One of my goals is to eliminate paper clutter at home. Let’s just say it is an ongoing project. You have to stick with it.
I’ve used many different scanners from several different brands, but I usually find myself coming back to scanners from Fujitsu.
I work in a medical clinic, where the business office scans in hundreds of pages per day, so I’ve seen firsthand the reliability of Fujitsu document scanners.
Over the last few months, I’ve been testing Fujitsu’s new fi-8170 ($1,350 list, but currently $999.99 from Amazon), which is its heavy-duty workhorse scanner for individuals or groups that scan a lot.
You might be thinking, “Wow, $999.99 is a lot for a document scanner,” and you’d be right.
Fujitsu makes a full line of document scanners, from the $240 portable iX100 Mobile Scanner to the fi-8170, with many models in between.
The differences are in features like number of pages the auto document feeder can hold, the speed of the scans, whether you can scan one or both sides, how the scanner connects to your computer and daily scan limits.
Specs
The fi-8170 can scan 70 double-sided pages per minute. It scans in duplex, which means it scans the front and back of each page as it makes one pass through the scanner.
It has a 100-page automatic document feeder, and it can also scan mixed paper sizes in one batch. You can load 8.5-inch-wide paper (letter or legal), as well as thicker stock (up to 1.4 millimeters), or smaller things like ID cards, drivers’ licenses, business cards and even passports or booklets (up to 7 mm).
It has a feature called Ultrasonic Multi-feed Detection to ensure each image is captured (to cut down on the rollers picking up more than one document at a time).
It can detect the amount of paper loaded in the feeder and adjust the roller tension to best pull the paper through one sheet at a time.
It also has Intelligent Paper Protection to quickly recognize when a jam occurs to minimize any damage to your paper originals.
It connects to your PC or Mac via USB 3.2 or ethernet — it does not have Wi-Fi, so you can’t scan to a phone or tablet.
The ethernet connection allows the fi-8170 to be used like a network scanner in an office. Any computer on the network can use the scanner — just load up your paper, walk back to your computer, call up the scanner software and scan away.
There is a color LCD panel to show you what’s going on and a group of rubberized buttons to help you change scanner settings or initiate scans from the scanner.
The scanner creates scans with a resolution of 600 dots per inch, which is very good for text and is OK for scanning pictures, but if you just want to scan photos for the best reproduction, there are better photo scanners.
The scanner can scan in color, grayscale or black and white.
It’s about the size of a shoe box, with the document feeder at the top. Paper is scanned and ejected to a pickup tray at the bottom.
If you don’t have a lot of room on your desk, you can let the paper eject onto your desk, but if you have a big stack, do yourself a favor and pull out the pickup tray.
The scanner measures 11.8 by 6.7 by 6.4 inches and weighs 8.8 pounds.
Daily volume
The Fujitsu fi-8170 has an expected daily volume of 10,000 pages. This isn’t a hard and fast limit. Fujitsu says the limits “are calculated using scanning speeds and typical hours of scanner use, and are not meant to guarantee daily volume or unit durability.”
Honestly, if you need to scan more than 10,000 pages per day, there are better and faster (and more expensive) enterprise scanners, although purchasing a second fi-8170 would also be a good solution.
Included software
The scanner includes a TWAIN driver, which means it can operate with almost any software app that can take input from a scanner.
We have a lot of people at work who scan directly into Adobe Acrobat to create PDFs.
The scanner also has a dedicated app called Paperstream Capture that lets you set up scanning presets to save scans as certain document types (PDF, JPG, etc.) and to folders locally or on network shares or cloud services.
There is no Mac scanning app in the box, but there is a Mac driver to allow users to scan to third-party apps or to Apple’s Image Capture app. A Linux driver is also included.
Image processing
The scanner and software can do automatic color detection, blank page detection and removal, descreening, hole punch removal, index tab cropping, deskewing, reducing vertical streaks and background pattern removal.
Do you need all these features?
I liken the scanner choices to buying power tools. You can buy a cheap drill that will do a decent job if you don’t plan on using it very much, but if you make your living with a drill, you’re going to look for a really good one.
This scanner is for people and offices who need to scan a lot each day.
If you just have a few pages to scan once or twice a week, you’ll be better off with a sub-$500 scanner, but if your office depends on getting hundreds of paper forms turned into digital files each day, the fi-8170 will churn through those scans and be ready for more.
Conclusions
The fi-8170 is better than its predecessor, the fi-7160, in every way. It scans faster, holds more sheets, has a better interface and produces better output with fewer errors and paper handling issues.
If you need a beast of a document scanner, this is the one for you. It will not let you down.
Pros: Scans multiple sizes in one batch. blazing speed, quality scans, nice color screen.
Cons: Expensive, no Mac scanning software included, no Wi-Fi.
Bottom line: This is the scanner you need if your scanning needs are huge.
