Patience and practice necessary for straight scans

At first glance, the Strobe XP100 Visioneer portable scanner looked to be the answer to my mobile scanning needs. At second glance, I was ready to send it back and now, finally, I may be starting to live with it.

It seemed like everything you could ask for with one exception which I discovered as I started using it...I may be able to overcome it. Let's look at the Pros first, though.

In the Box
The XP 100 scanner with a nice travel bag
USB B to A cable
Calibration and cleaning sheets
A Manual
CD-ROM with the scanner driver, ScanSoft PaperPort Deluxe and TextBridge Pro as well as ArcSoft PhotoImpression

Setting up
This was quick and painless. Simply put the CD in your drive and select Install ScanSoft PaperPort. Installation goes quick and with no glitches. Next, plug the scanner into a free USB port and Windows XP, on my Tablet, recognized it immediately and prompted me to calibrate it with one of the included sheets which I did.

Impressions (Good and Bad)
Looking at the scanner on your desk or in your hand gives you the feeling of a well made unit.

Pros
Only 11.4"x1.5"x2" and weighs in at 10.6 ounces.
Up to 600dpi optical resolution and 24-bit color.
Powered via the USB connection. No power cable and transformer brick!
Fairly fast at lower resolutions (my desktop scanner takes about as long or longer to scan at 400dpi, 24-bit color as the Visioneer does
Quiet. Even at the highest resolution and color, the scanner is still extremely quiet. At those same settings, I've had desktop scanners that sounded like someone rolling a cart down the hall 4 offices away.
OCR worked flawlessly on a scan of a typical typed page.
Good image reproduction quality.

This is a feed-type scanner rather than a flat bed, which means paper needs to be loose or unbound to go through. I knew this when I bought it, and anyone who looks at even a small picture of it should see that this is the case. So, I don't consider this a Con.

Cons
Mechanically, the Visioneer appears to be well built. There is one design flaw, though, that is almost a show stopper for me. The feed area is wider than 8.5" This in itself is not bad, but there are no guides for feeding the sheet in straight, and the side that is the guide edge is actually at an angle giving a funnel like input for the paper. Getting a straight scan is not easy to say the least This is somewhat of an annoyance when you have 5 or 6 pages to scan. When you have 30 or 40 you get downright frustrated.

Tips
It is picky as to which scanning application you use, the Microsoft Document Imaging or the One Touch. Hint: Use the One Touch!

I could scan into various applications. I scan to PDF a lot using Adobe Acrobat Professional and this seemed to work for that...at first When I try to Create PDF from scanner, I had to select the scanner from my list of input devices (Logitech WebCam was the other choice I had) No problem. You might uncheck the box about trimming blank space from the scan just to see how bad the scan is. When you select Scan it appears that the Windows Document Imaging box shows up. You can use One Touch if you select that as the program to launch when you insert a page...and it will scan, but it wouldn't scan "into" Adobe. So, I had to use the Microsoft Document Imaging which is contrary to my Hint above, but let's continue. Next, select what type of scan (or set up a custom resolution) and then click Scan. At this point you need to insert the paper and let it scan. The image will then transfer to Adobe but I have invariably found it to be missing about 1/2" of the page (lengthwise) It is either black at the top or, if there is no edge, closer inspection reveals that it is missing about 1/2" from the bottom.

I tried this using the PaperPort that comes with it and selected the Microsoft Document Imaging and was again disappointed. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a way to scan into Adobe using the One Touch since Adobe seems to want to launch the Microsoft Document Imaging.

I have gone back to using the PaperPort and then saving the images as TIFFs and finally importing those into PDF documents. I seem to be able to get a better scan this way and I don't lose the tops or bottoms of the image. This used to be how I scanned documents to convert to PDF, so it's not a real problem.

I have found that if I am really careful I can get a fairly straight scan now. I use PaperPort exclusively. Once you launch it, have the page you wish to image handy and click scan. The Microsoft Document Imaging application may launch, but ignore it. Make sure that you have the scanner set to either default to One Touch or at least ask what you wish to scan with when you insert a page.

To do this, go to My Computer, locate the Visioneer and right click it's icon and select properties. Goto Events and you'll see a drop down list with the option for Scan Button and for Insert Page/Paper (or Page/Paper Inserted) Make sure that the option for both of these is either One Touch or to ask you each time (I have the ask option checked)

If you do that, then ignore the Microsoft Document Imaging application when it launches when you insert a page. Highlight One Touch and click Scan or Ok. Then, quickly adjust the page by pushing in lightly on both sides of it so that it feels like it is firm against the rollers along its entire edge, then make sure that it is slid all the way to the right (against the 0" edge) If you are still firm against the rollers along the entire length of the inserted edge and do this, you have a reasonable chance of getting a straighter scan. I have been trying for a while and am getting fair results most of the time now.