Recently, the good folks over at Fujitsu sent me a ScanSnap S1300i portable scanner1. Until recently, I have been using my Canon ImageFormula P-150M. I’ve been very happy with the Canon scanner, but there has been one recurring problem I’ve had with it: page feeding. Half the time I load multiple pages into the feeder, they either pull through simultaneously or get jammed on their way through. Since many of the documents I scan are multipage, you can imagine this can be frustrating.
So I decided to try the ScanSnap S1300i, mostly to see if it solved this problem. It is comparable in most ways to the Canon, perhaps just slightly bigger. But when it comes to scanning multiple pages, it does a far superior job. In the 10 days that I’ve had the ScanSnap, I’ve fed dozens of multiple page documents through it, including documents that would jam the Canon and have not once had a jam. Nor has the scanner decided to pull through multiple pages at once. As far as I can tell, the page feeder is on the ScanSnap is better than the one on my Canon and this makes me very happy because it solves the only real problem I had with my scanning. I even scanned documents that were creased and folded at some point–these documents always stymied by Canon scanner, but no so the Fujitsu ScanSnap.
Beyond the ability to successfully scan multiple pages without issues, the ScanSnap S1300i also does the things I absolutely must have my scanner do:
- Scans directly to Evernote. Load the paper, click the button and the document is automatically scanned into Evernote as a searchable PDF.
- Duplex scanning in a single pass (scans both sides of the page at the same time, and knows to ignore blank pages)
- Can handle different page sizes.
- Will straighten out crooked scans.
- Nice power management features.
While I like my Canon scanner, I think the ScanSnap S1300i is better because it doesn’t have issues with the page feeder. This saves me time and allows me to get my scans into Evernote on the first try.
There are lots of other features of the ScanSnap that I haven’t tried yet, but that look good. You can stitch PDFs together, you can scan in business cards and capture the information. You can use multiple scanning profiles. But for what I do–my 10 minutes of scanning each day–the features that I described above are all I need and they work great. I would recommend the ScanSnap S1300i for people looking for a reliable, portable, duplex scanner that can scan directly into Evernote. It’s a great little scanner.
- They did this because they know I am Evernote’s Paperless Lifestyle Ambassador, but they did so explicitly with no obligation to say nice things about the scanner or even review it at all. Happily, I really like the scanner. ↩
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Ive had that scanner for about a year now and it’s been great. My only complaint was I found the profile setup to be a little tedious (single sided, double sided, double sided in color).
Also, it seems to scan everything to a folder on your hard drive whether you tell it to or not. Overall though, it’s totally worth it – great scanner.
Oh – and I always wondered if I should have purchased the Canon instead. Now I know!
I have been using the ScanSnap 1300 since 2010 and truly love the integration with Evernote, Shoeboxed,Word, Excel, and the OCR of the ScanSnap software. You can even scan to print. If I want to just scan something to email to someone, it even does integration to the email. Most of the the profiles are embedded in the ScanSnap software and you can select from the toolbar and don’t have to reset. I am not yet paperless, but I am beginning to make a dent in the stacks.
I have been using the ScanSnap 1300 since 2010 and truly love the integration with Evernote, Shoeboxed,Word, Excel, and the OCR of the ScanSnap software. You can even scan to print. If I want to just scan something to email to someone, it even does integration to the email. Most of the the profiles are embedded in the ScanSnap software and you can select from the toolbar and don’t have to reset. I am not yet paperless, but I am beginning to make a dent in the stacks.
I have the same scanner as you and like you, I have scanned hundreds of pages without a problem. Now I find that the scanner stops at end of each page for 5-10 sec before continuing to scan the next page. Have you heard about this problem and what can I do to solve this problem.
I re-set the scanner and re-booted my MAC but the problem still persists. Please help.
Lorne, sorry to hear you are having problems–and sorry to report that I haven’t seen those problems at all, so I really can’t help. Given what you’ve already tried, it sounds like it is time to contact Fujuitsu’s support.
I am having the EXACT same problem with my S1300i. I had it for about a week or two, and it’s been fantastic until now. It now pauses for about 10 seconds near the end of each page. It scans the page, and then near the end if stops, makes a strange noise for a second, and then pauses for 10 seconds before spitting out the page and continuing on. It’s doing it for every single page.
I guess it’s a manufacturing defect with these units, since I’m not the only one with this problem. Too bad, it’s a great unit otherwise. I’ll be returning it tomorrow and going with a different brand.
I’m wondering if you’ve done any photo scanning with this scanner? I was excited about what you have done with this but digitizing pictures would be another thing I’d need.
I gone paperless in the beginning of 2012 and the Scanner was that one important thing that made the difference between forcing me to digitalize and just doing it. So there aren’t supposed to be any compromises. I can’t read it out of your recommondation but does the scansnap scan without any kind of extra hardware turned on (typically PC or Mac)? The thing with going paperless in the post-pc-era is to have it done immediatly and I’m not the kind of person whos remaining-pc is running all day. That was the reason for the Canon (in my case Officehero 6.1). Which one did you have? I hadn’t had those problems with the page feeder. Maybe they got it fixed in this model? Anyway, Canon is bankrupt so it doesn’t matter.
So with the Canon my workflow can be: open letter, (opt. removing staple, ) insert paper into page feeder, say the scanner what to do (yeah it’s a little more complicated than just pressing one button, but you have the ability to share your scanner and not scan everything to evernote so I think its worth). It scans the pages, completes on its own, and sends me an E-Mail to my Evernote-address (not exactly “Evernote-ingegrated” but kind of).
Also the time I bought it it was about 170€ which would have been about 210$ – so a little bit less expensive.
But – as I must admit – it lacks of a few cool features of the Fujitsu:
– and knows to ignore blank pages. No
– Can handle different page sizes. Kind of but buggy.
– Will straighten out crooked scans. No (solved it with Abbyy-Finereader integration)
– Nice power management features. Needs an hour to come to stand-by so no.
P.S.: I always wrote of a scanner, but the Canon Officehero 6.1 is a multipurpose printer/scanner/fax. Doesn’t change anything but should be mentioned.
I love the scanner however I am frustrate by one setting I can’t seem to fix. Suppose I wanna scan a 30 page document, I have to “try” to manually add pages as a continuous scan. Is there a setting I can change so after my initial batch of 10-13 pages it would ask me I wished to continue to scan. Thanks.
Hi, is it possible to set the scanner up so that you don’t even need to use the software on the PC to scan? I want to put documents into the feeder and hit scan, then it puts PDF files of each scanned document into a predefined directory.
I’ve just bought a scansnap 1300i which appears to be great so far albeit a little tedious to set up profiles. Does anyone know if pages can be fed through it that have staples in the page? I don’t want to risk damaging the machine but wanted to know if anyone have done this successfully?