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Need to scan lots of single- or double-sided documents in a hurry? You need a sheetfed scanner. These desk dynamos can make short work of paper stacks cluttering up your work area. We’ve been testing scanners in PC Labs for decades, and we’ve gathered a list of the best high-speed document scanners, each tested according to our rigorous, objective methodology. We run all scanners through formal, repeatable speed tests, and assess them based on design, usability, bundled software, and value. Our main focus here is on desktop document scanners, and our current top pick for most people is Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX1600. We also stand by our other recommendations, which target narrower usage scenarios (such as portable scanning). First, we’ll outline the pros and cons of each of our choices. Following that summary section is a detailed guide to choosing the best document scanner for your needs.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
Best Desktop Document Scanner for Most Users
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600
Pros & Cons
Comprehensive ScanSnap software
Simple to learn and use
Accurate OCR
Versatile connectivity options, including mobile
6,000-scan daily duty cycle rating
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
1200 ppi
Mechanical Resolution
600 ppi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 14″
Why We Picked It
If you’re going to name a product as Best Desktop Document Scanner for Most Users, it has to be versatile above all. The ScanSnap iX1600’s comprehensive software runs on PCs, Macs, and Android and iOS phones and tablets. A similar version runs on the control panel of the scanner itself, from which you and your team can set up, scan, configure, edit, execute OCR, and perform some rudimentary document management tasks. You get both wired and wireless connectivity, scanning directly to USB drives, a great price—and a rare 4.5-star PCMag rating.
Who It’s For
This and other Fujitsu scanners are so easy to learn and use that a better question might be “Who is it not for?” Families and home-based offices; small offices and workgroups; moderate document archiving applications; scanning into bookkeeping, tax, spreadsheets, and other financial programs; and more—the low- to mid-volume environments that would benefit from the ScanSnap iX1600 are many.
Learn More
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600 Review
Best Receipt Scanner
Epson RapidReceipt RR-600W
Pros & Cons
Fast
Accurate OCR
Strong software bundle, including ScanSmart Accounting Edition
Huge 4.3-inch color touch screen
100-sheet ADF
Robust mobile device and USB thumb drive support
Low price for what you get
ScanSmart not supported on mobile devices
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
1200 ppi
Mechanical Resolution
600 ppi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 240″
Why We Picked It
With the RR-600W, you get a highly capable midrange sheetfed document scanner, Epson’s ScanSmart scanner interface, and the ScanSmart Accounting Edition—a.k.a. Receipt Manager—plug-in. In other words, in addition to capable all-purpose scanning and document management, you get an intuitive, polished interface for capturing and archiving invoices, receipts, and other financial documents. Many scanners nowadays come with receipt scanning software, but few apps are as well-developed as Epson’s.
Who It’s For
Designed for home offices, small businesses, and workgroups with workflows up to about 4,000 scans daily, the RR-600W and its software can handle and archive not only financial data but business cards and everyday document management. A small office can’t do better.
Learn More
Epson RapidReceipt RR-600W Review
Best Front-Desk Document and Card Scanner
Fujitsu Image Scanner fi-800R
Pros & Cons
Fast and compact.
Accurate OCR.
Robust software bundle.
High daily volume rating.
Well-suited to front-desk applications.
Expensive.
Connectivity limited to USB.
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
600 ppi
Mechanical Resolution
1200 ppi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 14″
Why We Picked It
What makes this little powerhouse uniquely suitable for front desk environments? Its ability to operate in two configurations that Fujitsu calls Return Scan and U-Turn Scan, which give the scanner a remarkably small footprint compared to ordinary sheetfed desktop models. Pages perform a U-turn into an output tray that stands nearly upright, instead of onto a protruding paper tray or the desktop itself. There’s also a handy toggle to switch between ordinary paper and business cards and thicker content such as IDs and credit cards, making the fi-800R all the more suitable for quick and easy data harvesting.
Who It’s For
By front desk environments, we mean oh-so-many businesses and organizations. Doctors’ and dentists’ offices, hospitals, insurance office, auto parts or tire or rental counters—nearly anywhere that clients, customers, or patients provide data that needs to be scanned and archived.
Learn More
Fujitsu Image Scanner fi-800R Review
Best Flatbed/Sheetfed Combo Scanner
HP ScanJet Pro 2600 f1
Pros & Cons
Excellent scanner interface software
Accurate OCR and useful document archiving
Lean, compact design
Strong security
Easy to use
No network, wireless, or mobile device support
On the pricey side
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
600 pixels
Mechanical Resolution
1200 pixels
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 120″
Why We Picked It
Flatbed/sheetfed combo scanners like this one offer the best of both worlds—relatively fast scanning of one- and two-sided multipage documents via the automatic document feeder (ADF) plus manual scanning of book and magazine pages, photos, or delicate or easily damaged originals. We’ve looked at a number of combos this year (including the enterprise-worthy Raven Pro Max below), and the ScanJet Pro 2600 f1 checks most of the boxes for a scanner designed to accommodate busy small and home-based offices.
Who It’s For
It’s not built for high-volume, heavy-duty work, but this HP is an exemplary entry-level sheetfed/flatbed combo scanner for small offices or home offices. It’s ideal for digitizing modest stacks of documents via the ADF and high-res photos via the flatbed.
Learn More
HP ScanJet Pro 2600 f1 Review
Best Scanner for Heavy-Duty Document Archiving
Fujitsu fi-8170 Color Duplex Document Scanner
Pros & Cons
Comprehensive PaperStream Capture interface with document management features
Fast and reliable
Accurate OCR
Ready for fleet deployment
USB 3.2 and Ethernet connectivity
No wireless support
No handheld mobile device support
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
600 pixels
Mechanical Resolution
600 pixels
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 240″
Why We Picked It
Our review called the Fujitsu fi-8170 “the state of the document-scanning art,” and that about sums it up. This mid- to high-volume flagship isn’t cheap ($1,195), but is formidably well-equipped for document archiving in busy offices and workgroups. It combines fast, reliable, and accurate performance with USB and Ethernet connectivity; a 100-sheet ADF and 10,000-scan daily duty cycle; and first-class PaperStream Capture software. If you’re not sliding the scanner into your company’s existing document management solution, you can create one with Fujitsu’s optional PaperStream Capture Pro and PaperStream NX Manager.
Who It’s For
Ready for the enterprise or an office or workgroup just south of the enterprise (but overkill for a small office), the fi-8170 oddly lacks Wi-Fi and handheld mobile device support, but otherwise raises the bar for corporate document management.
Learn More
Fujitsu fi-8170 Color Duplex Document Scanner Review
Best High-Volume Enterprise Scanner
HP Digital Sender Flow 8500 fn2
Pros & Cons
Fast scanning.
High daily duty cycle.
Robust software.
Built-in tablet control panel, keyboard, and hard disk.
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
600 ppi
Mechanical Resolution
600 ppi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 14″
Why We Picked It
With its tablet-sized control panel, built-in QWERTY keyboard, and onboard hard drive, the HP Digital Sender Flow 8500 fn2 Document Capture Workstation is an industrial-strength network document scanner. Not only is it ultra-fast and -accurate, but it lets you digitize, edit, and archive your documents all from the same device. To share the wealth, you can connect it to a Gigabit Ethernet network and let some or all of your team members have at it.
Who It’s For
The words “Best High-Volume Enterprise Scanner” don’t leave a lot of room for interpretation. This HP heavyweight is built for capturing and digitizing reams of documents, converting them to searchable or editable text, and saving the results to your desired file format. It’s most likely to make up the heart of your company’s existing document management system or one created with HP’s bundled and optional enterprise software.
Learn More
HP Digital Sender Flow 8500 fn2 Review
Best Office Network Scanner
Brother ADS-4900W
Pros & Cons
Deep document management features
Fast scanning and reliable feeding
Accurate OCR
Can scan to USB memory devices without a computer
Versatile connectivity and strong mobile device support
Large touch screen control panel
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
1200 dpi
Mechanical Resolution
1200 dpi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ X 197″
Why We Picked It
Faster and $100 cheaper than its Best Office Network Scanner predecessor the ADS-3600W, this Brother scanner boasts an ADF that holds twice as many pages, and its 9,000-scan daily duty cycle is a rare find in an under-$700 scanner. Connectivity options abound—Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB 3.0, Apple AirPrint, Brother Mobile Connect—and you can scan straight to a USB drive with no PC involved. Brother’s comprehensive software bundle covers not only the key aspects of document scanning and archiving but even limited photo scanning and editing.
Who It’s For
Given its speed, capacity, accuracy, and bundled scanner interface, editing, and document management software, the ADS-4900W is best suited for environments with serious daily scan volumes over either a wired or wireless network (or both). Smartphone and tablet users can also access the scanner via Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi Direct. In short, this business-class scanner is ready for hectic offices with a variety of users.
Learn More
Brother ADS-4900W Review
Best Sheetfed Scanner for Oversize Documents
Epson DS-30000
Pros & Cons
Fast and accurate scanning and text conversion
High volume rating, including large ADF
Scans documents up to 12 by 17 inches
Versatile scanner-interface software
Moderate-size footprint
Lacks wireless or mobile connectivity
USB interface only; no networking option available
Lacks business-card scanning and archiving software
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
1200 ppi
Mechanical Resolution
1200 ppi
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 220″
Why We Picked It
While there are other scanners that support wide-format tabloid-size (11-by-17-inch) documents, most are too bulky for the average desk. The Epson DS-30000 is certainly bigger than the other scanners in this roundup, but relatively trim considering its ADF accommodates up to 60 tabloid-size originals—or 120 letter-size sheets or 40 postcards or 30 business cards or 10 envelopes or (with an optional carrier sheet) one passport. You can load letter-size originals in either portrait or landscape orientation—try that with an 8.5-by-11-inch scanner—and take advantage of resolutions from 50 to 1,200 dots per inch (dpi).
Who It’s For
Obviously, this wide-format workhorse is designed for offices and organizations that need to digitize and archive plus-sized pages as well as high volumes of standard-size documents. Its 30,000-scan daily duty cycle and speeds up to 140 images per minute (ipm, where each page side counts as an image) make it ideal for fleet and enterprise deployment.
Learn More
Epson DS-30000 Review
Best Entry-Level Sheetfed Document Scanner
Ricoh fi-8040 Document Scanner
Pros & Cons
Comprehensive software with document management features
Highly accurate OCR
Standalone network mode
USB 3.2 and Ethernet ports
Relatively inexpensive
Slower than other fi-8000 series scanners
Modest ADF capacity
No wireless connectivity
Specs & Configurations
Maximum Optical Resolution
600 pixels
Mechanical Resolution
600 pixels
Automatic Document Feeder
Maximum Scan Area
8.5″ x 240″
Why We Picked It
Archival-quality software and accurate OCR scanning are fundamentals that anyone surrounded by fearsome paper stacks (from the casual user taming their personal-finance printouts, to the most harried paralegal on deadline) needs from a document scanner. Scanner ace Fujitsu delivers for the lower end of the market with the fi-8040, which packs a big color touch screen, the ability to scan without a PC, and some impressive image-processing chops, such as automatic rotation and blank page removal. It also features a hardwired network interface (Ethernet).
Who It’s For
Users with moderate scanning loads and a need for both cost-effectiveness and above-average archiving software will find the fi-8040 a solid fit for their page-stack-reducing needs.
Learn More
Ricoh fi-8040 Document Scanner Review
Buying Guide: The Best Sheetfed Document Scanners for 2024
Document scanners are classified and priced according to capacity, volume, and speed ratings, followed by connectivity and functionality (including the ability to scan to smartphones and tablets) and their software bundle. Size, weight, and specialized features may also be factored in, but the main things that push up the price of a document scanner are (1) how much work the scanner can do and (2) how quickly it can do it.To avoid spending a lot on unnecessary functionality, start by figuring out how many pages you must scan daily. A sheetfed portable scanner might be rated for a daily duty cycle of 500 pages. On the high end, some scanners meant for professional use have daily duty cycles of 10,000 pages or more.Another question is how many pages you must scan at a time. If you’re dealing with lengthy documents, you don’t want to have to break them up. A relatively inexpensive desktop model might come with a 50-sheet ADF; a heavy-duty one could hold as many as 250 sheets for serious batch scanning.
The faster or higher the scanner’s volume and capacity, the larger the ADF. (Credit: Epson/PCMag)
One speed factor is whether the scanner has one or two sensors for scanning double-sided documents. Another is the size of the page that you want to scan. All sheetfed document scanners can accept letter- and legal-size pages, but if you’re working with larger sheets, make sure the scanner is big enough to handle them. A few high-end models can feed through sheets up to 20 feet long! On the small side, some scanners have special features for receipts and business cards, with software to help manage expense reports and contact databases.No one wants to stand around waiting for a scan job to finish, and in the real world, that doesn’t just mean the physical process of scanning. When we test scanners, our speed ratings also factor in the time the scanner’s bundled software takes to process the scan and save it to either image or searchable PDF. (We’ll look more closely at bundled software below.) The more you scan, the faster your scanner should be.How Will You Operate the Scanner?The most basic scanner interface is a Scan or Start button, which is fine if you only want to do basic scanning directly to your PC. Touch-screen panels with limited or extensive menus give you more walk-up options. Sometimes, scanning software lets you set up predefined profiles for file type, resolution, and destination that you can then select and run from the scanner’s control panel.In a few cases, the scanner’s own operating system handles profile management and other features. One of the better implementations of this shared functionality is on Fujitsu’s consumer and small-office ScanSnap machines. Whether you’re using ScanSnap software on your computer or operating the touch screen, functions are almost identical, saving you from having to learn two different ways to do the same thing.
Some scanner software, such as Ricoh’s ScanSnap, runs not only on your computer or mobile device but also directly on the scanner’s touch-screen display. (Credit: Ricoh/PCMag)
If you already have a document management system in place, you may not even need most of the software included with your new scanner. However, scanning software packages can do a lot. Various apps and plug-ins enhance and manipulate photos, convert scanned pages to editable text with optical character recognition (OCR), organize and archive business cards, and even extract financial data from receipts and invoices and send it to your tax prep software. Scanning apps for mobile devices are increasingly feature-rich as well.
Nowadays, most scanners have at least one app for operating them remotely, or from your Android or iOS tablet or smartphone. (Credit: PCMag)
Software varies widely from manufacturer to manufacturer and from product to product. This is one of the places where our reviews and roundups come in handy: We zero in on the specific features that make document scanners suited for particular tasks and needs.Which Devices Will Connect to the Scanner?Each scanner comes with a different mix of wired and wireless connectivity options. These control which computers and mobile devices the scanner can work with. They also affect how quickly the scanner can send a scan to your device, as data transfer over Wi-Fi will likely be slower than over an Ethernet or USB 3.0 connection.
Recommended by Our Editors
USB will suffice for connecting a single computer. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, and Near-Field Communication (NFC) will let a scanner talk to a single smartphone or tablet. If you’re looking for a scanner that multiple people can use, be sure it has Ethernet or Wi-Fi to connect to an office network or Bluetooth LE for handling various mobile devices. Some models don’t have Ethernet pre-installed but can be expanded with an optional network interface unit.Your computer’s or phone’s operating system matters much less than it used to. Most major scanner manufacturers offer drivers and software for both Windows and macOS, as well as apps for both iOS and Android handheld devices, wherever some sort of wireless connection (NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct) is available. Some devices can also scan directly to USB flash drives.
Some scanners let you plug in and scan to a USB flash drive. (Credit: Brother)
Ready to Buy the Right Sheetfed Document Scanner for You?Before you purchase a scanner, make sure you know what you want it to do: how much you’ll scan, how fast the scanning process should be, which devices the scanner will connect with, and what the software should do with your scans once they’re processed. Then be prepared to make some trade-offs between features and budget. Multi-sheetfed scanners are often intended for business use and priced accordingly. But with a bit of research, you should be able to find one that meets your needs and doesn’t break the bank.Want to know more about the many scanning options out there? Check out our roundup of the best scanners we’ve tested. And if you need to print, copy, and fax, an all-in-one printer might be your best choice.
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