My review of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is up to 60 comments, with lots of questions and answers. Here is a followup post with frequently-asked questions so you do not have to wade through those comments.
First off, though, I have had my ScanSnap S1500 for about two-and-a-half months, and I still love it. I am still using my S500, too, although it sits on my desk at home now. It still works like a charm, and I expect that same reliability and longevity from the S1500.
What size documents can the ScanSnap handle?
The feeder is 9″ wide, so the ScanSnap maxes out at just over regular-size pages. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have scanned teeny-tiny receipts, although I do have to move them around to make sure the scanner can tell there is something in there.
The first question concerned passports. I have put drivers licenses and credit cards through there, but I have never tried a passport. However, a Fujitsu consultant assured me a passport should go through just fine.
What kind of software does the s1500 come with?
It comes with the ScanSnap Manager, a small, useful scanning utility. It can work with Acrobat’s optical character recognition (OCR) to recognize text, if you want. (At least I think it goes through Acrobat. It just works, in any case.)
Some ScanSnap Manager software conflicts with the new Windows 7 operating system. There is an easy ScanSnap Manager software fix.
The ScanSnap Organizer is also bundled, but I have never used it. My file system works just fine for organizing documents.
The S1500 also comes with ABBY FineReader, which recognizes text and allows you to scan documents straight to Word or Excel. It works pretty well, too. I was impressed.
And the biggie, it includes Adobe Acrobat Standard 9 (Win) or Professional 8 (Mac). This alone makes the Scan Snap an awfully good deal.
What software should I use to archive documents?
Don’t. Your computer was built from the ground up to organize information. I have not seen any software that adds efficiency. (Although I am always interested in being proved wrong.) I think it makes more sense to just make good use of my filesystem and indexed search.
If you must use something, DEVONthink sounds nifty (if you use a Mac).
Does it work with Linux?
Yep, with no problems. You can use it directly in Linux through SANE, or you can run Windows in VirtualBox and use Fujitsu’s ScanSnap Manager, which is my preference. The ScanSnap Manager is just a nicer utility than the Linux options, in my opinion.
What file types does the ScanSnap support?
PDF and JPEG, but using ABBY, you can also scan to Word and Excel format.
What kind of file sizes can I expect?
It is pretty hard to generalize, since every change in settings will result in different file sizes. But using just a couple of files as an example, here is what I came up with: A one-page color scan on medium quality is a 211.2 KB PDF. A four-page mixed scan (only 1 page color) on medium quality is a 438.6 KB PDF. Hope that helps.
How well does the double-feed detection work?
I was able to force-feed two pages through the scanner without too much difficulty, so not all that well. But I have also never seen the S1500 pick two pages at the same time except when I was forcing them through together.
So on the one hand, I do not think the fancy ultrasonic double-feed thingamajigger is a guarantee. On the other hand, I do not think you need to watch the scanner like a hawk at all times.
Can I use this to scan photos?
Sure. But if you are looking for super-quality, archival scans, get something else. This is a document scanner.
No TWAIN?
If you do not know what TWAIN is, do not worry about it. You will not notice its absence.
TWAIN is a way that scanners communicate with software. SANE is another way. The ScanSnap uses a similar pipeline through Acrobat.
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I think I hit on all the questions from the previous ScanSnap s1500 review post. If I missed something, feel free to ask here or in that post.
Sam Glover is a business and consumer rights lawyer and the creator of Lawyerist.
Lawyerist is the #1 law practice blog. We write about marketing, practice management, career development, and more.
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I’ve been checking but can not see if ScanSnap is compatible with Vista. I have Vista Home Premium on one machine and Vista Business on another. Thanks.
Oh, absolutely it is. I am using both the S500 and the S1500 with Vista Ultimate.
Thanks Sam.
Very helpful…. I was planning to get the Rack Filer 2 add on software… seems to be a very simple way to organize the school’s contracts by parents and school year… any thoughts?
@michael: See “What software should I use to archive documents?” above.
Sam, great information! Thanks.
Is there any way you could show a PDF example of a scan – maybe a magazine or some generic white paper letter.
Reason being, I’m really considering the S1500 because on my currents MFC’s the scanned PDF’s look very faded.
Thanks,
SP
There are a few images in my firm news feed that I took from scanned docs. You can scan documents at whatever resolution you want, but any document scanner should be at least as good as a photocopy.
how do you set up a profile to scan a multipage document and save it as a single file?
on the old scansnap S510 it was an edit in settings, do not see where that option is now
It should do that by default. But to get to the settings, just right-click, select “scan button settings,” and then select the “show advanced settings” option. (This is from memory, but it should get you to the right place.)
I need to scan a bunch of old photos and when I use my scansnap (mac) on color, in the excellent quality setting, it still looks bad. Do you have a recommendation for a good quality photo scanner?
If my office buys a scansnap S1500, can anyone in the office using Windows (with no extra software) search the documents that are scanned (and OCR’d) with the scansnap? That is, do you need to have something like Acrobat Standard to search an OCR’d document, or will a normal “find” search in Windows work?
Landya, that does not have anything to do with the ScanSnap, it has to do with where you store the documents. As long as everyone has access to them, everyone can search the documents, if you use OCR software to recognize the text.
The normal “find” in Windows XP will never work to find the contents of a document. If you are using Windows Desktop Search, which is optional in XP and standard in Vista and 7, it will search the contents of documents.
Sam:
Thanks so, so much for your quick response. I have had this question pending with Scansnap for weeks but they have yet to respond. I just checked Windows Search and it looks like a free download. Thanks very much for your help!
From a price point the S510 and S1500 are pretty close at $400 each (+/- $15). What is the difference between the two models? Thanks.
The S1500 is the newer model. See the review for more.
Sam: I think TWAIN is a big deal if you keep case files in a single PDF. TWAIN allows you to scan directly into an existing PDF file. Without the TWAIN driver, you have to insert a newly scanned doc into the PDF using Adobe commands which takes more steps and, therefore, more time. We had some documate scanners before we switched to Macs, and my staff misses the TWAIN drivers a lot (we use the older scansnaps, the S510M, which work with Macs). Just an FYI.
I agree TWAIN would allow you to skip a step if you keep your files all as one PDF, but why on earth would you do that?
I know I will go to h*ll for this, but I am considering ripping up my non-fiction books & scanning into a PDF. My goal is to reduce the room my books are taking up and being able to use search techniques.
How will the S1500 work for a project like this?
I don’t see how making copies of the books you own is wrong. Sharing those copies would be another story, because unlike physical books, you aren’t allowed to share anything digital. Which makes absolutely no sense.
Anyway, I think it will work well, as long as you make a fairly clean cut on the spine side of the books.
In law school I recall taking a UCC article 9 course and being forced to buy a huge paperback text with all kinds of stuff we would never need. I ripped the book apart so i could just carry Article 9 back and forth to school. If I was in school today, I would rip it and scan it (but first I’d look for a way to get a free copy of Article 9 on the internet).
If the pages are glued to the binding, you will likely have to rip each individual page, unless you rip into small packets and cut the edge in a paper cutter.
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