Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini Private Doc Scanner Overview

If you happen to want a conveyable scanner to make use of together with your laptop computer, and wish it to be succesful sufficient that it may even function your desktop scanner, the Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini Private Doc Scanner ($299) is a very robust candidate. It’s kind of greater than most transportable fashions, however it delivers necessary extras, together with an automated doc feeder (ADF) and a duplexer (for two-sided scanning). Add within the P-215II’s ($185.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window) quick scan velocity, and it is a shoo-in as our Editors’ Selection transportable doc scanner.

The P-215II is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the Kodak ScanMate i940 , one other prime decide as a heavy-duty transportable doc scanner. It is also inexpensive, but sooner than the now-discontinued Canon imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini Private Doc Scanner. Along with providing a bonus in measurement and weight in contrast with the Kodak mannequin, the P-215II matches the Kodak i940’s 20-sheet ADF capability, its means to duplex, and its means to scan thick plastic playing cards, like embossed ID playing cards and driver’s licenses. The Kodak scanner was a bit sooner in our exams, however the slight velocity benefit is not sufficient to make up for the upper weight and greater measurement.

Fundamentals and Setup
The P-215II weighs 2 kilos 3 ounces and measures 1.6 by 11.2 by 3.7 inches (HWD) with the trays closed. That makes it solely about half the peak of the Kodak i940, and about 11 ounces lighter. Nevertheless, it is greater and heavier than most transportable scanners. The Canon imageFormula P-208 Scan-tini Private Doc Scanner ($229.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window) , for instance, is sort of a full pound lighter than the P-215II.

{Hardware} setup might be so simple as connecting the provided USB cable between the scanner and a pc, however there are different decisions as properly. The scanner will get energy over the identical USB cable it makes use of to ship scans to the pc. In case your PC is restricted to USB 2.0 ports, you will get further energy for sooner scan velocity through the use of both an non-obligatory AC adapter or a second, bundled Y-cable that connects to the scanner’s energy connector on one finish and a second pc USB port on the opposite.

In my exams, utilizing two USB 2.0 cables, somewhat than one, boosted the velocity by a bit a couple of web page per minute (ppm), giving me 13.1ppm on one fast take a look at with a single cable, for instance, and 14.2ppm with two. In line with Canon, the scanner may also run at its prime velocity if you happen to plug a single cable right into a USB 3.0 port.

Software program Decisions
In contrast to most scanners, the P-215II provides you the selection of putting in software program or not. If you happen to do not wish to set up a program, you possibly can set a change on the again of the scanner to make use of the Canon CaptureOnTouch Lite utility saved within the scanner’s reminiscence. Whenever you join by USB cable, the pc will see the reminiscence as a USB drive, and allow you to run this system. This may be helpful for scanning to a PC you do not usually use. For many functions, nonetheless, you may be higher off putting in the total model of CaptureOnTouch in your PC, which gives you far more management over the scan settings plus the choice to put in different software program with it.

Together with CaptureOnTouch, the distribution disc features a mixed Twain and ISIS driver, which is able to allow you to scan immediately from most Home windows applications with a scan command, Nuance PaperPort Skilled 14 for doc administration and optical character recognition (OCR), and NewSoft Presto! BizCard 6 for scanning and managing enterprise playing cards. As well as, you possibly can set up plugins that allow the utility scan to quite a lot of on-line programs, together with Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, and extra.

For my exams, I put in the software program on a system working Home windows Vista. The set up is generally commonplace, however it suffers from the identical difficulty I’ve seen with different Canon scanners. This system provides you a alternative between Typical and Customized installations. With most scanners, selecting Typical installs every little thing. With the P-215II, it does not. If you wish to set up some key purposes, like PaperPort, it’s a must to select Customized. If vital, you possibly can rerun the setup program later so as to add applications you missed, however it could be higher if the setup screens did a greater job of guiding you thru the choices the primary time.

Efficiency
The optical decision for the P-215II is 600 pixels per inch (ppi), which is greater than you want for many paperwork. For my exams, I stayed with the scan utility’s default settings of gray-scale mode and 200ppi, and I used two cables for all the official exams. Scanning a 10-page doc to picture PDF format, I clocked the scanner at 14.8ppm in simplex (one-sided) mode and 28.4 photos per minute (ipm) in duplex, with one picture on all sides of the web page.

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Each speeds are only a contact beneath the scanner’s scores of 15ppm and 30ipm. If you happen to miss the lag between giving the command and the scan beginning in addition to the lag between the scan ending and the file being written to disk, nonetheless, the velocity comes out to fifteen.9ppm for simplex scans and 30.9ipm for duplex.

These speeds are terribly quick for a conveyable scanner. The Kodak i940 is a bit sooner, at 17.1ppm for simplex mode and 33.3ipm for duplex, however even the Canon P-208 is quick for a conveyable at solely 9.7ppm and 17.9ipm. Extra typically, most transportable scanners do not have ADFs, so their velocity is restricted by how shortly you possibly can feed paper into the enter slot.

Much more necessary than its velocity for scanning to picture PDF information is the truth that the P-215II does not take for much longer for scanning on to searchable PDF (sPDF) format. In my exams utilizing a 10-sheet, 20-page doc, the distinction was lower than 4 seconds, at 45.7 seconds for scanning to picture PDF format in contrast with 49.5 seconds for sPDF format.

The scanner additionally did properly for optical-character recognition (OCR). Scanning to a Microsoft Phrase file, it had hassle with our Occasions New Roman take a look at web page, failing to learn the textual content at any measurement smaller than 12 factors with out errors, however it learn our Arial take a look at web page at sizes as small as 6 factors and not using a mistake. It additionally did job on a number of different fonts we do not often report on as a result of most scanners cannot learn them properly at any measurement. The P-215II learn all however certainly one of them at 8 factors and not using a mistake and managed to learn one at 5 factors with out errors.

Outcomes for enterprise playing cards had been combined, however no worse total than most transportable scanners and higher than many. The P-215II had hassle feeding some thick playing cards, stopping on one cross, so I needed to refeed the stack. It was additionally a bit sluggish, taking 12 seconds per card with two cables hooked up. Nevertheless, the accuracy was adequate in our exams to be helpful. There was not less than one error on nearly each card, however scanning and checking the outcomes will nonetheless take much less time for most individuals than typing every little thing in.

Conclusion

If you happen to put a premium on even a bit sooner velocity, be sure you take into account the Kodak i940. Alternatively, if you’d like a lighter, extra transportable scanner than the Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini Private Doc Scanner, however nonetheless want conveniences like an ADF and duplexing, check out the Canon P-208. For many functions, nonetheless, the P-215II delivers sufficient of a lift in portability to make up for being barely slower than the Kodak i940, and it delivers sufficient further functionality to make up for being barely much less transportable than the Canon P-208. That steadiness of portability and functionality are greater than sufficient to make it our Editors’ Selection.