Review on 🖨️ Epson America DS870 Document Scanner - High-Performance Scanning Solution by Darren Munajj

I have a home office, fully digitized. I scan everything, I almost never keep paper documents. I've scanned over 6,000 documents over the years and they're stored as searchable PDFs on my MacBook Pro. I used to have 3 filing cabinets. Now I just have some paper templates that fit 1/3 of the closet. If you haven't started scanning your documents yet, you should start now. This will completely change the way you manage documents. In this test I compare all the scanners I use: • Fujitsu iX500 • Epson DS-870 • Raven Scanner ProFujitsu ScanSnap iX500 I started using the ScanSnap iX500 a few years ago. . When I first bought it it was a great scanner. It was fast, accurate and quiet. Unfortunately, the iX500's software has become less reliable over time. Every time a new Mac OS update came out, I had to download the latest iX500 drivers, reinstall them and fix compatibility issues. Then last spring (2019) the iX500 needed a brand new software called ScanSnap Home. I didn't like the new UI and it had some annoying bugs, but I stuck with it for a few months. Mac OS Catalina eventually came out and the iX500 got worse. Once again I had to install new iX500 software. Unfortunately, this time there was a fatal error: the drivers caused one of my Mac's processor cores to run at 100% all the time. This happens regardless of whether the ScanSnap application is running or not. This made my computer run slower and keep the fans running all the time to keep everything cool. Tried several times to uninstall and reinstall drivers, did not help. In short, if you're using Mac OS Catalina, stay away from the iX500. Epson DS-870. Then I tried Epson DS-870. It had a lot of good reviews online and seemed quite promising. However, after a few days of use, I cannot recommend it to Mac users. The biggest problem is that you cannot scan documents from the front panel of the scanner. Every time I used the front panel to scan documents, it scanned all pages and then crashed. The only way to solve the problem was to restart the scanner. I think this feature should work eventually, but it never worked for me. Maybe it wasn't compatible with Mac OS Catalina? I'm not sure. I installed the latest Epson drivers which claim to be Catalina compatible but that didn't help. My workaround was to scan using the Epson Document Capture application on my Mac. That worked quite reliably. However, the scan program showed communication errors several times. I've never been able to debug the cause of this, but it seems to have happened when I ran the software for the first time, then turned on the scanner and tried to start scanning. Anyway, I found that if I just do everything in the right order and don't use the front of the scanner, I could get it to work. It all seemed too tricky and I had no confidence that the scanner would continue to work with future Mac OS updates. I will be returning this scanner soon. Raven Scanner Pro Finally I decided to try Raven Scanner Pro. If you haven't explored this scanner yet, take a look. It's a brand new concept and I love it! This scanner has completely changed the way I scan. The best thing is that it is 100% compatible with Mac OS Catalina. Why? Because you don't need to install any software. This scanner sends documents directly to the cloud. You don't even need a computer to use it. Most old school scanners like the ScanSnap iX500 or the Epson DS-870 are controlled by your computer. Of course, this requires drivers and scanning software, and that's where all the compatibility issues come from. Well, Raven Scanner Pro avoids these problems by scanning directly to the cloud. You can scan to Raven Cloud, DropBox, Evernote, Box, Email, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or a USB stick. At first I thought this would be a problem for me because I don't like storing too many documents in the cloud. It's too big a security risk. Finally, what happens if someone hacks into my DropBox account and gains access to everything I've scanned over the past few years? Sounds creepy. Well, instead I do the following. I scan directly from the Raven scanner into DropBox and in a few moments the files magically appear on my Mac. Then I rename the files and drag them to folders on my Mac. They only exist temporarily in the cloud. In other words, I only use the cloud as a channel to transfer files from the scanner to my Mac. This scanner has also completely changed my workflow. I used to do this with my old school scanners: 1) I turned on my Mac. 2) The scanner application started. 3) Turn on the scanner. 4) Place the document in the scanner and scan it. 5) Waiting for the image analysis and OCR to finish. 6) Save the document. 7) Turn off the scanner. 8) Turn off your Mac. My new workflow with Raven is much simpler: 1) Turn on the scanner. 2) Place the document in the scanner and scan it. go away i'm done Then, a week later, after days of scanning documents, I finally turn on my Mac, rename and move files, and I'm done. I mainly use DropBox as an inbox for scanned documents and wait for a few of them to pile up before organizing them. Still, Raven Scanner Pro isn't perfect. Here are some problems: • It takes up slightly more desktop space than the ScanSnap iX500 and Epson DS-870. • Scan quality is good, but not as good as Epson. • Receipts longer than 15 inches cannot be scanned. • In sleep mode, it blinks light blue. • Uploading to DropBox is quite slow. • When uploading to Raven Cloud, your web browser will not automatically refresh to display the new file. • Scanning at 400 DPI. or higher is rather slow • The fan is making noise. It's not overly loud or anything, but it's not quiet like my other scanners either. Luckily, I found a few solutions: • If you have receipts longer than 15 inches, just cut them off. halfway before scanning. • Revain has a product called LightDims. Use it to dim the blinking blue light and this problem will be solved. • You don't have to wait for the DropBox download to finish. Just keep scanning other documents and they will be downloaded in the background. • Scanning at 400 DPI or higher does not seem necessary. 300 dpi looks good and is very fast • After a few minutes, put the scanner to sleep. This turns off the fan. Or you can put the scanner into sleep mode by pressing the button. I also had a good experience with their tech support. I sent them a few questions online and received helpful responses within 20 minutes. I also got the impression that their software is actively being improved. When I first bought the scanner it only had 200, 400 or 600 dpi options. This was initially a problem because I wanted at least 300 DPI. 200 DPI was too little and 400 DPI too slow. Well now they offer 300 DPI and it's really fast. Based on my experience, I bet we'll see further improvements at a reasonable price. Anyway, if you can't tell, I really like Raven Scanner Pro. I will never go back to old school scanners that require drivers on my Mac. I would give the Raven scanner 4.2 stars but I am rounding up to 5. And if you're using a Mac with Catalina, stay away from the ScanSnap iX500 or Epson DS-870.