Home office and portable document scanners are handy for digitizing everything from taxes to old family photos.
By Brandon Russell, Hunter Fenollol and Tyler Lynch Updated: Aug 01, 2024 1:39 PM EDT Jump to Products Save Article
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A document scanner is often dismissed as outdated technology, a relic of ‘90s corporate offices. But as our lives become increasingly paperless, the need to bridge the gap between physical and digital information has never been more crucial. That’s why a document scanner can be such a game changer for productivity and organization. These devices quickly digitize loose papers, create records of receipts and bills, and preserve other printed materials like old photos.
Additionally, scanners make it easy to access and share content on your laptop and smartphone. They also allow you to create searchable and editable PDFs, making it simple to find specific information within scanned documents. If it’s been a while since you’ve considered adding a scanner to your setup, you might be surprised by how far they’ve come. Today’s scanners are faster and more compact than their 20-year-old counterparts, and they offer higher quality scans than ever before. If you’re tired of paper clutter or just want to better organize your life, a quality document scanner remains a relevant and powerful tool.
Even though many of our receipts, communications, and daily transactions are digital, we still haven’t fully moved on from paper. Bills, contracts, handwritten notes, and important documents often come in physical form. A quality document scanner can be a useful addition to your setup by allowing you to easily digitize your collection of physical documents. If you’re considering buying a document scanner, here are some factors to keep in mind.
There are several types of document scanners available, including flatbed, sheet-fed, and portable models. Some scanners even offer both flatbed and sheet-fed capabilities. Flatbed scanners are great for scanning individual pages from books, receipts, and delicate documents. Sheet-fed scanners, on the other hand, can quickly process stacks of papers, making them ideal for high-volume scanning. Portable scanners are perfect for those who need to scan on the go, like capturing contracts at a client’s office. Ultimately, the type of scanner you choose depends on your specific needs.
Nobody has time to wait around for a document to scan. That’s why, when it comes to scanning documents, speed is everything. Each scanner features a page-per-minute (PPM) rating, which indicates how quickly it can process documents. A larger number here is indicative of a faster scanner, so prioritize a model with a PPM in the double digits for faster scans.
When looking at specs, you’ll typically see two PPM ratings—one for black and one for color. You can maximize your speeds at the expense of some clarity by adjusting to a lower resolution, which is measured in Dots Per Inch (DPI).
The resolution determines how sharp an image appears, measured in dots per inch (DPI). When choosing a scanner, aim for a resolution of at least 300 DPI, which offers a good balance between image quality and scanning speed. This resolution is suitable for most documents and general use. If you need quick scans and image quality isn’t a priority, 150 DPI is the lowest recommended resolution. For the highest quality images, especially when scanning photos, use the maximum resolution available, typically 600 DPI.
One thing to keep in mind when scanning is that high resolutions result in larger file sizes and slower scanning speeds. If your goal is to simply scan documents and archive receipts, 300 DPI should be more than sufficient.
Duplex scanning is a feature that allows scanners to capture both sides of a document in a single pass without requiring you to manually flip the page. This capability is essential if you frequently work with double-sided documents, such as contracts, financial statements, or academic papers.
If you primarily scan single-sided materials like receipts or photos, a duplex scanning feature isn’t necessary. Duplex scanners tend to be more expensive, so consider your needs before picking up a scanner. For occasional double-sided scanning, manually flipping pages might be a reasonable trade-off for a more affordable device.
An automatic document feeder (ADF) is a convenient feature that allows you to scan multiple pages without manual intervention. It works by automatically feeding each page from a stack into the scanner, eliminating the need to insert pages one by one. The feature is particularly useful for office environments, giving you the ability to simply place a stack of paper into a slot and walk away to do something else.
It’s worth noting that flatbed scanners don’t offer this feature, since they require you to manually place each document on the glass surface. If you frequently scan multiple pages or large documents, a scanner with an ADF can save you significant time and effort compared to a standard flatbed model.
Optical character recognition, or OCR, is a technology that converts scanned documents into machine-readable, editable, and searchable content. This feature makes documents much more accessible, especially when dealing with large volumes of text. Imagine being able to search for a specific word or phrase in a financial document, rather than having to read it line by line. If you frequently work with text-heavy documents, a scanner with OCR capabilities can streamline your workflow and improve document management.
We put in weeks of research and testing when curating this list of the best document scanners. There are a surprising amount of document scanners available—even more if you count all-in-one printers—so to narrow down our list, we researched models from the industry’s leading brands, including Canon, Epson, and Brother. We vetted each product based on the criteria above, while consulting prior insights from Popular Mechanics experts.
We spent a month testing several models, including the Canon imageFormula R40, Brother 1700W, and Epson RR-60. To benchmark performance, we created digital copies of three physical documents and compared each scanner’s features, clarity, and speed. Beyond the models we tested, our list includes additional recommendations that fit various needs and budgets.
