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Scanners
Fujitsu has added an overhead scanner to the
ScanSnap range. James Goulding reports
You and I might call it
vandalism, or even copyright
theft, but in Japan the
practice of cutting the spine
off a printed book and then
scanning the loose pages to
create an e-book that can be
read on a tablet or electronic
reader is known as Jisui.
Meaning ‘to cook one’s own
meals’, Jisui has become
something of a phenomenon
in a country where houses
have limited shelf space,
tablets are ubiquitous and the
publishing industry has been
slow to market e-books.
For Sofie Dheedene,
ScanSnap EMEA Product
Manager at PFU Imaging
Solutions Europe, the popularity
of Jisui helps explain the
astonishing uptake of Fujitsu’s
new overhead scanner. “We
launched the SV600 in June,”
she said, “and in the first two
weeks sold as many units as we
were expecting to sell between
June 2013 and April 2014 –
that’s 10,000 units in Japan
alone.”
In the UK, there is no Jisui
equivalent to drive sales of the
ScanSnap SV600 launched this
month. Nor is it priced at a level
to appeal to hobbyists who might
want to create digital scrapbooks
– a perfect application for
overhead scanning.
Instead, the £580 (ex
VAT) device is positioned as a
colour document scanner for
professional and business users
who might want to scan material
that can’t be put through a
sheet-fed scanner, such as
books, magazines, manuals,
notebooks, newspapers, legal
and business documents, fragile
items and three-dimensional
objects. It can also be used to
digitise loose documents, from
business cards to A3 prints.
This makes the ScanSnap
SV600 a competitor to
flatbed scanners and MFPs
that are usually used for
such applications. As many
businesses already have such
devices, what benefit is
there in purchasing
an overhead
scanner?
The answer, according to
Dheedene, is productivity –
especially when scanning in
book mode (the scanner offers
a choice of normal or book
scanning mode with automatic
distortion correction).
To scan consecutive pages
from a bound document on an
MFP or sheetfed scanner you
must lift the platen, take out
the document, turn the page
and put it back on the glass.
With Fujitsu’s scanner all you
have to do is turn the page and,
in book scanning mode, the
scanner will automatically scan
the next spread, taking just three
seconds to do so, compared to
10 seconds on a flatbed scanner.
There is also a Timer option that
provides continuous operation
with a delay between each scan.
Because there is no contact
between the scanner and the
item being scanned, there is
no need to remove pages from
a ring binder before scanning,
though Fujitsu recommends
scanning items no higher
than 3cm to maximise OCR
accuracy. Also, unlike high-
end professional book scanners
(see box overleaf), the SV600
won’t automatically crop the
binding mechanism from scans.
Instead, you must use the
supplied editing software to
enhance the appearance of
scans, for example by removing
fingertips from scanned images
– image quality can be improved
by holding down the edges of
bound documents so that pages
lie as flat as possible.
Productivity features
Other useful productivity
features include the ability to
scan multiple smaller items
such as business cards, receipts
and photos in a single pass
with automatic rotation and
separation of up to 10 items;
and the ability to combine
scans from an SV600 and a
sheetfed ScanSnap in the same
document as part of a single
process. “This is because, for
the first time, we have allowed
two ScanSnaps to be connected
to a PC at the same time,”
Dheedene explained.
Once a document has been
scanned, the familiar ScanSnap
Quick Menu launches, giving
you the option to scan to email,
folder, print, mobile device
or to specific applications,
such as Microsoft Office,
Dropbox, Evernote, Google
Docs, Sharepoint, ABBYY OCR,
CardMinder for business cards
and Rack2-Filer personal
document management
software. The latter includes a
new e-book feature that lets you
create a page-turning electronic
book or magazine with scanned
covers arranged on a virtual
book shelf. The software
can also be used to store
documents in virtual folders and
filing cabinets.
The new copier killer?
...features include the ability to scan
multiple smaller items such as business
cards, receipts and photos in a single pass...
Continued...