Is it worth buying a new scanner?

[Janet]

So I’m about to scan 140 pages for a book. Our existing Epson scanner works well but it is over 10 years old. We have no problems with it. I don’t scan any higher than 600 dpi in black and white because the book is drawn actual size. Would there be any benefit to upgrading to a more recent scanner? Would there be less noise/better scans or has scanner tech really just stagnated in the last 10 years? I scan in black and white and do zero processing of files on the scanner itself. Just wondering if I’m missing out on any new tech or if it’s same old and as long as the scanner is working then no worries…

Thanks

[wander]

Is it a stack of letter-sized pages?

Having a belt-fed scanner that can scan the entire stack automatically saves a huge amount of time.

[Janet]

Hmm yes it is although it’s 9 X 12. It’s pretty thick stock but a belt-fed scanner is a good idea if it could handle it.

[mirong]

How often do you have scan jobs like this?

If thick stock, better a straight path, rather than an u-turn feed.

Double-sided? Then also a single pass duplex scanner.

[Janet]

Thanks @mirong

[toma]

There are apps that allow you to scan stuff with your phone’s camera. If you have a good phone it works great. I use easyscanner.

[Daniel_DeGagne]

Over the last 10 years there have been very little improvements in the quality of scanners. In fact its hard to buy one these days that isn’t part of an all in 1 unit with a printer.

The only reason to upgrade might be if your looking for faster scanning. or double sided scanning. But honestly the best thing you can do is see if you can get upgraded software for the scanner. That’s where most of the advancement has happened in the last 10 yrs

[Janet]

Thanks all - super helpful. This Epson was top of the line when we bought it so I think we’ll stick with it for Laser Moose III. I’ll check on firmware updates. Automatic feed would be nice to have but we only do book production about once a year so not quite there yet. It’s single sided also so that coupled with the thick paper stock issue makes me think it would be a highly manual process also.

Will keep everything in mind for (hopefully) book 4.

[3bien]

The ones that I’ve seen that are very highly regarded are the Fujitsu Scan Snap line. I lucked out and found a very cheap one on Craigslist and in my last move managed to scan basically a couple of linear meters of papers at least, no problem. I’d be happy to lend it if you want it, it does OCR and all that stuff. It’s pretty compact but weighs like a solid block of lead.

[Janet]

Thanks @3bien!