566: Paperless Strikes Back

BrettFL · February 23, 2021, 8:11pm

Have a friend that just got the Raven Pro and is very happy with it. I watched a few reviews on it and it looks and sounds like a super scanner with some nice features ScanSnap lacks.

Coulmac · February 25, 2021, 7:31am

Great! Just bought the ix1500 at the end of last year

MacSparky · February 25, 2021, 5:58pm

@pilotgt
Looking into Genius Scan. Scanner Pro seems to have gone off the rails.

As to Raven Scanner, I am going to be adding that to the next free update. It’s a solid scanner from a small company. I’m always a sucker for small companies. Working on that now.

Bmosbacker · February 25, 2021, 6:52pm

How has Scanner Pro fallen off the rails? I’m not debating you; you are no doubt right. I ask only because I just switched to Scanner Pro from SwiftScan because the latter eliminated some options that now require a subscription.

WayneG · February 25, 2021, 7:26pm

I’d be interested in knowing that too. I’ve been using SP for 9 years and have not noticed any problems. Automatic scans work great and OCR, with clear originals, is normally perfect.

DannyR · February 25, 2021, 9:23pm

I was looking at those just the other day. I’m debating what scanner to buy and have been drawn to the Epson EW-300. Anyone have experience with it? Is it worth spending more on a Scansnap or Raven?
The plan is to scan stuff into DevonThink

ybbond · February 26, 2021, 5:25am

I’m not speaking for David, but I think Genius Scan’ document border detection by far the best.

After Macstories featured Genius Scan, I decided to have a look on scanner apps. I tried Apple Notes, iSolid’s Quickscan, Scanner Pro trial and Genius Scan.

My test was scanning some citizenship documents, some of the papers are already yellow, or the actual color is yellow. Some of them has ornaments near the border. I then share to DTTG3 and Onedrive. My phone is embedded to selfie stick with just enough lighting, for the sake of consistency in the testing angle.

Apple Notes is too basic, and exports the scanned documents with white paddings.
Scanner Pro is good, but as I said earlier the document border detection is bad enough that I need to retake some document.
iSolid’s Quickscan document border detection is somehow better than Scanner Pro, but the app lacks scanned documents manager.
Genius Scan’s border detection is the best, it featured scanned document manager and sharing.

Note that IMHO all of the mentioned scanner app’s OCR (if exist) is bad for Indonesian language that I still need to OCR them on DEVONthink desktop.

WayneG · February 26, 2021, 11:37am

Sounds like you’ve done your homework. I hope Genius Scan continues to give you good service.

Bmosbacker · February 26, 2021, 2:38pm

You know what I don’t like about this forum? It “makes” me spend money! Based on your post I purchased Genius Scan+ I’ll post my experience after I’ve used it a while.

GraemeS · February 26, 2021, 2:54pm

And I’m trying out iSolid’s Quickscan as I don’t want a document manager. At least my pick is free (with too far)

DannyR · February 27, 2021, 6:26pm

Any thoughts or experienced to share?

ERJ_T · January 9, 2022, 2:22pm

I just got the Paperless Field Guide and was excited to check out Scanner Pro - it has a subscription fee now

WayneG · January 9, 2022, 3:14pm

I’ve been using Scanner Pro for many years and wasn’t aware of this. Apparently I’m grandfathered in to the current version but will have to switch to a subscription if I want any new features in the future.

I expect all but the most basic software will eventually require a subscription, but if I ever need to upgrade SP I’ll definitely check out the competition first

ERJ_T · January 9, 2022, 5:00pm

I searched around and saw Genius Scanner recommended. They have a sub option, but I was able to do what I wanted to with just a ten dollar purchase!

grs · January 9, 2022, 5:02pm

I think Genius Scan is a very good app and I prefer it to Scanner Pro (for reasons I can’t remember!).

scottdellar · March 29, 2022, 5:51am

Genius Scan performs on OCR on the document, which is pretty standard across many apps. What is really cool is that it detects all of the dates in the document and then when you name the document, you tap a detected date and it names the document (YYYY-MM-DD format) with that date. In the same way, it detects keywords and allows you to tap them to add them to the filename. This is a great little quality of life thing if you are scanning many documents and want to name them somewhat meaningfully before moving on.

Another feature I like is automation tied to tags. For instance, if I know I want to export a document somewhere for Hazel to pick it up, I just tag it “Hazel” and then Genius Scan fires the rule I set up in Genius Scan to save it to iCloud Drive, where Hazel can then perform it’s magic.

budjames · August 10, 2022, 6:57am

I have the i1600. It’s a great upgrade to the iX500s that I have been using for years.
Bud