Ok... so if you get this scanner, you don't get that "I go against the grain because I use Linux from a USB key and use only a VPN to connect to my office... get all my software open-source.. and I support the EFF" feeling when you use this. I mean there's an infomercial on every night pushing these things with Mom using it to scan the kids crayon drawings, receipts and apple pie recipes on her kitchen counter... and it just can't hit those dpi's and lpi's you "think" you need to scan your 80's collection of Kodak 110 instamatic 3x5's. So it's just not "cool", right?
Well.. screw all of that, these things ROCK if you need to scan and file PAPERWORK. I'm talking office paperwork. Reports, quotes, invoices, sales receipts, faxes, bills... you name it. I have one on every desk at my company and it saves us SO much time and money.
I mfg plastic sign holders, like you see on the metal shelves at Costco with the magnet on the back? Mine... and a perfect example would be our paperwork with See's Candies, another customer. When we get an order from them, we get FAXED 7 pages of fine print and instructions which we sign and scan and email back, then they snail-mail different copies of these as well (I know.. believe me.. I've asked them not to, but they pay the bills, it's fine). Then we have to ship a pre-production sample of changes which all have notes, and more changes... and it's a mess. I seriously have 3 solid file drawers filled with their orders from just a few years.
Now? Fax comes in, sign.. scan, "shred" (we actually cut all papers into scratch paper pads). Mail comes in... scan and recycle. Production notes? Scan and file. It's very fast, very easy.
To make your life easier with this, toss their filing software out. Seriously. Use just the small tray app so you can drop pages into this, press the "PDF" button on the scanner, a dialog box pops up immediately on the PC, type a file name, press "save" and DONE. THAT SIMPLE. If you use a descriptive file name then this scanner and Google Desktop search, it's pure bliss.
They now call me and while on the phone.. "hey do you have the papers with the production notes on the part you did in June 2011, that counter easel 5x7?" I double-tap my CTRL key, Google lists all docs with my inquiry of "see's 5x7 june easel", I click the doc and within 20 seconds... I have that "pile" of paperwork in one merged PDF. I right click and send to my customer. DONE.
It's changed our office like our mobile phones have change how we organize and communicate. It's perfect. ... and that's my real-world, working office experience. You want to scan photos and artwork or 100 PPM? Find another scanner. Want an office scanner that just works, get this.
