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Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S500M Document Scannera Mac-compatible sheet-feed scanner with Adobe Acrobat OCR and PDF generation capability
Initially I thought about outsourcing the scanning work to a larger firm with massive sheet-feeding scanners, but then I deferred on the idea simply because I knew that the documents would require some attention to detail and that I would also have zero control over the end product and the possible OCR (Optical Character Recognition) process, as well as the final cost. On another note, I also know from a contact at an internationally renowned scientific publisher that rather than scan and OCR old documents and books they simply dispatch the said item to India and have a crack squad of typists refashion the content into Word documents. That aside, and to cut an even longer story short, I decided to purchase the competitively priced and well-received Fujitsu ScanSnap S500M color image scanner. The scanner itself is a Mac OS X (10.4) compatible, duplex, A4, sheet-feeding document scanner with the capability to scan some 20 pages per minute under optimal conditions. It can also handle variable paper sizes and adjusts automatically to accommodate both black and white and colour documents. It hosts a USB 2.0 interface for communicating with the Apple Macintosh, and uses a standard figure of 8 electrical plug type. The scanner comes with good paper documentation, though the available ScanSnap S500 series documentation online in PDF format is a lot more extensive and certainly worth downloading. It also comes with Adobe Acrobat Standard, which handles the OCR part of the scanning process. (Note: While the S500M model is designed specifically for the Mac, the near identical ScanSnap S500 is made for PCs). Having placed an order online and finally received the item in a huge package, I opened up the parcel to find a smaller box inside. The smaller box was well designed and even included a handle making the box and scanner inside extremely portable. Peeling open the lid of this box finally revealed the scanner in all its glory, and I was absolutely amazed to see actually how tiny the footprint of the device was, considering the size of both previous boxes. Anyhow, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so forthwith came the installation and initial scan. The ScanSnap S500M literally took 10 minutes to set up, 7 minutes of which was promptly wasted trying to find the latest version of the Fujitsu ScanSnap manager software online despite a copy being included on CD. Finally, with the software downloaded, I was able to install without any ado, and as soon as the scanner was plugged in and turned on, I was immediately ready to start my 1-click document scanning experience. First off though I needed to set-up the scanning preferences. The preferences, or rather settings, panel for scanner is very easy to maintain and consists of only 6 tab views:
Having defined all the desired settings, I literally just needed to load the paper and click the one-touch scan button and the ScanSnap manager software would kick into action. And so, finally, I loaded up a stack of fifty sheets, fanning them as I did so, and with a click, away the scanner whirred. Much to my delight the device whizzed through them without a complaint, and seemingly in record time. With the every sheet scanned, up popped the PDF file in Acrobat Pro, almost dutifully, with all the sheets in order, both sides scanned without any issues, and ready for the next step in the process. As yet I had discovered no flaws, and granted I had only just begun, I was more than a little impressed and in awe of my new fangled gizmo. The resulting scan-to-PDF file was large but nothing that could not be optimized using the advanced settings in Acrobat Pro, and in fact I found that the lesser the scan quality (less than 300dpi) from the S500M, the easier and just as effective time the OCR process was in Acrobat. Also, according to the documentation, Acrobat will produce “unknown” errors when working with scans of 300dpi or more, which I also found at some point, much to my chagrin, when scanning images (note that the scanner includes Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Pro costs extra). Overall, in the ensuing few weeks of ownership of this scanner I have been more than happy with its performance. It continues to work perfectly, and granted, the condition of the few thousand A4 sheets I have to pass through it are pretty good, despite being initially laser printed and 10th generation photocopies with plenty of dust to boot, the S500M has few issues handling them. As with any sheet-feeding device you need to ensure that the thickness of the sheets is not too much and that multiple sheets do not feed in at the same time. This is of course more likely to happen with a larger stack of sheets, though fanning the papers already helps somewhat to avoid this. It stands to reason that single sheets work fine and folds in the paper also present few problems, though it doesn’t hurt to help the system then scanning a small number of folded sheets together. Ultimately the Fujitsu ScanSnap S500M is the perfect tool on the Apple Mac to digitize old documents and archives, and for generally taking a user into the paperless age. With the ease with which one can scan and process documents to your computer, it removes all the excuses not to recycle every piece of paper you ever receive. And whilst clocking in at some £300 (about $575 US), the scanner is very competitive and great value for money. Despite the price I personally paid, I do also know that it is possible to find it cheaper from less well known online retail channels - using PriceGrabber or Froogle will help in finding these outfits. In conclusion I would say that the Fujitsu S500 Document Scanner for the Apple Macintosh represents both excellence in ability and quality as well as decent value for money. It is clear from the research I did, and that of others I know who have looked for documents scanners, that there is little similar in terms of quality and price in the market place for the Mac and I would more than recommend this little piece of technological whiz bang again and again to people who ask me for advice on buying a document scanner for the Macintosh.
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I recently accepted the job of scanning and converting into Microsoft Word a huge library of bound documents totalling many thousands of A4 sheets of paper. Now you might think that this is a totally nutty proposition, but then I never was one to shy away from a decent challenge!|
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