This scanner is simply the best I have ever seen. The flat bed scanners and the all-in-ones I have used with my Intel iMac G5 all suffered from various problems that made scanning a maddening experience that I couldn't fit into the work flow of any project regardless of how simple it might have seemed. Most scanners are geared for the PC world and Mac software is mediocre at best and usually flat out useless. This scanner and its software are aimed at the Mac market and they have done it the right way.
Following the quick start instructions to the letter, and I suggest you read them all the way through before starting, I had the unit up and running in a few minutes.
It doesn't take long to see the beauty of opening the unit and putting something in to be scanned, pressing the "scan" button and seeing the resulting PDF on your screen within seconds! There are many output and storage options as well, to fit just about any workflow application.
This scanner has become a key part of my day to day work, and I can't imagine trying to do without it.
The unit has a small footprint and for power has a power cord or it can be powered by the appropriate type of USB port making it portable as well. This small size makes the unit mobile, but the tradeoff is that you can't scan bound volumes.
Any group of pages I have loaded in the document feeder (and I have loaded as many as 11) have been scanned flawlessly in seconds.
This is a great product. ScanSnap S300M Clr 600DPI USB 10PG Adf Mobile Scanner
Tiny. Fast. Push one button. (Although there's also a very nifty Quick Menu that let's you rename, file in a specific location, send to iPhoto, print, email, etc.)
It's unbelievably small and light and unbelievably fast.
I'm an artist/designer/educator and I'm always clipping images and arcane bits of text. I sent odd size pieces of flimsy paper from the New York Times magazine without a hitch.
I love this product. It's one of the best purchases I ever made.
If you can, go for the 510M, its big brother. This one is smaller, and can be USB powered (if you don't mind the speed divided by 2) if you want a clean desktop. But the footprint of both scanners is nearly the same, speed boost on the 510M makes a huge difference in every day use.
The text recognition software bundled in the 510M is a must have : it allow full text indexing with spotlight on MacOS, so you can recover an scanned invoice in a matter of seconds. On this 300M you need to name your files correctly.
Except that, 300M is a very good piece of hardware, silent, fast, reliable.
This scanner is, perhaps, the single most amazing peripheral I have ever used in my 25+ years of computing. Simply put, it does EXACTLY what it claims to do: Duplex scan darn near any document you can feed through its scanning mechanism (Only limitation is it cannot scan thick or bound items - so if that is your need, you will have to revert to a flatbed scanner).
However, for document scanning, this scanner coupled with DevonThink Pro Office is a 5 star paperless office solution. If it is a piece of flat paper (or similar substance - I have successfully scanned plastic & thin metal as well!) it scans into your mac and DevonThink takes care of the OCR and document filing inside DevonThink's outstanding (again 5 Star) document archive/management software.
If you are truly wishing to move to the *practical* era of a "paperless office" This scanner and DevonThink are your complete solution.
What is really amazing? you can kick this puppy into "Hi Rez" mode (600DPI) and scan in photos that you can manipulate in photoshop and print on a 6 color inkjet printer at 8x10" print size with photorealistic results. NO this is not a dedicated 4800DPI professional scanner! But GEEZE! You are scanning photos on the road and on the fly :-)
This dinky thing is not much bigger than a large paperback book and:
* comes with a free (by mail) carrying case,
* CAN power itself off your MacBook/Pro's USB port
* (scans using USB power are @ 20% slower in my experience but who cares! you are scanning ANYWHERE and ANYTIME!)
* has a completely bulletproof recovery from scan jams
* (yes they DO happen and one button fixes it and the darn Fujitsu scanning software is smart enough to self-correct and ask you to rescan the jammed sheet--even in the middle of a 30+ page scan!)
* It will scan stacks of different sized paper and auto-recognize the size! (For instance, for my non-profit work I will scan a 8x10" event report sheet and immediately follow that with a 3x6" business-size check - I have successfully scanned a stack of 10 reports & checks in one session)
* Is 100% Mac-Like in operation: It *JUST WORKS*
* Unpack it, plug it in, open the lid, insert sheet, scan, DONE!
(Disclaimer: I do not work for either Fujitsu or DevonThink, although I have beta tested DevonThink in the past, I am a PAID licensee of DevonThink Pro Office - YES it is THAT good! :-)
Just get this scanner - you will NOT regret it! - Fujitsu - Portable Scanner - Mac - Mobile Scanner'
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