Kodak ScanMate i940 Scanner for Macintosh Computers

Kodak recently launched its ScanMate i940 Scanner for Macintosh Computers, the OS X counterpart to the Windows-based Kodak ScanMate i940 Scanner, an Editors' Choice. It's a welcome addition, as Mac-specific scanners are not easy to find. In our testing, although it was well short of its rated speed when under AC power, it was nonetheless fast for a portable scanner, and it lost little time when I switched to scanning to searchable PDF from image PDF. Although it's primarily a portable scanner, its 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF) and duplex scanning capability make it useful for light desktop use as well.

At 3.1 by 11.4 by 4.2 inches (HWD) and 2.9 pounds, it is large and heavy for a portable scanner. It has a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF), and supports duplex (2-sided) scanning. It can scan both business cards and thick plastic cards in addition to paper documents up to 8.5 by 60 inches.

As befitting its dual nature as a desktop and portable scanner, you can power the i940 for Macintosh either from an AC adapter or from your computer's power over a USB cable. (You can add a second USB cable for additional power.) Once it's plugged in, to start the scanner you just open the lid; you'll see a blue LED-lit number to identify the current scan profile. There are also two arrow keys: an up arrow for cycling through the profiles, and a right arrow, the scan button, which is illuminated in green when you're ready to scan. After 15 minutes of inactivity, the scanner will go into power saver mode, and the lights will go out. To turn the scanner off, you simply close the cover.

Software
I tested the i940 for Macintosh on a 13-inch MacBook Pro running OS X Mountain Lion. Apart from OS compatibility, what differentiates a Mac scanner from a Windows model is the included software. The Mac version comes with NewSoft Presto! PageManager 9 for document management and NewSoft Presto! BizCard Xpress for business card management, plus a Twain driver.

In contrast, the Windows-only i940 includes the Kodak SmartTouch scan utility and NewSoft Presto! BizCard 6 plus Twain, WIA, and ISIS drivers?which let you scan from Windows programs that include a scan command?but no document management program. Both PageManager 9 and the SmartTouch scan utility have built-in optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities.

In PageManager you can adjust the settings for the scan button profiles, which include Scan to PageManager; Scan to BizCard Xpress; Scan to Folder; Scan to Mail; Copy to Print; Scan to OCR; Scan to PDF; Scan to Google Docs; and Scan to Evernote. Output formats include TIFF, JPEG, RTF, BMP, PDF, and searchable PDF. I launched the scans from the scan button icon on the program's top menu.

Performance
When using the scanner under AC power, I timed it at 12 pages per minute (ppm) in scanning and saving a 10-page document to image PDF in black-and-white at the default 200 ppi using PageManager. Although well short of its rated 20ppm speed, that's still a very good speed for a portable scanner. Switching to duplex (two-sided) scanning, I timed it in scanning a 10-page document to image PDF at 11 ppm/22 ipm.

In scanning and saving the 10-page simplex document to searchable PDF, I clocked it at 1 minute 5 seconds, a little slower than scanning to image PDF but still a strong score in that many scanners lose a lot of time in the OCR phase.

I also tried scanning to image PDF solely under USB power (a second supplied USB cable plugs into the scanner's power jack); in my testing it slowed to 7 ppm for simplex and 7 ppm/14 ipm for duplex scanning, which is still faster than most portable scanners, and it nearly matches Kodak's rated speed for USB-powered scanning (8 ppm).

OCR
Using the OCR function in PageManager to scan to RTF format was a disappointment. There was at least one error in all fonts (including the standard Times New Roman and Ariel) even at the largest sizes, and it also had trouble in formatting the scanned pages. This is in line with what we've seen with other (Windows-based) scanners that used the OCR function in PageManager.

I scanned a stack of business cards to Presto! BizCard Xpress, which did a passable job of reading and sorting the data. Although nearly all the cards had spelling errors (and in some cases items were mis-sorted), it's still a good bit better than keying in the data yourself.

As the Kodak ScanMate i940 Scanner for Macintosh Computers is the first scanner we've tested using Mac hardware and software, we can't do any "Apples to Apples" comparisons to other scanners we've tested. I can say that although its performance didn't match its Windows counterpart, it was still very respectable for a portable scanner, and it is well worth a look by Mac users in search of a scanning solution.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/YGJl9l1cNRI/0,2817,2422258,00.asp

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