5 ms·
A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal document
by bxparks 5y ago
A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive, which is organized into a hierarchy of folders.
Google Drive's internal search is not good enough when there are 100s of documents with similar titles, so I try to maintain a consistent naming convention "{yyyy-mm-dd} {summary of document}". Electronic documents (e.g. bank and credit card statements) are downloaded as PDF and uploaded to the same Google Drive folder hierarchy.
The originals go into a set of 12 file folders labeled "Jan" to "Dec". The folders become a ring buffer. Every month, I empty out the upcoming month, by shredding the originals from 12 months ago. I got rid of a 4-drawer filing cabinet by incrementally scanning the original paper documents over several weeks.
(Edit: fix typo)
- nickthemagicman 5y agoI've used Google drives 'Save as pdf' feature where you can take a photo with your phone and it will be turned into a pdf. Prob lower resolution that yours but it's been working for me for a while. But other wise...follow the same process. Almost 99% paper free, no filing cabinets, no losing papers. Awesome stuff.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y agoHow does it compare to smarthone camera + one of hundreds of scan+ocr apps like Adobe Scan? For me the smartphone solution is supereasy, basically it takes n seconds to scan a n-page booklet for example.
- bxparks 5y agoI find the quality of the photos from my phone to be terrible: wrong brightness, wrong color balance, wrong focus, wrong contrast, wrong orientation, motion blur, etc. The quality of the documents from the Fujitsu scanner is top notch. And the feeder is amazingly fast, specs say 20 ppm, which I think means 20 sheets, or 40 pages/minute. I also hate typing long file names on a phone keyboard. But if it works for you, then it works for you.
- kamaal 5y agoActually the scanning apps like Microsoft Lens are quite good. During the WFH situation, I've used it extensively to scan kids homework almost on an everyday basis, to send it to teachers. I've used it for documents too. And it works just fine.
- xtiansimon 5y agoI use M.S. Office Lens at work every week. You can free-crop photos, compose into PDF, reorder pages, etc and save to OneDrive which quickly gets a phone PDF onto my desktop. Brilliant! OfficeLens also had an app you could load on desktops. I’m sure it was for tablets, but the ability to take a photo, free-form crop and save to PDF was fantastic. Alas, my old install of the app still works, but won’t convert to PDF anymore.
- jobigoud 5y agoHave you tried these apps? It corrects for white balance, contrast, orientation, etc.
- muzani 5y agoI love the feel of a physical scanner though, especially the process of aligning the paper. I suppose the difference is like a phone camera vs a DSLR.
- Spooky23 5y agoIf you’re processing volume, the scansnap is magic. 1-2 pages at a time, the phone is better.
- leokennis 5y agoAgree here. I have a capable scanner with document feeder, ocr, export to FTP etc. But I can also just open Prizmo on my iPhone, photograph 15 pages in 45 seconds, export as PDF and be done with it. In both cases the end result is a readable PDF, which serves its purpose.
- stuartcw 5y agoThe ScanSnap is a business quality scanner.You can put in a stack of documents into the sheet-feeder and you will get high quality scans out as fast as a printer.The smartphone scanner app are like an emergency workaround in comparison.
- noahjk 5y agoDoes anyone have a suggestion for a dual-sided feed scanner like this which can be used to semi-automate document scanning and which is not discontinued? I've been thinking about this for a while but I don't know enough about the market
- nokya 5y ago+1 Also interested
- squintychino 5y agoI just ordered the Brother - DS-740D duplex scanner. Hoping to do the same as OP and scan/organize my life.
- interestica 5y agoThe Epson FastFoto series is really good and comes with OCR software (but the install procedure can be a pain). (They basically modified their duplex workforce series). The latest (680?) Is also wifi ready. Ignore the misleading "direct to Dropbox/cloud" marketing as it still needs a host computer middle man. It's super fast for documents and the bonus is that it's great for photos (600dpi dual sided feed scanner). Epson has a super portable (battery too) workforce that folds up small (Es-300 I think.) Wifi capable but the connection process is a bit cumbersome. I run a photo/document scanning service between Toronto/Montreal and am currently getting rid of some duplex high speed scanners for cheap if by chance local.
- mikecarlton 5y agoI really like https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ads1700w https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ads1700w -- scans and OCRs docs lightning fast. Has great Mac support.
- EvanAnderson 5y agoI have a Brother ADS-2400n[0]. For me the killer feature was wired Ethernet connectivity to upload scans straight to my file server w/o a PC being involved. It's on the counter where I process mail so I can just throw stuff in it, scan, and dump the originals into a box for eventual disposal. I have been meaning to get around to trying Mayan EDMS[1] to ingest, OCR, and categorize the scans but that still hasn't happened... >sigh< [0] https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ads2400n https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ads2400n [1] https://www.mayan-edms.com https://www.mayan-edms.com
- quietbritishjim 5y agoI have precisely that scanner! I totally agree, I love that it's double sided and comes with really good OCR (ABBYY FineReader). And that it's an auto sheet feeder – I have terrible memories of flat bed scanners from the 90's that took a minute to scan one page but this only takes a few seconds per page. Like you I put the documents in a hierarchy of folders and mix with downloaded "official" PDFs, and I use yyyy-mm-dd in the filenames and folders. But, I must admit, a big part of my filing system is often a pile of physical papers stacked up next to the scanner that I haven't got around to yet... But I'd still recommend it.
- zikzak 5y agoThe monthly filing makes so much sense, great idea. Implementing this immediately. I like to keep the last thing I got (e.g. most recent insurance policy docs, last 12 power bills, etc) but very rarely for more than a year. Reminds me of the tickler file from GTD.
- threeio 5y agoVery much this.. I don't use it now as much as I used to, but this workflow simplified my life for taxes, record keeping and organization. In my case everything flows to Evernote for simplicity and search-ability, when I'm at my accountant for tax season if I missed something I can AirPrint it on their printer in minutes.
- mleonhard 5y agoI followed the techniques in Marie Kondo's book "The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up" and shredded most of my documents. It was satisfying and I haven't missed any of them.