How to choose the best office scanners

Navigating the world of business document scanners can be daunting given the variety of options available. This guide is designed to help you choose the right business scanners for your needs, covering mobile scanners, compact desktop scanners, and sheetfed and flatbed scanners, as well as graphics scanners.

To decide on the right scanner for your business, you need to understand the different types of scanner available to you.

• Mobile and compact desktop scanners

Compact, portable and easy to move, these scanners are ideal for anyone who works on the go or has limited desk space – but still needs significant scanning capabilities.

• Sheetfed scanners

Ideal for busy offices, sheetfed scanners are perfect for high-volume, highly reliable scanning of multiple media types and formats.

• Flatbed scanners

Robust, versatile and high-speed scanners that can scan many different sizes and media types.

• Graphics scanners

High-quality scanners for sharp and accurate image reproduction, in industries where precision and detail are vital.

You’ll typically find A4 mobile scanners being used by field workers, or professionals working in compact, space-challenged environments. In the case of Epson’s mobile business scanner range, performance is a key factor, providing scan-anywhere capability with lightweight devices that are optimised for fast, accurate results.

How to choose a mobile scanner

When choosing your mobile scanner, you should be looking for key features, including:

• Compact lightweight design
• A range of power sources, including USB, Li-ion batteries and conventional plug
• Instant scan without warm up
• Continuous scanning and automatic document feed
• Software options to streamline scanning
• The ability to handle multiple paper weights and formats

Why would you need a compact desktop scanner?

Good compact desktop scanners, such as those found in the Epson compact desktop scanner range, offer an all-in-one scanning solution for anyone who has limited desk space and needs to scan various types of media and documents.

Built to balance power and convenience, these highly versatile scanners allow you to do more with less and reap all the benefits of an ultra-compact scanner without having to sacrifice precious office desk space.

Mobile scanners vs compact desktop scanners – which to choose?

When deciding between a mobile scanner and a compact desktop scanner, your choice largely depends on your specific needs related to mobility, space, and scanning volume. Here are some considerations to help guide your decision:

Mobile scanners

Advantages:

• Portability: Mobile scanners are lightweight and small, designed to be carried. This makes them perfect for professionals who travel frequently or need to scan documents at multiple locations.
• Ease of use: They’re typically very easy to operate, with minimal setup required. This makes them great for quick, on-the-go scanning without needing a permanent workspace.
• Flexibility: Mobile scanners can operate via a battery USB connection or Wi-Fi, offering flexibility in environments where power outlets are scarce.

Compact desktop scanners

Advantages:

• Higher speed and capacity: While still relatively small, compact desktop scanners generally offer faster scanning speeds and better handling of multiple and diverse document types, including passports, than mobile scanners.
• Advanced features: These scanners often come with more sophisticated software and functionalities like higher resolution settings, advanced image processing and better integration with office systems for document management.
• Cost-effectiveness: For their capabilities, compact desktop scanners can be more cost-effective than full-size office scanners while still offering most of the needed functionalities.

Sheetfed scanners are commonly used by businesses to scan contracts, reports, invoices and other office documents. Sheetfed/paperfed scanners are designed to pull individual sheets of paper through the scanner. The document is fed into the scanner from a tray or feeder, and it moves past the scanning sensors to capture the data before being ejected from the other side.

They’re ideal for high-volume document scanning such as invoices, forms and other paperwork and can handle multiple pages and formats efficiently, making them suitable for environments like offices, banks or administrative areas where paper documents are frequently processed.

Within this format, the best sheetfed scanners come in a range of sizes, offering different functionality. Looking at Epson’s sheetfed scanner range, you can choose from:

• USB and high-speed USB scanners – with powerful media handling and smart features, they integrate seamlessly into your business workflows and can offer high-speed, continuous duplex document scanning without compromising on data integrity.
• Network scanners – allowing you to scan directly to network and cloud folders, email addresses and USB memory sticks.
• A3 scanners - featuring a high-capacity feeder, wide media scanning capabilities and easy-to-use touchscreen display panel.

Including flatbed photo and document scanners, and A3 flatbed scanners for artwork, you operate this format of scanner by placing documents, photos or other media on a glass window under which the scanning array moves. They’re ideal for fragile documents, including:

• Photographic negatives, x-rays and slides
• Passports
• Thicker books and magazines
• Documents that can’t be scanned through a sheetfed scanner

Epson’s flatbed scanner range offers you a wide choice of different speeds – including high-speed flatbed scanners that can scan up to 70ppm, duty cycles and multifunctional capabilities, as well as advanced scanning features, high-resolution image output, and workflow efficiencies.

What is the difference between flatbed scanners and sheetfed scanners?

While flatbed scanners are ideal for individual documents and items, as described above, sheetfed scanners are a much more efficient choice for scanning multiple pages as they can handle high volumes without the same level of user intervention.

Graphics scanners give you high-precision output when scanning detailed documents such as historic records, photography, film negatives and x-rays. They’re ideal for a wide range of industries, including:

• Healthcare
• Military (detailed map scanning)
• Museums (specimens archiving)
• Textile production
• Photography and graphic design
• The legal and public sectors

When choosing the best graphics scanner you need to consider factors such as versatility and high-resolution capabilities. You’ll find both of these – and much more, including flexibility, ease-of-use and low power consumption – in Epson’s Expression 13000XL and 13000XL Pro A3 graphics scanners, which make up Epson’s graphics scanners range.

As you’ve seen, choosing the right scanner involves matching your specific business needs – whether it's portability for scanning on the go, volume handling for office environments, or precision for creative work – to the capabilities of the scanners. Epson offers a wide range of business scanners to meet these diverse needs, ensuring that your business's scanning capabilities are met as efficiently and effectively as possible.