Long-time DTPO user, forum newbie. Apologies in advance if I’ve posted to the wrong area.
I’m looking for advice on the best document scanner to use with DTPO on Mac OS 10.13 / High Sierra.
I’ve searched the DT fora and so far only found scanner discussions from years ago; hence this post.
Today, and for the last… um… eight years?.. I’ve been using DTPO in combination with Mac OS 10.11.6 (El Capitain) and older Mac OS versions.
With a workhorse Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M that has been a champion. USB connection (would prefer wired Ethernet, oh well), “just works” with Mac OS and DTPO, drop 50 pages into the document feeder and crunch-crunch-crunch a scanned, OCR’d, collated file shows up in DTPO as “PDF+Text” and ready to go.
But: Fujitsu no longer supports S510M; the iX500 is Fujitsu’s latest, yet still looks old for the things it supports, plus there have been problems with iX500 with Mac OS Sierra and Fujitsu doesn’t make it clear whether iX500 supports High Sierra.
So… anyone out there prepared to recommend an awesome desktop scanner, “just works” with MacOS High Sierra (bonus for also working as far back as El Capitain), “just works” with DTPO? Also bonus points for price under US$1000.
For instance, Epson Workforce DS-575W, DS-770, DS-780N, DS-860?
Thank you for reading all this and thanks in advance for any thoughts you might offer.
Well… guess there isn’t that much interest in the scanner question, eh? I want to say thank you to the (34) people who took the time to read the question.
To any who still care to look at this thread: I’m now pondering the merits of the Epson DS-780N scanner, with what is purported to be a 1000BT Ethernet interface, 45 ppm document ingestion (dropping at higher resolutions), full duplex scanning, and documented compatibility with Mac OS 10.12 that I’m hoping will translate into compatibility with Mac OS 10.13 (the support/download page offers a recent-enough software update that hope springs forth).
Anyone care to praise or condemn the Epson DS-780N?
FYI to all: I rigged up a virtual machine (Parallels) with High Sierra and determined that I have basic connectivity with my ScanSnap S510M. But definitely problems configuring the ScanSnap software to automatically feed to DTPO; not yet sure whether I can figure out / fix. Given that Fujitsu makes clear that they no longer support S510M… well, there may not be an easy solution. I’m encouraged that the iX500 appears to still be supported.
I am very happy with my Doxie Go scanner, which I’ve been using for more than two years. No direct integration with DTPO but their software does the job very well (with OCR), and you can directly save the PDFs to DTPO if you activate the “Global Inbox in save dialogs” add-on.
I’m using a well worn ScanSnap s1300m with DevonThink Pro Office, with no problems at all on High Sierra.
An interesting benefit of using DevonThink as the scanning solution is that it accelerated my scanning activities. Using only the included ScanSnap software, I could only scan one document at a time, and I had to either wait for OCR to finish or go back later in the ScanSnap software and batch OCR the scans.
With DevonThink Pro Office, I can disable ScanSnap’s OCR, and send the scans to DevonThink. DevonThink handles the OCR on the documents as they show up, but in separate process. So, I can scan documents as fast as my scanner can consume them, and they batch up in DevonThink, OCR, and drop into the Global Inbox. A much faster workflow as I can scan faster than my computer OCRs the docs.
@ Jeff V
I had tried using DTPO’s OCR in the past, but I reverted to letting ScanSnap do OCR and then place the file in a temp folder where I change filenames and perhaps do other manual processing. The OCR is fast, much faster than DTPO’s. When done I file the tweaked files into indexed folder.
However, your post inspired me to try your method again. My problem is that when ScanSnap puts the file in the Inbox (which I chose as the global inbox - in ScanSnap’s setting, I must choose a folder) DT begins the OCR and ends up leaving two files in Inbox, a pdf and a pdf-text. In DT’s preferences, I have checked the box to delete original file. And I have turned off OCR in ScanSnap.
At any rate, letting ScanSnap do the OCR, it’s usually fast enough that I’m ready to scan the next document immediately. With DT, while it may batch them up, it’s much slower. Perhaps I’m missing an important step.
I’m not having the same problem that you are. I get just the one scanned/OCR’d file in my Global Inbox. I looked through my settings.
In ScanSnap Manager:
Started with the Standard Profile
Application: DEVONTHINK Pro (settings button greyed out)
Save, Scanning, Paper, and Compression: Default Settings
File Option: File format: PDF, Convert to Searchable PDF; Unchecked
In DEVONThink:
OCR: Incoming Scans; Convert to searchable PDF
Searchable PDF: Enter metadata after text recognition: Unchecked
With these settings, I can get two or three scans ahead of the OCR by using DEVONThink instead of ScanSnap. I’m wondering – Did you tell ScanSnap to use DEVONThink Pro as the application? I was thinking if you told ScanSnap to drop the file into the Global Inbox folder, it would be behave differently than if you send the scan directly to DEVONThink the application.
I use iX500 and iX100 with High Sierra. The integration with the services I use is flawless. I scan to DTPO, Folders (Google Drive & Dropbox), and to specific apps (e.g. PDFExpert). I use the different locations/services based upon both professional and personal roles and outcomes.
I formally used the M500 and was confronted with change when High Sierra came out. I got this scanner in 2006 so I figured I got my use from it. Credit to Fujitsu, the scanner worked as well as the first day bought it.
There was a period of time that Apple and Fujitsu did not play nice with PDFs. Fujitsu communicated clearly about the issue. It seems to be an Apple issues with everyone else moving to adjust, including DTPO (There are many posts about this in the forum). I don’t have any difficulties with it now in my usage.
Since I’ve had great success with the Fujitsu product, I would be slow to change. Again, it works great with High Sierra.
Alan, if you have other questions you think I could answer, let me know. I know this is a late response to your question. I haven’t looked at the forum for a few weeks as I was busy with projects and took vacation the week of Thanksgiving.
OCR: Incoming Scans; Convert to searchable PDF
Searchable PDF: Enter metadata after text recognition: Unchecked"
You don’t check “Original Document: Move to Trash” ?
But I now realize that your process is not compatible with mine:
As I hinted in my last post, I rely on an external app to do part of the processing before getting the OCR file into DTPO. When I scan (with OCR), it’s to a temp folder (in dropbox) and then my Hazel app processes each new file by looking for specific text strings, renames the file wrt the text strings, and move it into the appropriate indexed folder. It’s an automated system that requires scanned files to be OCRed before DTPO sees them. My system doesn’t work with miscellaneous files, only those I get each month - and there are a lot of those.
In a way, I’m glad your post got me to look into this - I haven’t tweaked my system in a year or two and the Hazel rules need updating for many of the file “types”.
I was about to make my buying decision today when I thought I’d go back and re-check this forum.
I appreciate the additional responses that have come in and I find them useful. Thank you! (BTW, my workflow is ScanSnap S510M to DTPO, with DTPO doing the OCR, which nicely batches up and for me “looks fast” because I can just keep feeding docs into the S510M hopper. I can go do other things, whether in DTPO or elsewhere, while the OCR process finishes.)
@GuernBlanston, I wanted to particularly thank you for recounting your iX500, iX100 and M500 (wondering if you mean S500/S510M) experiences. I will take another look at Fujitsu today because of your feedback. I had been narrowing down on an Epson. So… two good choices to look at, I hope. And I want a new scanner anyway, in addition to the High Sierra reason, as my S510M is finally making strange groaning noises – after 7 or 8 years of faithful service!
I’m still running my S510M under Sierra. Scan Snap SW still works. And I’ve verified that the same scanner will run using Vuescan SW under High Sierra. So until the scanner itself breaks down (I’ve already replaced the rollers and stuff once) I’m not bothering to replace mine.
Just wanted to let you know that I purchased an Epson DS-780N. It’s working pretty well with DTPO.
Compared to previous Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M:
Software integration favors the ScanSnap. It just works. It seems as if DTPO takes an extra step or two to integrate it. Fuji has done good work integrating and making it easy.
Epson software is a bit lacking, with weird distribution of functionality between host app and scanner. Expect that it will take you longer to hook it up and get it all more-or-less working. I still don’t have button-press functionality on the scanner and have to rely on initiating scans from the host app.
Pretty close to equal on desktop area consumed with paper trays open, between S510M and DS-780N. The Epson product probably takes a little more space overall.
The Epson product is an absolute, wonderful beast of a scanner! At least the hardware! Way, way, way faster than my S510M in the real world; way, way faster on a spec basis when compared to the latest ScanSnap ix1500 or whatever it’s currently called; works over the network not just over USB; better than my S510M on paper handling, including wider range of paper types and even simple things like catching the output.
There’s no way for me at this point to compare longevity of S510M (8+ years) versus 780N (several weeks). The Fujitsu S510M clearly was well-built and lasted a long time for me. I hope I’ll be able to say the same about the 780N.
OCR: with the S510M, it hooked cleanly into DTPO and DTPO automatically ran the OCR process. With the 780N, integration isn’t so good. You either have to manually initiate the OCR within DTPO or there’s a “built-in” OCR that Epson provides. After some comparison, I’d say that the Epson OCR appears to recognize a few more words than the DTPO OCR. But the EPSON OCR also stalls out the scan process, so you can’t scan more stuff while the Epson OCR is running. I once scanned a 130 page document using Epson OCR and it took a loooong time to finish, like more than an hour, during which time I couldn’t use the scanner for anything else. I’m actually considering switching back to DTPO OCR, even if manually initiated, just so I can keep scanning and fill up the OCR work queue.
Summary: I’m pretty happy with the DS-780N and it looks like Epson revs its technology faster than Fujitsu. If I can get the on-printer scan-initiation button working again – it worked at the beginning, then broke as I began to try to customize the scan sequence – then I’d be in perfect shape. Even as is, initiating the scan from the host app isn’t a big deal.
I want to say thank you to the (34) people who took the time to read the question.
