ScanSnap S510M Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner

Been using the S510M for a couple of weeks now and the best thing about this scanner (IMHO) is its speed vs scan quality. This little machine will scan sheets quickly and still produce very good images for archiving and even re-printing. Higher resolution scans will slow it down a bit but thats to be expected. The software that Fujitsu has developed for the scanner (the ScanSnap Manager) is relatively intuitive and highly customizable. The third party software is decent but I need to find pdf generation/editing software that doesnt require so much in the way of system resources (speaking of Adobe Professional of course). Cardiris works okay and ABBYY is decent as well. Caution to those expecting a full blown version of ABBYY, the version thats packaged with the S510M appears to only work on documents that are scanned through the S510M then dumped into ABBYY. I tried opening ABBYY and OCRing a pdf file and it wouldnt work. Overall Im very happy with the purchase. A bit pricey but you get a pretty good little workhorse scanner that doesnt take up a whole lot of space.

I have a Mac computer, which I used to archive scanned documents. Although it works with a Mac computer very well, it uses proprietary drivers, which are incompatible with many archiving programs. If you have to scan documents occasionally, and do not use any particular software for managing your scanned documents, this scanner will do. Otherwise, buy a scanner that uses TWAIN drivers.

Initially the scanner came with wrong adapter wire. I contacted the seller who replaced it promptly. Prior to my buying this scanner I made some queries with the seller who was very helpful in providing information and assured me that in case I was not happy with the product I could return the same for a full refund. That was great. I have used the scanner for just two days so I cant really say much except that so far it is running very well. For an old and used scanner it is doing a decent job. Specially since I am still in the learning mode. Overall I am very happy with the purchase.

I have owned this scanner since November 2007. It just works. I mainly use this scanner to scan receipts for expense reports. It handles receipts of all sizes easily. I do not find the inclusion of adobe acrobat helpful. You can scan to email, print, preview, or file. With OS X Leopard and quick view scanning to file is easy. You can also scan to Chronos SOHO, iphoto, or pdfPen. I really dont need or use acrobat. My favorite application to scan directly into is ReceiptWallet. This allows you to scan a receipt into pdf format and automatically link this receipt to a spreadsheet and calculate totals, categorize, date and describe transactions. This makes submitting receipts to work very easy. Overall one of my most helpful purchases

I can only repeat what others have said: I love this thing. I looked at several other sheet-fed scanners from HP and others. Nothing seems to do what this does. It is very simple, very well designed, a very fast. My advice is to download the updated software on the support site - scanning profiles is a nice feature. Im a grad student who is overloaded with research and documents - this made it very simple to create pdfs and use spotlight to search for them when I need them.

after seeing the scansnap in action on a website, i must have spent a good months several pouring over the 10+ odd reviews on amazon for all the pros and cons. the possibility of going paperless was almost more than my inner productivity nerd could handle. so is it worth it? * initial impressions: i distinctly remember my impression the first time steve jobs demoed the iphone. o @#*$@#*$. watching the scansnap slurp in a stack of papers and output them instantly in pdf form produced a similar reaction. so FREAKING FAST. * as other readers have expressed, the ocr is slow. if you dont need to ocr everything you scan, youll be good. at this point, ive just decided that some things dont need ocr. * i heavily debated waiting for the upcoming s300m but ultimately decided to go in for the s510m. the dealbreaker was that the s300m does NOT come with adobe acrobat professional. in my opinion, this TOTALLY makes it the s510m worth it. the ability to optimize / compress / combine / split / adjust your pdfs is very very nice. * make sure to visit the fujitsu site for a $[...] manufacturers rebate. see the discussions on the amazon product page for the s510m more information. * this does photos, but my photo friend told me that the good quality 600dpi is going to give you fuzzy photos. i would imagine if youre not big on exact replication of your photos, youll be fine. in my experience with images + text, no problems. * document clarity is excellent as others have indicated. you can set it up to scan one side (simplex) by default, two sides (duplex), or auto-detect. and yes, it is stupid fast. * my only gripe is that there isnt a save as option right after you scan a document. you have to manually rename in finder. * you know things are different when you start conniving things that might need to be scanned so you can shred / throw them away. bye bye stacks of paper. the speed and ease of scanning is a game changer. there you have it. good stuff!

Have now had this for almost 3 years. Fantastic product! Easy to use. Great form factor (folds up when not in use, does not take up a lot of space). Occasionally the page feeder will feed more than one page at a time and have to start a scan again but that is a rare occurrence. Lots of settings that enable great flexibility re: how an item is scanned / what done with it after the scan completed. Would highly recommend. 2015-09-14 : scanner still going strong. use it all the time. More than 90,000 pages scanned and still going strong... Mostly paper scans but have also scanned thousands of photo prints I took in pre-digital camera days...Dont know what i would do without this little machine.... It has let me go about as digital as possible.

This product has solved my desktop paper organization issues. Ive been using it for about four months, and it has been superb. I recommend it highly. 1. Reliable: does not jam often, and when it does, jams are very easy to fix. 2. Good quality scans. 3. Simple and easy to learn software makes organizing scanned files a breeze. 4. Hardware is as simple and straightforward as it gets. 5. Easy to install. 6. Small desktop footprint. 7. Very fairly priced given the quality of the product and the fact that you get a full version of Adobe Acrobat with the product. 8. Scans quickly. 9. Not a portable product but lightweight and easy to move around. At first I had problems with the document feed for multiple page scans. However, I quickly learned that if you begin the scan of a multiple page document with the scan button (as opposed to the automatic system in the feeder) the issue with multiple page scans goes away. (This based on scans of up to 20 pages. I have not had need to try more.)

In general, the product works exactly as advertised: it scans all sorts of documents, and combined with DevonThink Pro Office for Macs OCR capabilities, it does everything promised. The paperless office is definitely within reach with this unit, and Ive been incredibly impressed with the speed of the scanning and the accuracy. It doesnt do such a great job with photos or graphics, but I bought the unit primarily to digitize old journal articles, manuscripts and home receipts. SHIPPING/DELIVERY: I appreciated the Amazon Marketplace sellers who could sell me this unit re-furbished without the bundled software packages of Adobe Aqcrobat Pro and Read IRIS, or the Cardiris software. I already own an OCR program and Acrobat, and did not want to shell out for the extra cost, I just wanted the unit itself. TechGalaxy delivered the unit as promised, in great condition, and earlier than expected even using standard shipping. PERFORMANCE & INTEGRATION WITH MAC OS X (Leopard & Snow Leopard): Set up and installation were very easy, just popped in the driver and installed the software drivers with no issues. In general, I did not experience the technical issues reported by other users using Snow Leopard. This may be because of my workflow with DevonThink OCR, I usually just scan to a folder and dont use the quick menu anyway. Scanning documents and changing the settings between sets of what Im scanning has been pretty easy through the scansnap settings menu. It FLEW through scanning a large file cabinet of things in a single afternoon, a project I thought would take an entire weekend! The reason I didnt give it five stars is because of the issue where the unit does not like to scan longer receipts or times when it has paper jams. These are infrequent in general, and usually because of older crumpled receipts, or old articles that havent been fanned enough (it does sometimes scan two pages at once instead of a single sheet at a time). So its not really a set & forget solution, you do need to watch it or check your docs later. If you set up an automator workflow to scan to a folder, then set up the docs for OCR later at night when youre not working on the machine (OCR is super-time and processor intensive if youre doing a large batch all at once - best to save it for a time you dont need to be on at the same time). I have to say it is AWESOME to wake up in the morning to accurate OCRd, searchable documents that once sat in your file cabinet gathering dust. I love that now I can reference old articles for my research with a few keystrokes! Im a graduate student and cannot recommend this unit enough for academic uses. But be warned: refurbished units do NOT come with the Adobe Acrobat Professional software OR the the IRIS OCR software.

I decided for the New Year to start to make a digital office. I have been scanning all my receipts and statements to save them as PDF, and I have started to go back to scan past years receipts and statements, so as to weed out my paper files. My flatbed scanner is fine for a single sheet, but I was looking at hundreds of sheets. A friend recommended the ScanSnap S510M. It is absolutely amazing. I cannot believe how fast it scans a whole pile of papers, even if they are of mixed size. I think it has only jammed twice, and both times it was with a page that was very wrinkled. At first I thought it was a bit pricey, but then I found out you get Adobe Acrobat Professional, as well as some other programs. I have not really used the other programs, but I use Acrobat all the time now. This is really a must have if you plan to create a digital office for your documents.