Document scanning (more)

[ktinkel]

Like others here, I really would like to put my tons of paper into computer format. This discussion in February — Scanner problem? — really whet my whistle, but I have some questions.

What software do you use to manage the scanning? For the Mac I see recommendations for (and against) Mariner Paperless, Neat Notes, and Ironic Yep.

For storing I have Yojimbo (and a demo of SOHO Organizer, but I don’t think it is much better).

Do I need some other tool to get things copied, labeled, tagged, and stashed?

Not sure what functional differences there are between Fujitsu 1500 and 1300. The $450 1500 has a special Mac version. The $250 1300 is portable and claims to work on Mac or PC.

Any advice?

[Michael Beloved]

I had luck with ABBY Fine Reader 9.0. By now there must be a more advanced version. One thing with them is that there is a limited number of times you can reinstall their software. Every time you do, you have to get a activation code from them. I guess they don't want anyone to sell the software to others.

It is however very good at scanning and at OCR. Almost anything can do a scan. It is the OCR recognition bit that is the technicality as far as I can see. Some of my books were in manuscript form which was done with a pre-computer age typewriter and ABBY was very helpful in converting that into a Word 2007 document with very few mess-ups.

[ktinkel]

Thanks. Didn’t realize there was a Mac version.

[Michael Beloved]

They are pretty good on their phone line or with email correspondence.
You can explain to them what you expect from the product and get their assurance that it will do that before you buy.

http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/

[Steve Rindsberg]

Here's a decent rundown of the differences:

http://www.documentsnap.com/fujitsu-...els-different/

BTW, it's not that the 1500 is im-portable, so to speak. Folded up, it's 11 wide by maybe 6 deep and not very heavy. It does have a power brick. I don't know whether the 1300 does or not; maybe it's USB powered.

But how often have you been somewhere and instead of berating yourself for not having had a V8, thought "Dang. If only I had my scanner!"?

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

With KT's tons of paper I would have thought that the 1500 wins hands down because of ppm.

I wonder what they charge for duplicating the software if KT needs both Mac and Windows capability?

My very first scanner was a flatbed business level Fujitsu scanner scsi connected and it was built like a Rolls Royce! Beautifully engineered but I expect everything is plastic nowadays especially at those prices. I think I paid £400 back in the 1980's and that was from a discount, surplus store! That would have been about $650 back then.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Hugh Wyn Griffith

With KT's tons of paper I would have thought that the 1500 wins hands down because of ppm.

I may have been a bit hyperbolic. And even if I had tons, it isn’t all in the same place or same state, so the scanning may be an off-and-on business.

But I guess I would be frustrated if I bought the smaller unit, then got really efficient and enthusiastic and found I needed the larger. Hmmm.

I wonder what they charge for duplicating the software if KT needs both Mac and Windows capability?

Dunno. Probably would not arise for me.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[ktinkel]

Interesting article. Thanks.

The speed and capacity entries are especially to the point: 20 ppm vs 8; 50 vs 10 sheets of paper at a time. The 1500 will save time fussing.

And I see that I do not need to struggle over the software (unless the ABBYY Fine Reader is not useful). Both scanners ship with it.

[Steve Rindsberg]

>> With KT's tons of paper I would have thought that the 1500 wins hands down because of ppm.

I suppose it'd depend on how patient the human feeding the scanner is. For me it wasn't so much the speed as the tray capacity. As long as the feed mechanism is reliable, I wouldn't care whether 50 pages took two minutes to scan or twenty, so long as I didn't have to stand there and baby-sit it. But having to feed it a much smaller number of pages at a time would be the deal-breaker ... it'd more or less chain you to the thing.

In this case, there's no need to choose. You can get a smaller tray AND slower scanning speed if you want. <g>

>> I wonder what they charge for duplicating the software if KT needs both Mac and Windows capability?

I don't think KT allows Windows computers on the property.

>> My very first scanner was a flatbed business level Fujitsu scanner scsi connected and it was built like a Rolls Royce!

Mine was an HP that would only work on a Mac until somebody on Compuserve (it might well have been you, in fact) pointed me at the tricks to getting it working on a PC. Also built like a tank.

>> Beautifully engineered but I expect everything is plastic nowadays especially at those prices. I think I paid £400 back in the 1980's and that was from a discount, surplus store! That would have been about $650 back then.

Yep. I think the HP went for nearly $2,000 at the time.

The Fujitsu s1500 is so light that there simply can't be much metal in it, and some users would probably tear it to pieces in short order; the ones who SLAM doors instead of just ssssshutting them. But with gentle use, this should last, I think.

[Steve Rindsberg]

For me, the extra cost of the 1500 was well worth it. That 20 ppm is not marketdroidspeak by the way. For b/w scans, it really does hit that or close enough. That doesn't include time to OCR, mind.

What seems to work best for me for batches of stuff is to do straight scans, no OCR. Accumulate a bunch of them in the scan manager program provided with the scanner. Then when I'm ready to take a long break or to knock off for the evening, select them all and turn the OCR engine loose.