Scanners

C

cfoley

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I think I am fed up dealing with paper files. I know a lot of people here have gone paper-free and was hoping you might have some advice on scanners. I would like it to also be good for photos as I would like to scan all my old family photos. Two in one would be best but if the quality would suffer then I would consider separate scanners for each.

I would love general advice on features to look out for/avoid as well as specific recommendations on individual models.
 
cfoley said:
was hoping you might have some advice on scanners. I would like it to also be good for photos as I would like to scan all my old family photos.
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I have 2 scanners. Photos and fragile historical documents are scanned on an Epson flatbed scanner. I have an old one but any of the top current models will od. Look for one that does archive quality scans in a lossless format. Carefully look at potential future uses. I amscanning a bucnh of early 1900s glass plate negatives for the HIostorical Sociery to Library of Congress digital standards so need a good scanner. The price difference between a top of the line and a 98% is significant but the home ones are crap IMO. So go with the professional models and always scan at the top end of the limits of what your disk/computer system will handle for pictures and other historically significant items.

For most paperwork I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap. Again, Mine is an older model, S510M but any of the current models are great for 2 sided scans of papers and most general office materials. I have recently switched from scan to PDF to scan to searchable PDF even though the files sizes are larger it is proving helpful.

Scanner have a lifespan. While I do stretch mine I am already preparing to buy new scanners soon, in the next few years. Generally you can skip a generation but plan to upgrade every other major model.
 
Thanks for the information. Lossy/lossless is an issue I had in the back of my mind for photos. On the one hand, I would be happier with getting rid of old photos if they were scanned losslessly. But I was wondering if I was just being too picky over something that didn't really matter. Do you notice the difference?

I have seen photo scanners that feed the photos through, and was hoping they would be fast while still providing a quality scan. Do you have any experience of them? On the other hand, I have a book manuscript written by my mum that I have been wanting to scan for years. Maybe a flatbed scanner would suit both my photos and manuscript projects.

That Fujitsu ScanSnap looks fantastic. The only thing that is stopping me from ordering it straight away is the price!
 
Folke, does that printer also do scanning? I gave up on having a printer at home years ago. I just didn't print often enough to keep the nozzles from drying out. Thanks for the recommendation though.
 
cfoley, yes it definitely can scan - and does so very well indeed in comparison with other "office class" equipment I have tried. I use its scanning feature very often, and it can even do OCR if you need to scan text in editable format. The printing is also very good. But I have never compared with whatever scanning equipment professional photographers etc would use. I imagine there is no upper bound ...
 
cfoley said:
That Fujitsu ScanSnap looks fantastic. The only thing that is stopping me from ordering it straight away is the price!
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I think mine was about $400 when I bought it and my Epson about the same. A rather large investment but worth it in time and space saved. I've had the Epson since 2005 and the ScanSnap since 2009.

For documents automatic sheet feed, double sided scanning is really worth a lot. For a good photo scanner holders for slides, and negatives is also worth a lot.

A key thing for scanning is that the scans are probably not temporary, think long term in how you may or will use them.
 
Oogiem said:
YES there is a huge difference between lossy and lossless pictures, especially for historical scanning and photos.
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Does it really matter to save every pixel when you don't know who the hell is this guy on the picture (I've got many such family photos :-( ).
 
TesTeq said:
Does it really matter to save every pixel when you don't know who the hell is this guy on the picture (I've got many such family photos :-( ).
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Absolutely. The data for researchers in later generatiosn doesn't always depend onkn knowing who is in the picture, that just makes it better. SO yes, scanning at high resolution is much better than low.

And to try to identify them, scan at high resolution, then send low resolution copies to every known family member and friend and ask for help. Even identifying the location, town, city, plants in the background etc can help place photos in time and place and get you to who it is. You can often identify people with a bit of effort. Genealogists do it all the time.
 
Once you have scanned all your major files, and have a system in place for when you need to do heavy duty scanning, I highly recommend this App!!!!!

It sinks with Evernote to boot: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote-scannable/id883338188?mt=8

Good for on the fly scanning, like a business card you just received, or one piece of paper that flies your way when you aren't near your scanner that you want to get into paperless form the GTD way--- less than 2 minutes. YOu don't want to touch a piece of paper more than once!
 
Thanks for the app recommendation.

Folke, a scanner like the one you recommended looks perfect, although I might try and get something similar that does not also print. Cheap, cheerful and good enough is probably what I need.

Oogiem, your advice for the photos is top notch but it is in conflict with my principals for an overarching project: to have fewer possessions to look after and to buy fewer luxuries. I honestly don't know how to proceed because your advice on future uses of the scans is sound. However, it means buying an expensive scanner, probably buying hard drives for the larger files, and curating a separate set of jpegs to use and share. I don't expect you to have an answer to this dilemma but you have convinced me that I cannot get rid of the photos without high quality scans. I think I'll have to put this aspect of the project on hold for the time being. The book you recommend sounds interesting.
 
cfoley said:
Oogiem, your advice for the photos is top notch but it is in conflict with my principals for an overarching project: to have fewer possessions to look after and to buy fewer luxuries. I honestly don't know how to proceed because your advice on future uses of the scans is sound. However, it means buying an expensive scanner, probably buying hard drives for the larger files, and curating a separate set of jpegs to use and share.
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Well the other way of looking at it is that a high quality scanner is a tool to get you where you need to be. Especially if you are going to destroy the pictures then you really MUST do as high a resolution scan as you can possibly manage even if it's stretching your resources now. I tried to go cheap on the initial set of scans I did for my own stuff, but kept the slides anyway, and now I'm glad I did. The files I did initially are crap and I need to go back and scan them all again properly. Scans I did after reading that book and really looking at the expected increase in storage capacity of hard drives vs how long it will take me to do the scanning means that the scans I did later are still acceptable for archival needs.

It's pretty easy to set up a macro in Photoshop to do the downsampling for a jpg version for access/general use.

I'm using Lightroom for my cataloging/curating of pictures. Complex program but very powerful. One warning, think about the taxonomy of your tags before you start tagging pictures, changing them later is possible but difficult and you really need to figure out how to do the tags so they are useful over the long term. I'd suggest doing a small subset of typical pictures, say 1000 or so and play with tagging and workflow before committing to the full project.

Also, document all your procedures and revisions of SW used, scanner settings etc. Especially if the project will take years (as mine is doing) so that each time you pick it up again you have a way to get back to what worked last time easily. And once you have a working workflow don't change the software used without a really good reason. Newer versions often break perfectly good workflows and then you have to add the project of get a new scanning workflow to your tasks.
 
Yes, you are right about the quality of the scans but I wouldn't destroy the originals. I believe old photos belong to the extended family, and I am sure I could find a relative who would appreciate them. It doesn't suit my finances right now to buy a scanner for several hundred pounds so this project will have to be postponed.

Also, document all your procedures and revisions of SW used, scanner settings etc. Especially if the project will take years (as mine is doing) so that each time you pick it up again you have a way to get back to what worked last time easily. And once you have a working workflow don't change the software used without a really good reason. Newer versions often break perfectly good workflows and then you have to add the project of get a new scanning workflow to your tasks.
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This is another excellent suggestion which applies to more than just this project.

Thanks again.
 
Just to add to the discussion. I got really fed up with all the documents I had lying around the house and decided to do something about it. I went out and bought this Brother sheet feed scanner, the Brother ADS-1500W:

http://www.brother-usa.com/Scanners/ModelDetail/24/ADS1500W/Overview

Anytime I get anything I need to keep, I simply toss it in the scanner and it shows up as a PDF on my PC.

The thing scans double sided pages. And it can connect to your wifi network and scan to a windows share or FTP.

The scanner obviously is not suitable for scanning photos that you want to archive, but for general document scanning and getting rid of clutter, it's a Gosend.
 
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