Scanners / Home Fax / Home Copier

[florida_guy]

I have tons of papers, becuz uv I'm a pack rat, cluttering up my house, good grammer huh?

I'm thinking that if I could scan OCR them then they would not being taking up space and I could use search for the content I needed more easily that sorting through boxes

It would probably be nice to scan some of my old fashioned photos too.

I've done some web research on this and I can't find any recent reviews. Seems like this is a dead market.

I also found out what an MFP is. I really don't need a printer but a scanner/copier/fax machine wouldn't be bad.

Mostly though I want a FAST ACCURATE OCR Scanner. If it takes forever to scan or isn't accurate I won't use it to depackrat myself.

Your experience and knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. :-)

[rockman19762001]

I have a hp officejet v40 fax-scan-copier-printer. I bought it 4 years ago for my home based office. Excellent product and hp does a tremendous job with support on their web site.

[florida_guy]

Originally posted by rockman19762001
I have a hp officejet v40 fax-scan-copier-printer. I bought it 4 years ago for my home based office. Excellent product and hp does a tremendous job with support on their web site.

I would hope that in 4 years the technology has gotten better and cheaper. Do you remember how much yours was? Does it OCR well? How fast? Is there a limit to how many questions I can ask?

[rockman19762001]

Forgot I also have a hp Scanjet 4300c, it will handle larger legal size sheets if you need to scan larger images. One point I like about my Scanjet 4300c is that you can remove the lid and scan very large images on a completely flat surface. An just like my v40 hp has excellent web site support.

[TheWorm]

I just bought a Canon MP730 (scanner/printer/fax/copier). Autofeed is a necessity for scanning (and faxing) and a few units out there lack it. It also has the flat glass for large/odd-size items. Very happy with it. Haven't OCR'd, but IIRC it uses a 3rd party app for that (TextBridge?).

I sorta swore off HP inkjet printers (though my previous Officejet was excellent -- til it broke and the replacement part is no longer available or manufactured -- and my photosmart is good, too) only b/c I felt their ink dried out too fast (if the printer's unused for any period of time) and I was sick of replacing 90% full cartridges. Combined with their habit of terminating software support/upgrades for items 3+ years old (i.e., no XP drivers for some items I have) it was time for a change.

[rockman19762001]

My v40 cost $150.00 the scanjet 4300c $110.00, they both scan any image up to legal size in about 10-15 seconds with very good resolution. Yes, there is a limit to questions you can ask, I'am not a computer geek only a user. Now, my son is a computer engineer an knows an answers all my questions.

[colorider]

We have had the HP Officejet G85 for a couple years. Very happy with it!!!

[florida_guy]

Originally posted by colorider
We have had the HP Officejet G85 for a couple years. Very happy with it!!!

The scanners I Iwas researching were $200 and these all in ones are around $150. Something's got to give there. I'm just wondering what it is that I give up.

[Ziploc]

Originally posted by colorider
We have had the HP Officejet G85 for a couple years. Very happy with it!!!

We've had our HP Officejet G85 for about 4 years now and continue to be quite happy with it. But I must say that I've never used the OCR software so can't comment on that.

Re the personal papers you want to OCR.....I'm not up on the VERY latest OCR technology, but it's been my experience that you may find it more trouble than it's worth. Don't know how important character-by-character accuracy is for you, but you will not achieve 100% accuracy even with the most "scan-worthy" highly legible material you may have available. Also, lots of stuff just plain isn't suitable for OCR scanning....you'd have to do so much cleanup that I'm sure you'd find the time and trouble unacceptable.

I'd recommend that you try to arrange an opportunity in the store to scan a range of "typical" material and evaluate the results before you purchased anything.

[TheWorm]

Good points from Ziploc re: OCR and accuracy. I wonder whether FLGuy has a real need for OCR...perhaps just a saved image would suffice for archiving...?

In which case, a document feeder and decent bundled software to autosave as a JPG, GIF or other *small* image would be needed. If it autosaves as TIFF files, they'll be enormous, and then you have the extra step of converting the files to something more reasonable in size.

[terrier]

Another thing to consider, is that if OCR is what you want, you don't have to stick with the software that comes in the package with any device. OCR software is a simple add on. You can save the images and spend some time researching the software thats best for your needs. (handwritten or typed) (you'll pay a premium for good handwritting ocr)

Terrier

[florida_guy]

Originally posted by TheWorm
Good points from Ziploc re: OCR and accuracy. I wonder whether FLGuy has a real need for OCR...perhaps just a saved image would suffice for archiving...?

Well, maybe but a couple of reviews I read made it sound like OCR had finally come of age, so that's why I started thinking that way.

Another friend of mine suggested scanning it to a PDF file. Hmmm...

[jay]

Originally posted by florida_guy

Well, maybe but a couple of reviews I read made it sound like OCR had finally come of age, so that's why I started thinking that way.

Another friend of mine suggested scanning it to a PDF file. Hmmm...

OCR software is a lot better than it used to be, but scanning is still a slow process. That light bar only moves so fast. And scanning to a PDF, you lose the "search" capability you mentioned in an earlier post. My opinion, based on 15 or so years of personal and professional experience, buy another filing cabinet. Scanning is a slow, tedious process, and the multi-purpose devices are intended only for onesey twosey scans and copies. I have better things to do with my free time.

[florida_guy]

Originally posted by jay
OCR software is a lot better than it used to be, but scanning is still a slow process. That light bar only moves so fast. And scanning to a PDF, you lose the "search" capability you mentioned in an earlier post. My opinion, based on 15 or so years of personal and professional experience, buy another filing cabinet. Scanning is a slow, tedious process, and the multi-purpose devices are intended only for onesey twosey scans and copies. I have better things to do with my free time.

This is the kind of advice I need. Thanks.

What would you think about just scanning the documents as "pictures" that aren't searchable or editable. Is that at all practical?

[jay]

Originally posted by florida_guy

This is the kind of advice I need. Thanks.

What would you think about just scanning the documents as "pictures" that aren't searchable or editable. Is that at all practical?

My opinion, you've traded one problem for another. In a filing cabinet, you can rifle through it looking at stuff trying to find what you need. With a bunch of PDFs, unless you give them good file names and index them, you'll spend more time opening each one up to remember what's in the PDF. Sure, you eliminated the OCR step at the beginning, but how really useful is the end result.