ADF (automatic document feeder) can only hold 10 pages at a time.
The S1300i has automatic paper size and color detection, plus it performs cropping and de-skewing automatically. You can also set it to eliminate blank pages. Its top resolutions are 600 dpi for color scans, and 1200 dpi for grayscale, so it’s possible to create digital reproductions of very high quality. Unfortunately, the ScanSnap can only process one page per minute at the highest resolution.
As you scan, you can send the digital images to a variety of cloud services like Dropbox, Saleforce, Google Docs, and Evernote.
It plugs into your Windows or Mac computer with a USB cable that’s compatible with both 1.1 and 2.0 USB ports. The USB cable both powers the scanner and allows you to transfer files. You won’t need the latest tech to make this scanner work for you. In fact, once you stack the pages in the feeder, all you need to do is press the blue button to begin.
The software bundled with the ScanSnap includes a variety of programs that help you organize and edit your scans. It comes with optical character recognition program ABBYY FineReader, ScanSnap Organizer, CardMinder for Windows, and Cardiris for Mac.
More features of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i mobile document scanner:
- Covered by 1-year limited warranty
Canon imageFORMULA P-215 Scan-tini Personal Document Scanner
The Canon imageFORMULA P-215 Scan-tini is even smaller and lighter than Fujitsu’s ScanSnap S1300i. It weighs just 2.2 pounds and measures only 1.6” tall by 11.2” wide and 3.7” thick. Open the top panel and you’ll see a convenient feeder tray with support for letter or legal-size papers. The tray can hold up to 20 pages at a time.
If you choose to scan color documents, you can process up to 10 pages per minute at 200 dpi. Or you can do up to 15 pages per minute in grayscale at 300 dpi. But should you prefer high resolution clarity, set it to scan at 600 dpi.
The scanner comes with programs like PageManager (for Mac) and Evernote to help you manage and share what you scan. The Scan-tini can also handle items like business cards and ID like driver licenses. With the included Presto! BizCard software, you can quickly organize contacts, too.
But should you be away from your own laptop, you can still plug and play, even on a computer at a business center in a hotel. The P-215 scanner has CaptureOnTouch Lite software that launches when you connect the device with the USB cable. And this program will let you scan without installing other software or drivers. Plus, you can send digital documents to the cloud to collaborate with Google Docs or Microsoft SharePoint.
But the P-215 also comes with TWAIN Drivers so you can launch a scan from inside another program like Word. It’s pre-configurable for repetitive jobs, too. In fact, it’s built to stand up to 500 scans per day.
More features of the Canon imageFORMULA P-215 personal document scanner:
- ENERGY STAR and RoHS certified
- 24-bit color or 8-bit grayscale
- Uses CMOS sensor with RGB LED light
- Compatible with USB 2.0 and 3.0
Recommendation
If you want the smallest and lightest personal document scanner, choose the Canon imageFORMULA P-215. It has a larger feeder tray, plus it’s designed for true mobility. If you don’t have your own computer handy, you can still use the built-in software without installing anything on another PC.
Otherwise, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i might be just what you want for a home office. It’s compact and speedy.
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