Introduction
Processing paperwork manually, especially a large stash of it can be very labor and time intensive. Document scanners have, however, made it easier for people to digitally save their important paper documents. Instead of filing more papers and stashing them away in your home drawer or office cabinet, they can be digitized so that you don’t have to constantly get up from your desk to access them.
Choosing the right scanner that will meet your specific needs can be a bit challenging, especially if you’re not sure of what to go for. Most of the scanners readily available in the market can handle a variety of tasks. However, they come in different shapes and sizes and are fine-tuned to serve different purposes. While a scanner can be good for printing quality documents, it may not be the best for scanning photos.
That said, when looking to buy a scanner, there are several questions that you ought to ask yourself. In an ideal situation, what type of documents will you be scanning most? Do you need a sheetfed scanner or a flatbed? What resolution do you need in your scanner? Do you need it to be a duplex scanner or a one-sided scanner? All these are important questions that you need to factor in.
Sheetfed scanners are a lot easier to use as you don’t have to do a lot of work when compared to flatbed scanners. Given there are different brands that make sheetfed scanners, choosing one that suits your needs can be a bit challenging. But not to worry. We have reviewed some of the best sheetfed scanners that you can get in the market today. Take a look below.
1. Brother ImageCenter ADS-2800W Scanner
Intro
While the Brother ImageCenter ADS-2800W scanner may have some similarities with some other scanners in our list, one key thing that makes it stand out is that it has multiple connectivity options that enable you to send your documents to the cloud.
Pros
- This scanner from Brother has excellent precision and durability
- Enjoy fast scanning when scanning single and double-sided materials at speeds of up to 40 ppm in both black and white and color
- The multi-page scanning feature offers a 2-in-1 mode that lets you capture an 11 by 17-inch document or the continuous scan mode that lets you scan unlimited pages into one single file
- Easily scan different types of media materials such as documents, photos, embossed plastic cards, receipts, and business cards in color or black and white
- The direct scanning capability through Web Connect lets you scan wirelessly to cloud applications such as Google Drive
- Compatible with certain versions of Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems
- The document feeder can comfortably hold 50 pages of paper at any given time
- The overall build quality for this scanner is excellent
- Designed with an optical text recognition feature
- One-year limited warranty and free lifetime online, phone, chat and email support
Cons
- Quite large and bulky
- It takes up a lot of desk space making and is heavy
2. HP Digital Sender Flow 8500 fn2 Scanner
Intro
This scanner has a pretty sleek design with a tablet control panel, hard disk, and an inbuilt keyboard that all combine to make this a very powerful scanner that small to large organizations can consider getting for their office space. S
Pros
- This scanner by HP is a high-end network document scanner that comes with sophisticated features such as the inbuilt keyboard and hard disk as well as the tablet control panel
- Enjoy amazing speeds of 100 pages per minute when scanning and 200 images per minute
- Scan up to 10,000 pages per day with one pass
- This HP printer is a duplex printer that is meant to help automate your workflow
- You don’t have to manually load documents for scanning because it comes with an automatic document feeder
- Easily load up to 150 pages on the paper tray for fast scanning
- The printer is packed with high-end software features that guarantee your documents will be safe such as the password protected PDFs, blank page remover among other features
- Ability to scan your documents and send them to multiple destinations such as via email, fax local drive, FTP, etc.
- Easily scan different sizes and types of paper with a reduced chance of misfeed
- Comes with a one-year warranty and phone and 24-hour web support every day of the week
- Enjoy resolutions when scanning of up to 600 ppi
Cons
- It’s very expensive
- It is heavy and bulky hence not designed to sit on your desk
3. Brother Wireless ADS-1700W Scanner
Intro
The Brother Wireless ADS-1700W scanner is among the fast and accurate document scanners that you can get in the market. It is also a portable document scanner that is packed with a variety of features, making it attractive to people who are constantly on the move.
Pros
- One of the more affordable scanners in our review that despite the price point, doesn’t compromise on the performance
- It has a compact design with fast scan speeds that enable it to handle different kinds of documents
- Ability to scan both single and double-sided documents with scanning speeds of 25 pages per minute
- Comes with an automatic document feeder able to hold up to 20 pages
- Ability to scan receipts, photos and documents that are up to 34-inches long
- This Brother scanner saves you time as it is easy to use and comes with a 2.8-inch color touch screen display that lets you print with just the touch of a button
- The auto start scan feature initiates auto scanning whenever you place papers into the feeder to whatever profile that has been predefined
- This printer scans to multiple destinations such as cloud services, mobile devices, email, etc. using the “scan-to” feature set
- Wirelessly scan your documents to your PC, cloud apps and network destinations
- It has a dedicated card slot that makes it easy to scan photo IDs and business cards
- Built with the OCR technology that helps create searchable and editable scanned PDF documents as well as the document management software
- With features such as the automatic color adjustment/detection, image rotation, text enhancement, background removal, etc. you can get to enhance your scans
Cons
- Quite heavy compared to other portable scanners
- No battery
4. Kodak Alaris S2040 Document Scanner
Intro
Kodak is also another known brand when it comes to scanners. The S2040 scanner is reasonably fast and pretty accurate. It also comes with an impressive software bundle, which makes it suitable for medium to heavy workloads. It is also fairly priced.
Pros
- Reasonably priced
- It has an embedded image processing feature that helps the scanner deliver high-quality, crisp images
- Easily scan double-sided pages with speeds of up to 40 pages per minute which is great value for money
- Its automatic document feeder is able to hold up to 80 pages of paper
- The automatic document feeder has an inbuilt Active Feed Technology that helps align the pages to prevent multi-feeds and misfeeds
- Using the perfect page, the scanner is able to extract accurate information and optimize the image quality on every scanned page
- Comes with a three-year advanced unit replacement warranty
Cons
- The needed accessories may be a bit pricey
5. Epson WorkForce DS-860N
Intro
Hardly will you ever find a “best scanner review” that doesn’t have at least one or two Epson scanners in their list. Epson is known to make scanners that serve various purposes, and the Epson WorkForce DS-860N is a quality sheetfed scanner.
Pros
- Being a network scanner, this Epson scanner like many other network scanners features an Ethernet port
- Offers fast scanning speeds for quality scans
- This scanner has the ability to scan oversized folded documents such as A3
- Enjoy impressive scan speeds of up to 65 pages per minute with a 600 dpi resolution
- Boasts of a 6,000 sheet daily duty cycle
- Has a five-year warranty that’s excellent given that most scanner offer warranties of up to three-years only
- Features a color enhancer that highlights certain colors and a color dropout feature that removes a certain color from your scanned document
Cons
- Doesn’t support Mac or Linux operating systems
- The bundled software could do with some improvement
- It’s expensive
Final Thoughts
If you are looking to digitize your important paper documents to avoid cluttering your office or home, investing in a good scanner will do the trick. Given that there are different types of printers, a sheetfed scanner will go a long way in ensuring you not only scan your documents but organize them in a way that makes sense to you.
Sheetfed scanners are ideal for scanning large volumes of documents given that you don’t have to manually keep feeding papers. However, unlike sheetfed scanners, flatbed scanners are a lot more labor intensive.
When it comes to choosing a good scanner, the most important thing to consider is the frequency with which you will be scanning, the type of paper material that you will scan most, speed, whether you want an automatic document feeder or a manual one and your budget. Remember, there is no one-scan-fits-all, so you have to find one that suits your most pressing need.