Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 High-Speed Scanner
21/03/14 17:00
Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 High-Speed Scanner for Mac & PC
Rating: ★★★★★
For most people, if they have a scanner at home, it’s built into a printer (i.e. an “all-in-one” printer/scanner/copier/fax). This type of scanner can do the job of scanning an occasional document into their Mac or PC, or a photo when needed. But what if you had a lot of pages to scan? What about a lot of pages with text and/or images on both sides of the paper? What about converting the scanned-in image of text into editable and searchable text in, say, a PDF? Lastly, how fast would this scanner be?
Enter the Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500!
Pros: Very fast scanning! I was able to scan a 50-page computer magazine (both sides - 100 total sides) into 300 DPI, searchable PDF file in less than 3 minutes! Fujitsu claims the ScanSnap ix500 can scan both sides of a document, in color, at a rate of 25 pages per minute. The ScanSnap software also provides for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which converts the scanned-in image into searchable text.
By contrast, my Epson all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax could only scan a 1-page document (2 sides total) in about that time. Additionally, the Epson scanner was not able to perform the OCR needed to make the document searchable because it did not come with the appropriate software. Many all-in-one printers don’t feature good quality OCR software.
The ScanSnap can be connected either via USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 compatible) or via a wireless connection (aka: Wi-Fi). You can even scan directly to your iPad or iPhone too!
It works on both Macs and PCs and comes with the Windows-version of Adobe Acrobat XI Standard.
It’s compact. The entire scanner, when closed, is about the size of a 4-slice toaster.
Cons: There are only 2 cons that I can think of regarding this scanner.
The first: cost. It’s very expensive for a “one-trick pony” in that it’s just over $400. Yes, you read that correctly. The price, however, is comparable to the Neat brand scanner you’ve seen advertised on TV.
The second: scanning photographs may take some additional customization with respect to scanning settings to achieve the best scanning results. To be fair, most everything I scanned came out perfectly but color photographs took some “tweaking” to make sure the colors were accurate in the scanned version.
Comments: If you have a lot of paper that you want to get off your desk and organized such as you would in an office or even a home office, there’s no better way to do that than with a high-speed scanner. Do your homework and compare the ScanSnap to its main rival, the Neat brand scanner, and you’ll see the ScanSnap is the better choice. Compare the total number of reviews for both brands on Amazon, for example, and then compare the number of 4- and 5-star ratings for the ScanSnap versus the Neat and the choice will become clear.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 high-speed scanner is worth every penny! The ScanSnap is, quite simply, the best scanner I have ever used - bar none.
Rating: ★★★★★
For most people, if they have a scanner at home, it’s built into a printer (i.e. an “all-in-one” printer/scanner/copier/fax). This type of scanner can do the job of scanning an occasional document into their Mac or PC, or a photo when needed. But what if you had a lot of pages to scan? What about a lot of pages with text and/or images on both sides of the paper? What about converting the scanned-in image of text into editable and searchable text in, say, a PDF? Lastly, how fast would this scanner be?
Enter the Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500!
Pros: Very fast scanning! I was able to scan a 50-page computer magazine (both sides - 100 total sides) into 300 DPI, searchable PDF file in less than 3 minutes! Fujitsu claims the ScanSnap ix500 can scan both sides of a document, in color, at a rate of 25 pages per minute. The ScanSnap software also provides for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which converts the scanned-in image into searchable text.
By contrast, my Epson all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax could only scan a 1-page document (2 sides total) in about that time. Additionally, the Epson scanner was not able to perform the OCR needed to make the document searchable because it did not come with the appropriate software. Many all-in-one printers don’t feature good quality OCR software.
The ScanSnap can be connected either via USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 compatible) or via a wireless connection (aka: Wi-Fi). You can even scan directly to your iPad or iPhone too!
It works on both Macs and PCs and comes with the Windows-version of Adobe Acrobat XI Standard.
It’s compact. The entire scanner, when closed, is about the size of a 4-slice toaster.
Cons: There are only 2 cons that I can think of regarding this scanner.
The first: cost. It’s very expensive for a “one-trick pony” in that it’s just over $400. Yes, you read that correctly. The price, however, is comparable to the Neat brand scanner you’ve seen advertised on TV.
The second: scanning photographs may take some additional customization with respect to scanning settings to achieve the best scanning results. To be fair, most everything I scanned came out perfectly but color photographs took some “tweaking” to make sure the colors were accurate in the scanned version.
Comments: If you have a lot of paper that you want to get off your desk and organized such as you would in an office or even a home office, there’s no better way to do that than with a high-speed scanner. Do your homework and compare the ScanSnap to its main rival, the Neat brand scanner, and you’ll see the ScanSnap is the better choice. Compare the total number of reviews for both brands on Amazon, for example, and then compare the number of 4- and 5-star ratings for the ScanSnap versus the Neat and the choice will become clear.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 high-speed scanner is worth every penny! The ScanSnap is, quite simply, the best scanner I have ever used - bar none.
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