Could This Replace Fax Machines?

Scanning documents and sending them to email isn't something new in our company. We received our first copier with such functionality built-in several years ago. But, from an IT point of view, copiers are just now fully evolving in the arena of printing and scanning to email.

Once we received a new Canon color copier last year, the interface on that machine greatly raised my hopes. The user interface at the machine is simpler, it's color, and offers far more options. A web interface makes things ever easier. Still, this isn't a machine you can deploy throughout a company due to it's cost and size. People were becoming more and more accustomed to the scan-to-email feature however, so a solution for the masses had to be found. I had my eye on the lookout for years, with everything looking too awkward or gimmicky, when the Scanfront suddenly surfaced.

Enter the Canon Scanfront 220
This is more like it. Its compact size means you have freedom to place it just about anywhere a small fax machine would fit. It's somewhat expensive, but not unreasonably so considering the options and features and position in a new niche. One huge advantage it does have is that it performs Duplex Scanning. Scanning two-sided documents couldn't get much easier.

Inside the box
You won't find much to deal with here. Just the Scanfront, the power cord and adapter/brick, a paper feed roller, and a plastic bag containing the manuals and CD. I have a feeling the feed roller comes uninstalled to make sure you open the top of the scanner and remove packing tape from within, but it installs with extreme ease.

Basic Setup
Getting started really is as easy as plugging things in. But, as the only interface with other machines is a network connection, there is more to do there. If you have DHCP on your network, the 220 will grab an IP address, which you can then find in the network settings. I prefer to manually enter static IP addresses and I also change the name to something more meaningful. Both are things I do with any network resource, be it a server, printer, copier, etc...

Once you know the IP address or Device Name, you can enter either in a web browser (Internet Explorer may be preferred) to access the web interface. Device Name may not work, depending on your network. At the top right of the page is usually a toggle between Administrator Mode and User Mode, but to start, you're only presented with Administrator mode. There's no password out-of-the-box, so simply click Login.

Device Settings
I usually head here first and double check the network settings, such as the name, DNS, WINS, etc... The Time Zone setting can also be changed here. I also enable the Auto-Logout function and change the Administrator password.

Server Settings
The Email Server settings are here. The Hostname is generally easy enough, but many servers require authentication for SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Without it, relaying email from the scanner to anywhere may be prohibited and thus blocked. The Scanfront has a number of authentication options to accommodate this.

Authentication Server and Address Book Server
This has huge advantages on a network domain. The 220 can authenticate users against a directory using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). This means that your users can log into the scanner using the same username and password that they use to log into their PC and that they only have to change their password on the domain and never on the scanner. This applies to logging in at the scanner itself or through the web interface. When a new domain user logs in for the first time, the Scanfront automatically generates a user on the scanner, lightening the work load on IT staff.

Also, with a domain user logged in, the scanner automatically discovers the user's email address and uses that address in the From field, as opposed to saying "From: Canon Scanfront 220."

LDAP Address Book
The 220 can also use LDAP to access the directory as an address book. The only caveat is, as it does not access a user's Exchange Server mailbox, you only see domain users and groups. That's only local users and none of your external contacts as you would see them in Outlook. Our users generally find themselves in the address book and email their scans to themselves, then forward the attachments from their desktops. Otherwise, you can add addresses at the scanner or from the web interface.

User Administration
If you use the scanner with a directory, you have to use the Key-in Type Login. Otherwise, you have the option of using the List Type Login, where you simply select the user from the list presented on the screen. If you go this route, you will have to add users manually in the User Administration screen. You can also use the scanner with no login whatsoever, as default out of the box.

When editing users, whether you create them or they're automatically generated through LDAP logons, you can change the email address and you can change what screen is presented when the user logs in. There is the Home screen and the Job Button screen. The first is the default and most basic. The second may be more efficient if the user does uses the same options every time they scan.

Under User Administration, you can also import and export the user's Jobs and Address Books.

Shared Settings
Shared Address Book and Job Button settings are useful for commonly used destinations or job settings. We have a "Scans" folder on a department drive set as one shared destination for a quick and easy place to save scans. Coupled with that are shared Job buttons that use that destination by default, with varying but commonly used presets. These too can be imported and exported, giving you a method to deploy them on multiple Scanfront 220 machines.

Before scanning...
The Home screen presents 4 options as scanning destinations. Email, FTP, Shared Folder or USB Memory.

Email is rather self explanatory, but many don't realize that it can be very limiting. It wasn't originally designed to accommodate attachments, and anything over a few MB begins to cause trouble and often requires breaking up scans into multiple emails.

Though two different animals, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and Shared Folder could be considered two ways of doing the same basic thing and neither is limited nor hindered by file size. Shared Folder works particularly well in a workgroup or domain, since it works with SMB shares (i.e. Windows Samba type shared folders; \\servername\sharename). Users can "dump" their scans into any shared folder they have access to on our domain.

USB Memory can be any typical USB flash drive (i.e. "Thumb Drive", USB "Stick").

Finally... Scanning
Scanning options are virtually universal regardless of what the destination is. All the usual options for Color or B&W, resolution, and such are there.

You can select between TIFF, JPEG and Adobe PDF file formats. There is an OCR option that applies to PDF files, but be warned that it doesn't translate the image to text. Instead, it embeds hidden text in the PDF and is "laid" over the translated text. A business card will still look like an image of the card, but you can highlight a name and copy the text. Accuracy isn't the 100% and, since you can't see the text, it cannot be easily proof read either. Still, it makes a PDF search-able, which may make OCR worthwhile for some.

Multi-page Scans
The auto-document-feeder holds approximately 50 pages and has been seemingly flawless in the few months we've had these. Whether you use the feeder or feed pages one by one, if it is set to Multipage Scan, the scanner will stop when the next page isn't detected and prompt the user whether to Abort, Continue, or to Complete. If you're not done, insert more pages and hit Continue. Otherwise, selecting Complete ends the scanning and moves on to the next step.

Skip Black Pages Please!
This machine will do just that, and it is particularly useful for Duplex (i.e. Two-sided) scanning. Just note that, if anything is present at all, the scanner will not skip that page. Anything from a scribble, spot, or holes from a 3 hole punch will cause a page to be saved.

Completing the Scan
By default, the scanner will show a preview of a completed scan, with options to zoom and view each page. Adjustments can also be made. Beyond that, and also by default, the scanner prompts you to confirm the destination(s).

Jobs: Streamlining the Process
I mentioned the capability have having the users presented with the Job Button screen rather than the Home screen. Jobs can be thought of as templates. You can change a wide variety of settings to default to your preferences. It could be any number of things, from simply defaulting to a particular destination to making scans one-touch of a job button.

A user could have a job with a destination, subject, and all the scan options set. But the user could also set the Job Button to skip the Destination/Scan Options, Scan Preview and Confirm Addresses pages.

The Scans
We've had problems with flatbed USB scanners randomly omitting text, particularly text in forms. The scanner does a terrific job at providing clear, easy to read scans and have never missed anything. And they do so at 150dpi, half of what we needed on the flatbeds, giving us smaller files. The speed at the resolution is also down right amazing. Of course, quality goes up with higher resolution. Speed does suffer as you go up the scale. There is also no recognizable warm up time for the scanner, adding to the snappiness.

What's for Dinner?
You can feed the Scanfront 220 almost anything 8.5" x 14" or smaller, down to 2" x 2.12", standard or odd sized. While not a regular job, we've had good success at scanning business cards. I also ran a brochure through.

Bound Documents
There is also a switch on the side to allow scanning documents that are bound, whether by staples or in a thin booklet. This basically allows feeding a number of pages through the feeder as one semi-thick stack. Scan the first page, flip the page, feed it again, and repeat until complete. It's an effective solution for a job that otherwise might require a flatbed scanner.

User Reaction
As with any gadget, users seem somewhat put-off at first. But, aside from a few unknowns to explain, they love 'em and find them very intuitive. I never hear anything about them, which, in my world, means they are working and the users understand them. They've been so well received that we bought two more to add to the existing two.

Keyboard and Mouse
Unfortunately, the Scanfront 220 does not come with a stylus. But, it has two USB ports and PS/2 style keyboard and mouse ports. A keyboard and/or mouse could be attached with either or a combination (i.e. USB mouse, PS/2 keyboard), as using both USB ports would render the USB Memory feature inaccessible. We've attached both and the users greatly appreciate it. The touchscreen is very nice, but nothing beats a good old keyboard, while a mouse is more accurate than your finger, particularly for those with long fingernails (where most complaints originated).

Potential Bugs
Login Delay
The one thing most people notice the first time is a slight delay between hitting login and the Processing dialog appearing. Mostly a nuisance.

LDAP Sluggish
Initially, users noted some sluggishness with logging in and accessing the LDAP Address Book. I found that, under Authentication Server, setting the hostname by IP instead of server name sped things up. That may be a DNS issue, which is a service that we are working to move to a newer server.

SMTP Authentication and Exchange 2003
None of the authentication options appeared to work with Exchange Server 2003, so I put an "allow" exception on the email server, as a usual fix for such situations. I have not tried it with any other servers and there has been a software update that may have resolved that issue.

Final Thoughts
The Canon Scanfront 220 is a wondrous product and a seemingly perfect solution for a workgroup network scanner. It does what it was intended for very well, with a well thought out user interface.

Some refinements would be appreciated to this very early firmware. I'd also like to see perhaps at least one more USB port and integrated WiFi would also be hugely advantageous. I'm really nitpicking though and the Scanfront 220 works well as it stands.

This has great potential for at least reducing the amount of faxing done within our company. It has proven to be just as easy as faxing, in some ways easier, while considerably more powerful and flexible.