Document scanner suggestion..

I have a Neatworks single page scanner. It's the bar style. As long as you scan on a flat surface, out of direct sunlight, you should get good results. It does have trouble with those green copies of BOLs and those yellow CAT Scale tickets. They come out looking like just a big black square. Mine can't always see the red lines on a log book graph, either...but I found that if there is less ambient light, it does fine.

 

Hey JD...
I use an HP all-in-one printer-fax-scanner-copier. It doesn't have a HUGE footprint and the consumables aren't that expensive. has one tank for black and one tank for color. Has automatic document feeder and also you can lift the lid and copy/scan like a flatbed. I don't remember the exact model number, but it's something like XX4500.

 

x2 for the all in one. I use my laptop as a tv .... so, I use that area for the all in one. Its great, especially if you ever run flatbed and need permits faxed to you. There are other threads on here about using email to fax, etc.

 

I use a Brother MFC-295CN all-in-one scanner, copier, printer, fax. It runs on 4 individual ink tanks (1 each black, cyan, magenta, yellow). It offers an automatic document feeder up to around 25 pages (i think) as well as flat bed. The paper tray handles up to 50 sheets at a time. The unit is fully network capable (meaning a CAT5E cable (this is the "N" part of the name) instead of USB (though USB is included) and will scan across the "network" if multiple computers are involved. The unit's footprint is relatively square and not very high in comparison to HP a-i-o units. I paid around $80 for it--and it is my 2nd Brother MFC. The first lasted about 4 years before it finally quit printing anything at all.

I also have an MFC-495W at home which offers most of the same specs with some upgrades (being a higer model number). They use the same model ink tanks. The 495W, however, is a WIRELESS networkable unit, meaning it will connect across a network via a wifi router and will scan across the wireless connection.

One limitation of these machines is they only scan 8.5 x 11 letter size paper or smaller (A2, etc). But routine scans out here like paperwork are easily stored as PDF, TIF, or JPG images and the unit can scan to the computer directly or to SD cards or thumb USB drives. I use a smattering of both depending on the document.

I came to like the ease of use, form factor of the Brother printers (especially in the limited space of the truck), plus the network capability beats wearing out a USB port with constant plug/unplug cycles. The 4 separate ink tanks make it a snap to replace one color. Additionally I found the scan times to be much quicker with the Brother than its HP competition.

 

I have an Epson Workforce 520 all in one. Similar to above posters - does everything and is wireless capable. I paid $69 for it on sale from Best Buy. Only complaints are that it's kinda big for the truck and seems to use more ink than the HP I had previously.

 

Due to the limited space available in the truck, I have a Cannon Lide 110 flatbed scanner ($59) that slides neatly into the bottom drawer of the nightstand and runs off the USB port of my laptop, For printing try the Planon PS900 stick portable thermal printer (No ink) for around $170 or so.

I use MYFax .com for sending and recieving faxes without the need for a bulky fax machine in the truck ($10 a month).
The whole deal is way more convenient than carrying a bunch of hardware and ink cartriges on the truck.
MYFax also sends a copy of all faxes to my home office so that my wife can do all the paperwork at home while I handle the outside work.

 

The Best Scanner I ever own is an Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300


I have owned numerous hand held, flatbed, and multifunction scanners over the last 20+ years and the S1300 is the best one yet. In the two weeks I have owned it I have scanned in a stack of paperwork and documents 28" high and a 4" stack of business cards. Of those thousands of pages I've experienced about 10 paper jams and 2 double-feeds. All of them were because of the documents and not the scanner. Clearing jams and double-feeds is easy and the scanner automatically rejects the scan so you can feed the docs right back in. The specifications indicate the sheet feeder holds 10 pages, but 12 pages of normal weights will feed through easily. The sheet feeder doesn't wrap or bend the documents like most sheet-fed scanners so cardboard stock and business cards pass through easily and aren't bent in any way.

The bundled software is what really makes the scanner shine. ScanSnap Organizer and ScanSnap Viewer make it extremely easy to edit the PDF documents and convert them to email or Word, Excel or PowerPoint. The Viewer allows you to rotate individual pages, change the page order, delete pages, and even crop out anything on a page you don't want. When scanning in duplex mode the software does a great job of detecting and discarding blank pages.

The only negatives I can think of are the included documentation is very sparse, even the documentation on the CD. The software is so easy to use there's really no need for extensive documentation though. The business card software is not quite as good as the ScanSnap software, but does a fair job of OCR and picking out name and address information. I found about 40% of scanned cards need to be manually edited. The only complaint with the hardware is visible white streaks when scanning images at the higher resolution settings to .JPG format. Cleaning the scan heads helps but it appears the streaks are caused by the sheet feeder leaving slight impressions which are picked up by the sensitive scan heads.

 

Canon Pixma MP495 Wireless all in one $49 at walmart