Canon imageFormula DR-M260 Workplace Doc Scanner Assessment

Canon’s imageFormula DR-M260 Workplace Doc Scanner ($1,195) is a high-volume, sheet-fed desktop doc scanner designed for heavy masses and doc administration methods within the authorized, monetary, healthcare, authorities, and several other different industries. A quick, correct scanner with succesful doc seize and conversion software program, the DR-M260 faces stiff competitors, together with our present Editors’ Selection, the considerably sooner and barely extra correct Epson DS-870 Colour Duplex Workgroup Doc Scanner. Whereas the cheaper Epson delivers a bit extra worth, the Canon DR-M260 is a terrific machine properly value your consideration.

Able to Get All the way down to Enterprise

At 9.1 by 11.2 by 10 inches with its trays closed and weighing simply 7.5 kilos, the Canon is analogous in measurement and girth to the Epson DS-870, in addition to one other PCMag high decide, the Alaris S2060w. Two different latest Editors’ Selection desktop doc fashions, Visioneer’s considerably beefier Patriot H60 and Brother’s lower-volume however extra versatile ImageCenter ADS-3600W, are each just a little larger and some kilos heavier than right this moment’s imageFormula providing.

In any case, whenever you lengthen their enter and output trays, all these and most different sheet-fed doc digitizers triple in size, thereby rising the desktop actual property required to function.

Comparable Merchandise

4.0

Glorious

Epson DS-870

4.5

Excellent

Brother ImageCenter ADS-3600W

4.0

Glorious

Alaris S2060w Scanner by Kodak Alaris

4.5

Excellent

Visioneer Patriot H60

In comparison with most of its rivals, the Canon DR-M260 sports activities a considerably massive however easy management panel consisting of a number of buttons (Up, Down, Menu, OK, Cancel, and Scan) anchored by a comparatively spacious five-line, 2.5-inch monochrome LCD. You can also make configuration adjustments and choose predefined workflows or scan jobs from the panel, although this scanner (like most others) will get its versatility from the bundled software program, which I am going to dig into shortly.

One of many DR-M260’s shortcomings, nevertheless, is that it is restricted to USB connectivity, albeit the speedy USB 3.1 model. This restricts its availability to the one PC it is tethered to; you get no community or cell assist, which some would-be consumers will certainly discover insufficient. Canon provides two networking improve modules, Ethernet ($169) and Wi-Fi ($199). It’s also possible to get barcode reader modules, a passport provider sheet, and an A4 provider sheet by Canon and different retailers.

With its USB connectivity, the imageFormula is designed to work together with one pc; the scanner’s bundled software program does many of the heavy lifting, together with defining job decision and different parameters, changing scanned textual content to editable textual content, and distributing paperwork to their varied locations such because the cloud, an area drive, or a doc administration back-end software. It doesn’t assist you to join your handheld gadgets to the scanner as a few of its opponents do.

Among the many opponents listed right here, the Epson and Visioneer additionally include solely USB connectivity (additionally upgradable by way of considerably pricey add-ons). The Alaris S2060w and Brother ADS-3600W, alternatively, each assist a large number of connectivity choices, together with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct. The Brother additionally helps Close to-Discipline Communication (NFC), a peer-to-peer networking protocol that allows you to join your smartphone or pill to the scanner by merely tapping the cell gadget on a hotspot on the latter’s management panel. Moreover, each the Alaris and Brother assist you to scan on to USB thumb drives.

The DR-MR260’s minimal doc measurement is roughly 2 by 2 inches, and in lengthy doc mode it could actually seize pages with floor areas as massive as 8.5 by 220 inches. Enter capability as measured by the dimensions of its automated doc feeder (ADF) is 80 pages, and its every day responsibility cycle rated at 7,500 scans. The Epson’s ADF holds 100 sheets, however its every day quantity cap, just like the Alaris scanner, is 7,000 pages; the Brother holds a meager 50 sheets, and its responsibility cycle is 2,000 scans per day lower than the Canon’s. The Patriot H60’s feeder holds 120 sheets and it is good for two,500 extra scans per day than the DR-M260.

Potent Productiveness Software program

Along with the industry-standard TWAIN and ISIS drivers that present a variety of connectivity throughout Home windows applications starting from Adobe Photoshop to Microsoft PowerPoint, the imageFormula DR-M260 comes with a formidable software program bundle. The titles embody Canon CaptureOnTouch, Canon CapturePerfect, and Kofax Digital ReScan (VRS) Professional.

CaptureOnTouch’s intuitive scanner interface and doc administration options allow you to shortly and effectively scan paperwork and routinely distribute them to numerous nodes throughout your administration system. A lighter cell model gives comparable performance on each Apple and Android handhelds.

CapturePerfect permits you to scan and convert scanned information to PDF and TIFF. It additionally has some rudimentary doc administration and workflow options, resembling Save Batch to Mail, Scan Batch to File, and Scan Batch to Printer. Kofax VRS is a utility that evaluates and enhances poor scans to enhance accuracy.

Excessive-Quantity Speeds

Canon charges the DR-M260 at 60 one-sided pages per minute (ppm) or 120 two-sided pictures per minute (ipm, the place every web page facet represents a picture). After I examined it utilizing our customary Intel Core i5 testbed operating Home windows 10 Professional and Canon’s CaptureOnTouch software program, it surpassed these scores by about 2.3ppm and 5.3ipm.

However then, how briskly pages zip by the machine does not actually inform us a lot. What’s extra vital is how shortly (and the way properly) the software program converts the scanned textual content to a usable file format, which in our case is picture or searchable PDF. The DR-M260 scanned and saved our one-sided 25-page textual content doc to picture PDF on the fee of 59.1ppm and our two-sided doc (50 sides) at 115.7ipm.

These scores beat the Alaris S2060w by 2.8ppm and 9ipm, and topped the Brother ADS-3600W by 13.1ppm and 18.9ipm. The Epson DS-870 and the Visioneer Patriot H60, alternatively, outpaced the DR-M260—the Epson was 9.9ppm and 23.3ipm faster, and the Visioneer 9.9ppm and 23.7ipm faster.

Subsequent, I examined how properly the DR-M260 scanned to a extra usable format, searchable PDF. It scanned our two-sided 25-page textual content doc in 53 seconds—5 seconds sooner than the Alaris, 11 seconds slower than the Brother, 29 seconds behind the Epson, and 23 seconds slower than the Visioneer.

Excellent Accuracy

Scanning textual content paperwork, after all, saves hours in typing. It stands to cause, then, that the extra correct the conversion from scanned to editable textual content, the higher. These days, most scanners—together with cheap desktop and small moveable and handheld fashions—and their software program are extremely exact. The DR-M260 and its bundled utilities are not any exception.

I scanned and transformed our Arial take a look at doc with zero errors down to five factors and our Instances New Roman pages mistake-free down to six factors. That is about common however nonetheless extremely correct. (The span between common accuracy, on this regard, and the very best is small.)

By comparability, the Alaris S2060w managed 8 factors for each take a look at fonts, and the Brother ADS-3600W and Visioneer Patriot H60 got here in at 6 factors for every font. The Epson DS-870, at 5 factors for every font, turned in the very best accuracy scores amongst this group of scanners. To its credit score, the Canon mannequin transformed our ornamental and show font samples a bit extra exactly than the opposite fashions did.

Extra Than a Good Wager

As I famous earlier, the Canon imageFormula DR-M260 shouldn’t be ultimate out of the field for sharing throughout a number of computer systems or cell gadgets. The Alaris S2060w and Brother ADS-3600W, although considerably slower, are higher suited to that. And for sheer pace, the Visioneer Patriot H60 is an efficient guess, as is the Epson DS-870.

The DR-M260 is a part of a ferociously aggressive group, however whereas nothing about it makes it clearly extra fascinating than our latest favorites, nothing counts it out, both. It is a superb different and a succesful high-volume scanner for many enterprises with severe document-digitizing necessities.