Fujitsu ScanSnap™ fi-5110EOX2 Pass-Through Scanner

I like the new paperless environment that we find ourselves in and/or moving towards. I find that I can be more organized by filing documents digitally versus paper. It's a no clutter way to maintain your important papers and easier, at least for me, to find again if it's organized on the computer.

I found this unit by Fujitsu and I have to say that this is an incredibly powerful piece of equipment. It comes with some great software including Adobe Standard 7.0. If you go to the Adobe website, you will see that they sell this software for US$299. Considering the cost of this software, this scanner purchase is an even greater value! In addition to Adobe Standard 7.0, they bundle Card Minder 2.0 and PDF Thumbnail View along with their ScanSnap Manager which basically is a document organizing package. I have not been able to use the PDF Thumbnail view (I do have the required Windows XP, it doesn't work with Windows 98 as one example) even though I have enabled it. I don't really mind as I didn't buy this scanner for the collateral software aside from the Adobe.

Now on to the functionality of the scanner. Although it is small (approx. 11 inches wide by 7.5 inches deep with a height of 6 inches at the back end and 3.5 inches on the front…it tapers down) this unit packs serious punch. Weighing in at just under 6 pounds, it can scan images in color and is super fast. There are image quality settings which will affect the scan speed, but I can tell you that after testing each image setting the "fastest" setting (there are 4 speeds, normal/better/best/excellent…fastest to slowest order) is more than adequate. This fastest setting results in a smaller file size (doesn't capture as much data) and produces scan speeds of up to 15 pages per minute (30 if you are scanning duplex, i.e. both sides of a page). That's right, this scanner will scan both sides of a page at once! It also can detect blank pages and automatically deletes blank pages from the PDF file that results. This is quite nice if you are scanning doubled sided and single sided documents in the same scan batch. Here are some scan speed and dpi statistics:

Scanning Speed :
Normal mode Color 150dpi, B&W 300dpi: Simplex, Duplex 15 pages per minute
Better mode Color 200dpi, B&W 400dpi: Simplex, Duplex 10 pages per minute
Best mode Color 300dpi, B&W 600dpi: Simplex, Duplex 5 pages per minute
Excellent mode Color 600dpi, B&W 1,200dpi: Simplex, Duplex 0.5 pages per minute
Another excellent feature of this product is the ability to scan directly to a PDF file. It doesn't require any special steps, just scan and within a few seconds, literally, the image appears in color right on your screen.

This unit is compact and the design is excellent. It "folds up" when not in use. When you go to use it, you lift the cover (which wakes the system up) and you can slide out the document catcher (once the document goes through it rests on this catcher). The document catcher slides under the base you rest the scanner on. It is just a genius design. It connects to your computer via a USB 2.0 interface.

Now on certain websites it states that you can only scan up to 8.5 by 11 inch documents. This is not true. I've scanned legal size and longer. I'd say, without folding the document, you are limited to 8.5 inch width (maybe slightly wider, but not much) but length doesn't appear to be an issue. This unit does come with a carrier sheet which allows for larger sized documents to be scanned. I have never used one of these and have no immediate plans to make use of it. I know that I have this tool and if I come across an odd sized document (a newspaper article was one example) I know I have it.

Scanning is a snap! You can set multiple pages in the ADF (automatic document feeder) and just press the green button and the machine does the rest in efficient fashion. I recently discovered an even better way to scan in my opinion. Some documents you scan are one sided (simplex), some are double sided (duplex). Just set the document in the scanner ADF and then right click on the ScanSnap Manager icon in the system tray. From there you just select Simplex or Duplex and the document starts getting scanned! It's a more efficient way of dealing with the option of two sided or one sided versus going into settings and making the adjustment there and then coming out and hitting the green start key.

I have been extremely pleased thus far and will enjoy continuing to use this product!