The document scanners play an important role in the office, as it reduces the excess paper trash. With document scanning, you can keep the digital data safe and avoid papers in the future. Without the scanners, almost every office’s functions will get crippled. That’s why having the right office scanner is essential. But, you should not spend like a mad man and act like an informed person.
There are some techniques and tips that you should consider before choosing the right office scanner. With these tips, you can easily get the best office scanner that fits your budget and suits your requirements. In this post, we will share some tips or the things that you should consider while choosing the best office scanner for your office. All you have to do is to shortlist the best products according to these points, and you’ll be able to buy the right office scanner.
Things to Consider Before Buying Office Scanner
#1 – Scanner Types
There are different types of scanners available in the market. Choosing the right one is an essential part. Your journey of shortlisting the best scanner for office use starts from this first point, which is the scanner type.
- Flatbed Scanner is the first type, which is most popular. Be it the office or the home; you will find this type of scanner. Mostly, the multi-function printers will have the flatbed scanner on the top. With the flatbed for scanning the documents, it becomes easier to scan almost everything. Be it a single document, a notebook, a book, or anything else; scanning becomes easier. It’s very useful for fast scanning.
- The Sheet-feed scanners are the small and portable scanners. They are suitable to carry around. With the wand-like design, you can individually feed the documents and photos inside for scanning. The sheet-feed scanners take one sheet at a time, so the scanning speed is quite slow. If you are always on the move due to office work, then the portable sheet-feed scanner will be the best one for your needs.
#2 – Scanner Sensor
The scanners use special optical sensors for capturing the images. With powerful sensors, they can capture crisp and clear images with ease. You should check which type of sensor these scanners have. The most common is the Contact Image Sensors. The contact image sensors are used in almost every type of scanner. With the CIS sensors, scanning becomes faster. They are available in affordable office scanners. The only drawback of the CIS sensor scanner is that it cannot scan text-dense documents. Due to the shallow field of depth, it captures low-resolution images. If you are using the scanner for regular scanning of the documents, it will not be an issue.
Another popular and powerful type of sensor is the CCD sensor. The charged couple device is a powerful sensor, which captures high-resolution images. If you scan content-dense documents or photographs, then the scanners equipped with the CCD sensor are very useful.
#3 – Document Feeding
The scanners have a special feature as the Document Feeding. With the dedicated scanners, you get automatic document feeding. This feature automatically takes in the documents and starts scanning them one by one. If you stack the documents or photos for scanning, then the ADF feature will start intaking the documents one-by-one. You don’t have to manually scan the documents, as the ADF will work for you. If your document scanning load is very high, you should rely on the scanners with Automatic Document feeding.
#4 – Compatibility
Compatibility is one of the biggest factors that many people ignore. If the scanner isn’t compatible with your computer system, then it’s of no use. Most of the scanners do work with the Microsoft Windows 10 OS. But, if you are using macOS or Linux, then it’s essential to see if the device works with them or not. If macOS or Linux is the primary OS in your office, then you have to stay cautious and get the office scanner by checking if it’s compatible with your system or not.
#5 – Duty cycle
Duty Cycle is the term that is used to explain the overall daily capacity of the device. In this case, we refer to the duty cycle to the scanner’s daily scanning capacity. Ignoring the duty cycle is not a wise decision. You should check the duty cycle and check if it matches with your daily or monthly scanning requirements. For example, any scanner with a daily duty cycle of 400-500 scans is adequate for any small and medium office. If your requirements are very high due to the huge number of employees, you should find something that can help you scan more than a thousand documents each day. For that, you have to check for the industrial size scanners from Xerox or other companies.
#6 – Additional Features
Like the Duplex scanning and Power saving mode, the additional features are the few features that are like the cherry on the cake. With these additional features, you will get benefitted. With Duplex Scanning, you can scan the documents from both sides with ease. There is no need to get the document flipped manually for scanning the other side. Usually, the sheet-feed scanners have the feature of automatic duplex scanning. Not just that, the multi-function printers will also have automatic duplex scanning support. Although not having any of the additional features won’t be a problem if you will not use the same.
Final Words
If you are spending the company’s money or your business capital on the scanner, you should do it wisely. Having the scanner and the printer is essential for proper business operations. You don’t have to make rounds of the nearby photocopy shop for scanning requirements if you buy the right office scanner. We tried our best to share this detailed guide to choose the right scanner. All you have to do is shortlist the best scanner by following these points, and you will be going to roll. …