(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best office scanners & accessories

Yay that your boss went for an Amazon GC :) It's great of you to share!

I really, really want a second gen Nest Protect smoke alarm. Kind of pricey but you get what you pay for in a good way! It's the best selling smoke alarm on Amazon. The company makes really good advanced products. They have dual sensors and a carbon monoxide alarm. No other alarm has that. They interconnect with each other wirelessly, and talk to give you information. They alert your phone and have different color alerts, and more. (Actually, I really want 3 of these, but 1 would be a good start. What we have are so old and crappy that I don't trust them at all. They are the $10 kind, and I should have replaced them at least 3 years ago.) I think this is what people need to be safe.

I also want this professional stainless steel mandoline badly, either one of the versions available, because it's built tougher than the others that have plastic parts. The reviews are so good, and I think it would outlast two of the others, and be easier to use, so it would be very worth it. A lot of the others don't cut as evenly or are difficult to hold and move the fruit or vegetable. I want this for making healthy homemade snacks.

I really need the Levo Deluxe holder for tablets so I can see and use my ereader and old tablet while I'm flat on my back. I'm planning ahead and trying to get the items that will help during recovery from surgery and I won't be able to prop up my head or use the laptop or TV. It's a bit expensive, but this is the second generation one that works better. This holder seems better than all the other ones I've seen because this can suspend the tablet facing down from above. This can also be great for mounting the tablet when you're sitting on the couch or bed, or at a desk, like pictured, so I would use it regularly. (The non-deluxe version is $54.99 on Amazon. They also have a version that stands on the floor instead of clamping on a table.)

I also would be so happy to have the pink vibrator from my NSFW list. I am not linking to it because of it being NSFW. It came out last year and won an award for the unique motion it has. It has some great reviews, and I would love to try it. I think most women should try toys like this one, even if you're currently happy, maybe this would be better!

Another thing that would be extremely cool and useful to have is a portable scanner that is really light and small. Any that's good, but I have put this color mobile document scanner on my wishlist. It has better reviews than the Epson and it's currently cheaper because a seller has refurbished ones available. It's quick and has such good reviews. This will help prevent things from getting lost and cluttered when we are out of town or just out in the car. I think these are going to sell out before you get a chance to decide because Amazon is ranking it number one for mobile scanners. A few minutes ago, the seller had 3 left, and now they have 2 left. But it says "more on the way" so hopefully these can be backordered or gotten later.

Hi. Thanks for your post. I'm looking to create something that I can display comfortably on a 1080p TV, touch up in Photoshop/Lightroom and keep for archival backup purposes as an alternative to the slides and basically just make them look 'nice' so my dad can flick through them and smile on his tablet.

The Plustek Opicfilm seems pretty pricey but I was expecting something quite specialist like this to be so. How do you think something like this Veho VFS-008 would perform as a cheaper alternative?

I do actually own a flatbed scanner. It's a Kodak Hero 7.1. One of their all-in-one scanner, inkjet printer office devices. A quick Google led me to a Kodak support page that made me believe it would be unsuitable for the task though:

>Unfortunately, KODAK All-in-One Printers do not have the capability of scanning slides or film. The scanner is designed to scan pictures and documents only. Scanning film requires an extra light to shine through the film for scanning.

$1600 is a little too much for me to be investing to be honest there. Thanks for the suggestion though.

>As others have implied there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to learning how to scan. I've been doing it for about 3 months now and I'm still learning new things. My biggest fear would be to learn something at slide 290 and decide you want to go back and apply it to all of them.

Any guides or tips to get started scanning properly?

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

>How do you guys handle reference material in your GTD systems? Do you use any applications? Do you have any advice or recommendations on how I could improve my setup? I am looking forward to any suggestions.

DA's recommendations regarding filing cabinets requires a pretty hefty investment of space. I think it requires drawers with bottoms so you can just put manilla, not hanging folders in them, and a way to prop them all upright in the back. this one fits the bill.

I have filing cabinets like that, but I now use a folder based organization system for digital files like you. In terms of expandability, there's no comparison.
I keep Project reference files, Reference files, and a whole bunch of other stuff in dropbox, and organize projects and reference files using some conventions regarding file names. For example, I have folder names like:

"Project - replace tires" this would be an ongoing current project
"Ref - 2018-2019 Receipts" this would be reference materials
"Ref - Project - plan picnic due (2019-03-04)" this would be a finished project, project files saved for reference

I place whatever files needed into the appropriate reference or project folders.

I think it's important for reducing friction that the right reference and project folders be easily accessible from the next actions list. I use 1 long text file to store all my @nextactions and Project tasks, using the Taskpaper convention.

Good thing about having it all in dropbox is you can obtain a share link for each file/folder and copy and paste that link to whatever task/project management app you use for reference, so it's a click away. I can do the same with gmail links - I think there's a chrome plugin for generating links for individual gmail threads - which I copy and paste into my next actions list regarding projects.
The bad thing about keeping everything in dropbox is security, especially regarding sensitive personal information.

If you only have a few papers to store, I would recommend a document scanner to turn it all digital. Just name the files descriptively so you can search for it later - ex. not "financial_aid.pdf", but "2018-2019 financial aid application_due/submitted yyyy-mm-dd.pdf" It'll do duplex (2 sided scanning) and includes an automatic sheet feeder. Included software for this model can also encrypt PDF files with passwords for some additional security when storing files in the cloud.

If you have the funds and space and/or need, Fujitsu ScanSnap ix1500 is the heavy duty version of the same thing.

I dunno what results you need, but these days I use a smartphone. There are some good apps out there that can deskew, find pages, even OCR the scans. Like Adobe's free one. Helps to have a stand for the iPhone and maybe a way to flatten the source, and some light, but it works great. Like maybe https://www.amazon.com/ScanJig-Pro-Plus-Recognition-Difficulties/dp/B008EEST9I

Some apps can even pump them direct to a computer.

A lot of 3D scanning is finding the right lighting conditions, the space to move around the subject, and how good is the software. There is probably a next generation coming but the 3D Sense from 3D Systems is a repackaged Realsense with their 3D Sense software. It helps that it has a forward diffuse lighting built-in. The Realsense short-throw has about 3mm resolution. It's a good starter to learn all the ins and outs, get output that isn't totally frustrating. The best thing is have a Windows Surface or touch screen laptop in a harness and walk around the subject with the scanner in one hand. The motion can't be too fast or track will be lost and it can't be too slow because the software will use up all the memory. Not too much of a risk for a learning experience and get useful working material. 3D Sense has some nice finish-up editing.

On Amazon

I use a Scandoo DNT hand scanner when I'm visiting. It writes to internal SD card and runs on standard AA batteries. It's really portable and has allowed me to 'take home' many documents and photos.

I will say that it's not the most reliable piece of kit - roller scanners never are because you need to manually roll them slowly down the page in a straight line. I've found the best solution is to scan something 3 times and then choose the best version when you download from the SD card.

To be honest, even with its quirks, it's probably the best solution for portable scanning. An auto-fed portable scanner would limit you to loose A4 pages.

If you want to go the ultra-cheap route your best bet is probably any cheap, Linux-compatible scanner + tesseract-ocr. I honestly haven't used tesseract myself but it's definitely the most popular OCR program on Linux.

If you're willing to shell out extra, Brother makes some really excellent network printers and scanners; at my job we use a Brother DCP 7065DN which, as a network printer/scanner combo, works just fine with my Linux laptop.

You can get a standalone Brother scanner refurbished for about $150 on Amazon. It supports OCR and scanning to network, USB flash drive, etc.

Allright man i have got the answer for ya! Two words. Evernote & Scansnap. I bought mine for about half of normal price, just E-bay. I always keep ALL my receipts for durable goods and all useful papers, or i used to. Using those two things and about 3 * 1 hour of scanning total i went from 5 big office folders to about 20 A4's total administration. And i still have access to all my receipts, bank statements and other important papers from any device in the world with internet connection. After the initial scan sessions i now devote 20 minutes every three months to scanning and presto! Do it. You can't believe the convenience and peace of mind it has given me. You won't regret it and your papers will be safer than ever since even if your house burned down they are still in the cloud. You can easily keep copies or printouts alongside the cloud versions if you wish. Oh i don't work for either company ha ha. http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-SCANSNAP-600DPI-Mobile-Scanner-PA03610-B005/dp/B004ISGG7Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1347814165&sr=8-4&keywords=scansnap

So my friend recently sent all of her old, nostalgic shirts off and had it made into a quilt. With tickets, etc, a nice concise scrapbbok would be a similar answer - but make sure that it has a clean, minimalist design.

OR better yet - purchase one of these. Then, create an iMovie or digital scrapbook with pictures plus tickets, etc.

As for souvenirs, I agree with everyone else here. Are you really gonna want to show your kids some plastic model of the eiffel tower? Or would you rather show them a photo of you next to the real thing? Either way, your kids won't give a s*!#, but if you are showing them something, I'd rather go with the photo.

A few years ago we went completely paperless. We had two huge 4-drawer filing cabinets of crap from years of running two businesses and managing our personal finances. It was unwieldy and we always ended up with huge piles of paper waiting to be filed, and I'd end up spending hours getting stuff together for tax time.

Here's what I did:

• Decided what actually needed to be saved and what could be discarded. A lot of what we were saving was old (some 10+ years old) and could just be thrown away. Bills that were from years ago were thrown away. Receipts going back 7 years were saved, along with any tax documentation, insurance info, etc.
  
  
• We purchased multiple scanners so that every employee that receives a lot of paper has access to a scanner and a shredder. I have a Brother ADS-2800W in my office (I do most of the financials and so have the most to scan). I also have a Brother ADS2500WE and two Brother ADS-1500Ws. When a piece of paper comes in to my home or office, it's scanned and then shredded (if needed) or recycled.
  
  
• I have presets for scanning one-sided, two-sided and continuous for long receipts. These go into a "To File" folder that's shared with my VA. My VA goes through and names all the scans based on content i.e. "2017-01-21 Staples Receipt.pdf" and files them in the appropriate folder in either my personal Google Drive or my business' Gsuite.
  
  
• I use a scanning app on my phone for paper receipts when I'm out of the office. I save these JPGs directly to the receipts folder on my business Gsuite Google Drive.
  
  My folder structure in Gsuite is:
  
  > Financial
  >> Receipts (just scans of receipts for archival purposes)
  >>> 2016
  >
  >>> 2017
  >
  >>> 2018 etc
  >
  >> Tax Documents (1099s, W2s, property tax, mortgage interest, etc.)
  >>> 2016
  >
  >>> 2017
  >
  >>> 2018
  
  So far this has worked extremely well. My accounting firm has access to the Tax Documents folder, and my Xero accounting software. They just wait for my email that everything is there and ready, and they prepare my taxes with all of the information provided.
  
  This is the 2nd tax season we've been on this system and it's working extremely well. I used to file an extension and just dreaded going through getting everything ready for tax time, now I'm just about ready to file and it's not even February. We will be filed by Feb 15 this year at the latest.

The major issue you’re going to run into is that the rolls are very old and will therefore suffer at least some amount of latent image loss. It’s not impossible to recover images from them, though you will have a number of fails.

Make a list of what films you have (emulsion, speed) because the process will be different for different types of films.

Color negatives can likely still be developed by a normal lab- call up a lab and ask what their “process only” pricing is for 110. Also be sure to ask about bulk pricing- at 70 rolls I guarantee you they’ll give you something.

Send in one roll (that you know has been used!) first just to try it out, and see what you get back. This will tell you a lot about the other rolls, since if they’ve been stored together they likely degraded in very similar ways. Ergo, if you get usable images, chances are the rest of the rolls will be too. And if you get garbage images, again, chances are the other rolls are garbage too.

Black and white films may need you to develop them at home, but you’ll generally have a better chance at success- HC-110 developer is known for it’s ability to pull out images even from very, very old films. If you have any especially iffy color films (like Kodachrome, which is no longer possible to process in color), you can go this route.

Finally, grab a scanner. At 79 rolls it’ll absolutely pay off. I’d recommend a cheap scanner like this:

https://www.amazon.com/KODAK-SCANZA-Digital-Slide-Scanner/dp/B00O2BU8PK/

(Note that there’s a billion of these sorts of devices- literally anything at this price point will do)

Normally I recommend much fancier scanners, but in your case you have a lot of images to go through and presumably they’re family photos (and not fine art). These cheap scanners are perfect for that.

I assume you mean US$, what you get depends on what film types you intend to scan.

If you only ever plan to shoot and scan 35mm i would recommend going for a dedicated 35mm scanner like a Plustek 7200 (3250DPI) for $200, or if you wanted the absolute best scanner short of drum scanning then the $400 Pacific Image Prime Film XA (4300DPI) is reckoned to have the highest DPI scan.

If you just want a general purpose scanner for 35mm and 120 (and documents) then something like an Epson V550 (1600DPI) for $160 is fine.

DPI numbers pulled from this page on the wiki.

I use an Epson V500 with third party film holders for 120 and have no problems. Looks like they've added a half decent 120 holder with the V550 so you shouldn't have to spend more for third party ones.

I had that problem. My grandmother had passed and I was her favorite grandson. They all had antique photos of her from the motherland and recent photos as well. Literally hundreds of photos. I wasn't going to put a scissor near a single one so I needed to digitized them all. I bought a double sided high speed scanner with a document tray. The rate is 25-30 pages per minute.

This is an example. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007TN1J2O?pc_redir=1410063118&robot_redir=1

It was a great machine and for none 4x6 photos I use a plastic folder that held the older photos in place so the feed wheel wouldn't miss it.

It was really fast and in an hour I scanned my entire families photo albums. My grandma had ten kids and lived long enough to be a great grandmother to 5. so we are talking about a lot of people here.

It gave me time to spend all my efforts on designing a collage and getting it printed at staples.

I use to scan flat beds too and it's amazing the difference. Here is a video of one. Review of the Fujitsu Fi-6130 high-speed duplex d…: http://youtu.be/miENWUxeqGY

Hello,

I want to scan my family pictures, I think I would like to do it myself rather than just sending the pictures somewhere.

The Epson FastFoto FF-680W is a bit pricey, but I've found that the Plustek Photo Scanner - ephoto Z300 can do 600dpi pics as well and is worth $200. Amazon

Do you have any recommendation? Should I buy the Plustek or is something more pricey really worth it ?

Thanks !

Paid much less from B&H but their deal seems to be over. At $300, I'd recommend maybe finding something else.

[Prime Film XE](Pacific Image PrimeFilm XE 35mm Film & Slide Scanner - One-touch scan button, 3-line RGB linear CCD sensor, 10,000 x 10,000 dpi, 48-bit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GE1NF92/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wjTIyb4TJ1NNJ)

Granted I really like my results, I am just comfortable with it and have learned it at this pint.

Oh wow, it would be much cheaper just to buy a small scanner. This scanner: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LN0NUGC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is quite cheap compared to more high end ones but I personally can't tell the difference between the scan and looking at my art in person. Neither could an art professor who specializes in prints. In some cases contrast/brightness may need to be adjusted, but the same is true of photos. Here's a scanned small acrylic painting I did about the size of yours: https://imgur.com/a/9nwALU3 Of course the image on the screen is much larger than the actual painting so shrinking something like that is better.

My wife bought me a IRIScan Pro 3 last year for Christmas and I love the thing.

You can setup multiple scan directories and I just send all of our stuff to a folder in dropbox that our accountant has access to.

It also has a cloud feature that works with apple/android devices in the event you need to scan something in the field.

Out of all the scanners I have used over the years I love this one the best so far.

IRIScan Pro 3 Cloud Portable Color Scanner https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWPMD3C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OGpwxbZK7KBCE

F.

Sorry to be late to the party; I just found this subreddit.

I love my Canon P-150 because it is small, folds up into a rectangle (so no dangling things to break off), USB powered and scans duplex.

I cannot describe what a difference it makes being able to scan both sides at once. It is also smart enough to recognize if it has scanned a blank back-side of a document and not save that. It is, of course, not advanced A.I. so if the paper has a smudge or some kind of header-footer, it will still save it.

I hope you enjoy your SnapScan, but if someone else finds this thread, they can consider the Canon, too. I have used it on Windows 7 and my MacBook Pro, and it works equally well on both. Plus, the drivers do not appear to be HP level of junk, which is a bonus.

Efficient? Nah. But I'm in a field where we use a lot of old, rare literature (hooray biology) and to bring the literature out of the library, I have had to digitize documents. Here's what I've used.

However you scan your books, ScanTailor will clean them up really nicely for you. It even has a feature to remove the center black seam and split the pages apart for flatbed scans. Check out this before and after! (I cut off the text at the bottom of the image... derp.) Price: Fuh-fuh-free! Woohoo!

There are some flatbed scanners designed with a zero-bevel edge to optimize book scanning, like this one here, that can pull double duty as a conventional flatbed scanner and take up slightly more room than a conventional flatbed. Scans still take a while, but they do have software built in that will rotate every other page, so you can scan the left side, turn the book 180, scan the right side, flip the page, and continue on your merry way. Price: $250 or so, or check your local libraries and colleges or universities.

You can also make your own smartphone scanner as shown here or buy one (StandScan is popular) though that's really better for just a few pages at a time rather than a whole book. Price: $5 or a cardboard box, depending on what you've got lying around.

An even cheaper option is PrimeFilm XA which you can get for $380 new (i wish it was this cheap in the UK), 4300 DPI resolved detail, a lot smaller and lighter, can even scan a whole 36exp roll automatically.

Not as quick as an LS-600 but that's a trade off i'll take for 60% of the cost and 1/7^th of the weight (5lbs vs. 37lbs).

I'd consider it at £600 ($770) and almost certainly get one at £200. As for quality/accuracy I'd be looking for something accurate down to ~ 0.1mm-0.2mm, even 0.5mm-1mm would be useful as a guide in CAD but at a lower price point.

edit:

looks like some stuff exists in the price range, resolution and reviews aren't great tho.

I bought a slide scanner. I then went into my parents loft (attic) and grabbed literally HUNDREDS of these slides my Father had. Then got them all put onto a memory card and printed out. He spent all day Xmas last year looking at photos he hadn't seen in thirty years.

I did it with one of these, did about 1000 photos over week.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plustek-Photo-Scanner-Sensor-Support/dp/B01LZJH63M/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=photo+feed+scanner&qid=1572960373&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyRVRWRTBaMUVFTTBIJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDQ3ODk0TlhPNDNYOURBNVdVJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0MjMzNjIySlFWNTFCWVc1WDNWJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Voila.

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-CanoScan-LiDE220-Document-Scanner/dp/B00LN0NUGC/ref=sr_1_6?s=office-electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1506193189&sr=1-6&keywords=scanner

I use this one, I love it: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-CanoScan-LiDE220-Document-Scanner/dp/B00LN0NUGC

Ask FedEx Office or Staples if they would give you a discount for say, 300 pages. If not, try something like this which will cost you a lot less but take you much more time: Brother Printer RDS620 Document Scanner