Doxie One - Standalone Portable Document & Photo Scanner

I bought the Doxie One, and I dont regret it. The most important criterion in a purchase for me is reliability, and having soldiered through a massive backlog of paperwork and receipts, I feel reasonably confident giving the Doxie One a positive mark on that score. Once during the process, a discolored line began to appear on my scans, but a quick treatment with the included cleaning tool took care of it in short order. I have not tested the included software, but thats because one of the things I was looking for in a document scanner was the ability to operate without any special software - too many bad experiences with gaudy monstrosities of drivers. The Doxie One ticks that box as well - stick an SD card in the slot, start scanning, your scans appear as JPEG files on the card, plug in the USB cable and it looks to your PC the same as a thumbdrive or card reader. No options to configure the scanning when operating without the software, but for my purposes, I havent missed them. Theres only one standout bad thing about the Doxie One, but it can be very annoying: the document feeding mechanism is very fiddly. It actually deals with folded and wrinkled paper fairly well - such documents wont look beautiful, but theyll be readable. What it does not deal with well is paper with a less-than-crisp leading edge, especially if its a receipt. If you have such a document to scan, its probably going to take several frustrating attempts before you get a successful result. The machine will grab the edge and start rolling, one side will get stuck, the resulting image will be smeared beyond recognition, and youll just have to fiddle with the edge and try again until it works - I always managed to get it to work, but the experience wasnt terribly fun. Another reviewer commented that it was not unlike trying to get a wrinkled dollar bill recognized by a vending machine, and I have to agree. One more minor issue I experienced was that the scanner would cut off the bottom of any document longer than something like 14 inches. Not a problem if youre dealing with most paper documents, but annoying if you happen to be scanning the absurdly long receipts that seem to be popular with too many retailers these days. On the whole, it works well enough and itd be a really great product if they just put some more effort into the feeding mechanism.

Amazing little gadget! Where have you been all my life? I originally bought this with the purpose of reviewing school records for my son, and rather than paying the $1/page the district demanded for copies, I scanned them on the spot. I also decided, I could use this to scan HUNDREDS of old photos. It is self feeding, huge plus. It is compact, major plus. It is lightweight, major plus. It operates on batteries, major plus. It scans to an SD card, major plus. The picture quality on scans is GREAT! I will never use a flatbed scanner again for pictures. Im a photographer. I am SUPER picky about this. The only thing I dont like, is that it scans documents to jpg, rather than pdf...or, I just havent figured that out yet. I opened the box a few hours ago. It is easy enough to add a picture to a word document and convert to pdf. You cannot go wrong with this one, especially for pictures. 2 Polaroids from his NICU nurse were the only pictures I had of my oldest son in the hospital when he was born. You know those are funky to begin with, so, forget trying to scan them on a flat bed scanner. I posted that scanned picture in this review LOVE IT!

When I started practicing law in the 1970s, I would lug what is still called a brief or trial bag to depositions and hearings. In it would be a huge mass of paper and a bunch of legal pads. At the end of the deposition, I would pack it all back up along with newly added exhibits and tote it back to the office where someone would ultimately file it away. Sometimes the dead weight would exceed twenty five pounds. Three years ago, I started carrying a portable scanner and a laptop to depositions. The scanner, a

I, like many others, had longed for the day that I could begin tackling all the clutter that had been piling up on my desk for years now. I never got around to it, simply because the task just seemed too daunting. After seeing a step by step guide on how to go paperless on Lifehacker, I decided to take the plunge and try this little guy out. Fortunately, I made the right decision. In a little under two days, I managed to scan and sort through three years worth of paperwork and neatly catalogue it all within Evernote. The best part is, I was able to do it all from my living room while watching television thanks to the Eye-Fi card that I purchased with it. The system as a whole is very intuitive: from the hardware itself to the software that you download and install with it. I did notice that it does sometimes suffer from an occasional quirk here and there, but nothing major. Probably the biggest flaw that I have found is that the paper guide moves back and forth a little too easily, so if you accidentally load a document crookedly, it will shift, thus allowing the document to continue to feed crooked, rather that straightening it as it feeds. Its a rather minor issue, and the scanning process is so easy that if you do notice that the document was fed incorrectly, you can simply run it through again and delete the flawed scan within the Doxie software. All in all, this is a great product that I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about going all digital.

The scans are ok but what I really dont like at all is the overall workflow. The way this works on the mac (Im assuming its similar on windows) is as follows : 1) you scan to the unit (which has its own SD card memory) 2) to move the scans to your computer you either plug it in via USB or insert the SD card into your computer 3) you then can use the software provided by doxie to view and rename and post process the scans 4) to save files you then need to manually save each one from the software to your folders on your computer This is just dumb and kind of a hack. This is sad since the company seems to be really trying to make a good user experience but they forgot to pay attention to the user. Say for example Im scanning bills (a common use case). In this case I most likely have some folders on my computer set up to hold them : one for the gas company, one for cell phone, one for my bank, etc. When I get a bill I want to scan it and then send it to the right folder in one, maybe two steps. Thats not possible here. I need to scan, transfer, and then save to the correct folder manually. If I have 2 bills scanned then I need to save each one to its folder. What I was expecting was a unit that plugged into my computer and scanned to the software directly and then inside the software it would allow me to drag it to some saved folder structure. The website says they have amazing software while its actually very pedestrian. What would be cool (and what I would do if I were the designer) is to have it remember the look of the scans and then auto name and auto drop into the correct places. It already has OCR abilities.. This is an ok scanner. But not a good solution for bill scanning and getting organized. The way it is, it would take me weeks to scan a box of old bills and get them to the right places.

(Originally 2 stars...) I wanted so badly to give 5 stars! On day 1 it was great - with some down sides (below), and it is exactly the tool I need to manage the complexity I deal with. But these things unfortunately have detracted enough from the quality, and now from the operation, of the Doxie scanner: 1. The most important problem is that 3.5 months after buying it, it stopped pulling paper through. Sometimes it stops half way, sometimes it doesnt recognize the paper at all. The most common manifestation of this problem was/is that it will grab the paper, meaning its sensor and motor are working but that the electronics are probably getting confused. But it is now doing this most of the time and is essentially useless. 2. Low quality of the physical connections. The power connection does not have a strong connection (it does not snap into place, and the cord falls out easily, and the cord stops delivering power when only 1mm out of the slot). The card reader does not have a snap feel to it, and does not actually fit the size of the memory card very closely, leading to a loosey-goosey feeling which causes me to constantly doubt whether it is plugged in properly. 3. Bad failure modes. What I mean is that any of the above problems requires pushing & holding down the power button for a few seconds to power off, fixing the problem (plugging the card and/or cable back in), and powering back on and waiting for a 5-10 second boot cycle. This wouldnt be so bad except that the only feedback is the light on the power button, and the speed of its blinking, which is cryptic at best. And that if you get it wrong, or if the problem is different than you expected, another boot cycle and another guessing game at the cryptic feedback. I love the idea of this product and I would have loved to give it 5 stars, but I am unfortunately still shopping for the perfect compact scanner. UPDATE: Changing this to 4 stars because of customer service. When they heard about my scanner, Doxies support staff overnighted a new one to me. The new one does appear to have more sturdy connectors and the pauses dont seem to be so bad. It works like new, of course, so hopefully this one will work out. Thanks!

The Doxie One is my first experience with a portable scanner. I have had it for less than a month and have had some success with scanning letter sized documents. As others have mentioned, the paper feed is tricky. It will grab the document on one edge and attempt to run it through crooked. Eventually, one gets the feel for how that works and it becomes less of a problem with practice. Every paper edge has to be straight which means sometimes I have to send the document in bottom edge first then rotate it in the software which comes with the device. The paper guide would be more useful if it were larger and in a contrasting color from the device. It also slides out of position easily so I do not bother with it anymore. As a result, there is almost always a black line on the right or left side of the scan which I crop off using the software. The software is straightforward to use. Although, it does not seem to want to delete files that have been saved elsewhere. I have followed the onscreen instructions and it appears that the files are gone but when I am ready to import a new set of scans, it gets busy importing old scans that should have been deleted. To get around this, I manually delete the saved files from the media card before starting a new set of scans. The power supply has multiple attachments for different types of electrical outlets. The end that goes into the device is easily dislodged though so I have to try not to move around too much while using it. It takes rechargeable batteries (sold separately). I do not want to invest anymore money in this device. The size and weight of the Doxie One are precisely what I was hoping to get. The speed of the scanning process is great. Importing the scan to a computer using the USB cable takes a long time even when it is not trying to import old scans. Since I have to manually delete files anyway, I am planning to experiment with importing directly from the media card to see if it will be faster. I am giving it three stars (Its OK) because of all the extra work I have to do to get the results I want. If I had not purchased this on sale at a good price, I would have returned it for something else.

Minuses- You CANNOT scan anything when the Doxie is hooked to a computer via USB. You CAN import images that you scanned when the computer was disconnected, but you CANNOT scan any more images until you disconnect the USB! This is a real PITA. The software, while useful, does not allow you to import files that were not generated by the Doxie. If you try to import a pre-existing JPG scan into the software, the software generates an import error, stating that the file was not scanned with a Doxie scanner. Therefore, if you scan 10 things with the Doxie, and one thing with your flatbed scanner, you cannot combine the files in the Doxie software. This is a very unfortunate way to set things up! You cannot use AAA alkaline batteries. The hardware is purposely designed so that it wont work. You can only use NimH rechargeable AAA batteries, and you need four of them. This will be an extra expense for me. Yes, I know Doxie wants to save the whales, but this design ensures that you wont be able to pop in some available-anywhere-in-the-world-alkalines when your rechargeables crap out. So, you must either pack the power supply or a recharger for longer trips, defeating the purpose of being able to operate on batteries. The edge of the paper must be meticulously and seriously flat to enter the scanner. There is no room for error. The slightest edge crease will keep the paper from entering the scanner. Inserting the paper properly is a very delicate operation. My scanner seems to grip the paper tighter on the right side, which worries me. When something goes wrong, the right side of the paper will be drawn in, while the left side remains semi-stationary. Of course, this results in a failed scan. The Doxie seems to need more grip; it holds the paper VERY gently. If you are heavy-handed, this scanner is not for you. After a few scans, it is pretty easy to recognize when an item needs to be re-scanned. Obviously, since youre not hooked to a computer (CANT be hooked to a computer!), you cant tell for sure how the scan went. You want to make sure you re-scan it now, rather than later, which is easy enough to do. Pluses- Very simple to use. The scanner only has one on/off button to deal with. A flashing light in the on/off button alerts you when it (or you) screws up. Scan quality is very fine, more than enough for storing documents or receipts. A stack of old photos is incredibly easy to scan, and the scan quality is suitable for snapshots of the quality most people are likely to have. It is much easier than using a flatbed scanner to scan an existing folder full of stuff. Once your paper folder is scanned, you can sit down, easily delete bad scans (there will be a few baduns in each batch), re-order them if you want to, then export in a variety of formats. It is easy to make OCR documents. You can combine all your imported documents into one file, staple them together in the software, then export the entire file as a plain PDF or an OCR PDF, which allows you to easily seach larger PDF files for a single item. The OCR seems to work very well, but will obviously slow things down tremendously. The document auto-cropping works perfectly. This ensures documents are only as large as they need to be. Auto-cropping and straightening for scanned photos is fair, sometimes resulting in thin white edges. The software does a nice job of enhancing the documents contrast, straightening it, and making it more readable. Thats why I would REALLY LIKE to be able to combine files in the Doxie software from my flatbed scanner! Mine came with a 4GB SD card.

Fast shipping from Amazon Prime -- great service! Using this Doxie scanner to go paperless in a home-office environment. With an

I ordered this in January and its now October. No problems. It works well and does what I need. Im using this mostly for receipts and some full page scanning. There are a few who have mentioned its hard to feed straight. There is an issue with that. The wheels can pull the paper in crookedly, so one has to be sensitive to how they are pulling. However, I find after the first one or two receipts, Ive got the pattern back down and it becomes a simple rhythm to feed them in properly. Someone mentioned that the power cord on the Doxie side is loose. Thats true for mine as well. It does not hold in well. However, I dont find that to be a big problem as Im generally sitting in one place using it. If Im not, I have batteries in it. The scan quality is good. Ive got receipts of varying lengths. Some are close to 12 inches long, possibly longer. They feed well (again with the occasional slip to one side or another [see above]) and even when they dont, I can clearly see the image. My receipts are wrinkled, wadded, and altogether not very flat. This hasnt been a problem for me. I open them up, smooth them out and make sure the leading edge is as flat as I can get to start. As long as that edge catches, its good to go. Even on wrinkled receipts, the print can be read. The image looks wrinkled as well, but everything is legible, its not a problem. Im happy with this purchase. I needed something portable, dependable, and clear for my record keeping. I did not get this to scan pictures, so I cant say as to any details on that. But what I have scanned looks good. The software is easy to use and I found it quick and easy to combine scans, and save it to my files.