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I am looking for portable or medium-sized scanner which can take around 20-30 pages at the same time, scan them and convert into PDF format (compatible with OS X).

Usually scanners having Duplex Automatic Document feeders are available in large copy machines.

Some time ago I've bought Canon P-150M Portable Scanner which could do that, but the document feeder wasn't very good and software was too slow. The main problem was that the paper usually got stuck (more sheets then more chances to happen) and I had to start the scanning each time from the beginning, and sometimes the scanned pages were crooked.

Are there any scanners which can scan A4 pages more efficiently and reliably as described above?

So the basic criteria are:

  • it can either with printer or without,
  • A4 (with possibility of smaller sizes),
  • duplex automatic document feeder (DADF) with capacity of at least 20-30 pages,
  • driver (eventually software) compatible with OS X (and eventually Linux),
  • doesn't crook the scanned pages,
  • it's not so expensive
  • not too big (desktop size, not as big as a copy machine)
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  • The machine you're looking for is a photocopy machine. 20-30 pages with auto feeder is not a feature I've ever seen on a home scanner/printer.
    – ArtOfCode
    Sep 12, 2015 at 17:17
  • Portable Canon P-150M could actually handle 20 pages, but not very efficiently. I'm not looking for exactly the same feeder as in copy machines, any feeder with duplex would be good.
    – kenorb
    Sep 12, 2015 at 17:29
  • And you're looking for something that can handle more pages, with more efficiency? Unlikely.
    – ArtOfCode
    Sep 12, 2015 at 17:44
  • Not necessary more pages, the large number is not my priority, but it should work reliably, so it just scan the pages into PDFs, rather than keep restarting the whole scanning process, because of one page has been stuck for some reason. Or the feeder gets more pages than it should.
    – kenorb
    Sep 12, 2015 at 17:49

1 Answer 1

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I have used the FUJITSU Document Scanner ScanSnap iX500 and been very happy with it. It's a higher priced scanner though. It's currently $500 at Staples and $400 on Amazon.

FUJITSU Document Scanner ScanSnap iX500

  • Is not a printer
  • Various paper sizes, including A4 and automatically recognizes the size of the paper.
  • Duplex capable
  • Windows and OS X drivers.
  • Dimensions: 292 mm x 159 mm x 168 mm (11.5 in. x 6.2 in. x 6.6 in.)
  • Weight: 3.0 kg (6.62 lb.)
  • Can scan wirelessly to a device (PC, Mac, iOS or Android devices)
  • Scans to searchable PDFs
  • It can scan approximately 20 pages per minute, in my experience. The official specs say 25 ppm.
  • I can't recall the last time it jammed on me. Amazon reviews seem to agree:

-EastSide

Improved paper handling mechanism. Regular paper documents rarely jam or misfeed on the S1500. Only if you have stuck, very thin, bended, irregular or wrinkled sheets. I threw in different types of papers and it seems to take them in better! This is a real usability improvement.

-MoonX

Well like I said, I've got about 15,000 documents through this thing and haven't had a single problem with it feeding documents, jamming, or anything. I've used scanners almost twice the price of the iX500 that had more problems.

-GhostFaceReviewer

I had crinkled papers and it would never jam. Even thin receipts from years ago would be detected and never jammed.

Macworld compared this scanner to another product I've used (and would also recommend): NeatDesk. In the review Macworld noted:

Not surprisingly, given these different approaches, the ScanSnap iX500 hardware outshines NeatDesk. The ScanSnap is faster, less prone to jams and produces superior scan quality.

The different approaches being referenced are NeatDesk's "software company with some hardware" vs Fijitsu's "hardware company with some software" approach.

As of March 2019, it appears that the iX500 model has been replaced by a newer model, the FUJITSU ScanSnap iX1500.

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  • Please also add to your answer that this scanner works with Linux, at least with Debian stable (jessie) out of the box. The backend software is SANE, which is the only free scanning software available on Linux that I'm aware of, and the frontend I'm using is gscan2pdf. But it also works with other SANE backends. For reference, the SANE version on Debian jessie is 1.0.14-9.
    – Faheem Mitha
    Nov 20, 2015 at 23:43
  • Note also that the wireless support is quite limited on Windows and OS X. It isn't what one would normally consider a wireless device. And there is no wireless support on Linux.
    – Faheem Mitha
    Nov 20, 2015 at 23:53
  • Note: Price on Amazon went up quite a bit since this was posted.
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate
    Jan 5, 2017 at 8:30
  • "Duplex capable" - probably its the cheap RADF (Reversing Automatic Document Feeder, two pass duplex scanner, 100 to 500 usd) and not the expensive DSDF (Dual Scan Document Feeder, single pass duplex scanner, HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow N7000 snw1 for 1100 usd, Konica Minolta DF-704 Dual Scan Document Feeder, 500 to 1000 usd). for high volumes (millions of pages), you want DSDF, because it is faster, and it causes less stress on the mechanics, so the machine has a longer lifetime
    – milahu
    Aug 16 at 6:49

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