I am looking at my aging in-laws (Americans living in the UK) moving in with us (on the East Coast of the US) possibly. One of them has a 10 boxes worth (as described by them) of creative papers, drawings, etc that they don’t want to leave behind. My suggestion is to scan everything possible, hold onto as little as possible and store that in a few boxes.
So this means I will end up either doing the scanning or using a service of some kind. I am looking for suggestions for the type of scanner (I’m assuming double-sided). What is the fastest scanner to buy for this purpose if I go this route? I’m open to other ways of doing this as well, like services that do this for me. I’m thinking maybe FedEx/Kinkos does this nowadays. But I don’t have any experience with scanning other than scanning my own documents years ago when I used to have more paper than I do now.
I’m curious if there are any faster or if 40 ppm is the state of the art, so if you know that. it would be helpful as well. The alternative is to store 10 or so boxes somewhere and I don’t really think that’s the greatest idea. They wlll be referenced from time to time for ideas (for a book, movie, etc). I want to make this as easy as I can for them.
This is the Scanner, I am most probably will buy within the next few weeks, if I don’t find a solution for my current iX500, to “simulate” the display the iX1600 has.
I am otherwise very happy with my iX500, and as far as I know, the iX1600 is a good successor.
You should make sure, that the format of the paper in those boxes match the maximum size you can scan with the iX1600.
Also there is also a white colored version available, and at least in Germany they are offered at different priceses. Also there are different bundle available, some with only the scanner, and some with different additional software. It might be worth, to observe this also, while you purchase.
For faster scanners you’re going to have to spend big bucks industrialist grade equipment. I have been happy with my Fujitsu 1500. Scanned tens of thousands of pages with no problems. It’s speed is plenty. You are limited to 8.5” wide.
I have had a Fujitsu ix500 for many years now, and it has been working very good. However, I’m also looking for something better – One that has an optical resolution of 1200 dpi.
If you find that in your searches, please mention it here.
I think, with a resolution like that, you will have to look at the area of the Flat-Bed-Scanner, as scanner like the iX500 are, from the way they are build, technical rather not able, to reach solutions like that.
I would go for the “fast” option if I was dealing with 10 boxes. And pay some neighborhood kid to stick papers into it and press the button.
With the V850 I can get excellent results. But that means really dealing with the scan. And it becomes a slow, tedious process.
Another possible route: photographing (a.k.a “DSLR scan”). Also way slower than a dedicated document scanner, but once you have a good setup (camera, tripod, light) it’s fasted than a flatbed scanner.
Wow, lots of great advice! Thank you! I did do a search before I posted but the results were old, though I didn’t search Scansnap specifically. I think I search scanner generically. In this case for choosing two: Faster and Resolution. But this is all good information. Thanks again!
Looking at the ScanSnap iX1600 you link points to, save a bunch of cash and buy it without the Adobe Acrobat bundle. You don’t need that at all.
I, too, have the old iX500 which has been working fine. I’ve done 20,000 pages and haven’t done anything but clean the insides occasionally of dust and waxy paper residue.
Just as important as the scanner you choose is the file type and media format for your scanned documents. How will your aging in-laws access these files? Computer? If computer, then Mac or Windows? iPad? Spinning HDD or SSD? Duplicated for backup? Backed up in cloud? Will the documents be PDF files with OCR for text searches, plus maybe jpg (or tiff) files for photos and drawings?
Think for a few minutes - or days - about what your in-laws will do if you are not there to access their documents for them.
Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners should work well, but you shoud acquaint yourself with certain idiocyncracies. Search this forum for Fujitsu Scansnap and be prepared for hundreds of posts, many not complimentary of Fujitsu’s software changes from the older Scansnap Manager to the newer ScanSnap Home software. I have owned a ScanSnap 1500M for almost 10 years. In the macOS Sierra (or maybe Mojave, I forget) era Fujitsu’s software dropped support for older scanners (but not that old!) when switching to the 64-bit ScanSnap Home software. After much pushback from users, Fujitsu finally relented and updated ScanSnap Manager, which I still use with a current M1 Mac and macOS Monterey. ScanSnap Home came with license restrictions and cannot be used on simply any computer - it must be licensed to a particular computer (or maybe a limited number of computers, not sure of details or how you might transfer a license). Be sure that you understand the software licensing restrictions (onerous, in my opinion) before purchase. Just in the last two years I have used at least 6 to 7 “new” Mac computers, when you consider multiple replaced Motherboards on a 2019 Intel Mac, new macOS installs and recent switch to new M1 Mac computers (Mac Studio and M1 Max MacBook Pro). I truly don’t know how Fujitsu would handle all of these license “transfers” or how much of a hassle it would be if I used the new ScanSnap Home software with its license restrictions.
DIsclaimer - these are old posts from 3-4 years ago. I don’t know the current status of Fujitsu’s software license restrictions. After a long period of turmoil, Fujitsu finally updated the older and unrestricted ScanSnap Manager software that I still use. Fujitsu has already announed that it will deprecate this software in the near future, so ScanSnap Home with its software license restrictions will be the only choice going forward.
I use ScanSnap Home on several Macs, and have done a couple of new OS installations, partly with Hardware changes and so on, within the last 2 years.
I even was not aware, that there might be any license restrictions with the Software, and I also have very few trouble in using it.
The following excertps are from Fujitsu’s webpages describing activating a license for ScanSnap Home:
Activating a License for ScanSnap Home**
To use ScanSnap Home, you need to activate a license. Connecting the ScanSnap to a computer automatically activates a license so that ScanSnap Home is available to be used.
However, there is a maximum limit of the ScanSnap licenses. So, deactivate the licenses for computers or user accounts that no longer use the ScanSnap.
If you register a ScanSnap account and use the account to activate a license for ScanSnap Home, you can do the following:
Use the ScanSnap with up to five devices such as computers or mobile devices under one license.
Scan documents with the ScanSnap and save the scanned images directly from the ScanSnap to a cloud service with ScanSnap Cloud.
Software licenses allowed for one ScanSnap unit:
Software Licenses Allowed for One ScanSnap Unit
Software licenses are the licenses that are activated to use ScanSnap Home.
Connecting the ScanSnap to a computer automatically activates a license so that ScanSnap Home is available to be used.
Four licenses are allowed for one ScanSnap unit, so that multiple users can share the ScanSnap. In addition, licenses can be added by purchasing an additional license
As I wrote, I have it running on 3 iMac, and one MBP without any problems, or issues regarding the license. Even if it is activated by installation, this was no problem at all, and is maybe something only running in the background.
If someone uses the ScanSnap in a rather normal profile, this should be nothing to be concerned about!
