Review on IRIS 5 Iriscan Desk by Greg Peitz

Overall I was impressed with Iriscan Desk 5 but it's not perfect or polished. Note the limitations specified in the description. Scanning a book is limited to about the size of a paperback paperback novel, similar to scanning a sheet of letter-size paper in landscape orientation, where the left and right halves are two book pages facing each other. If you're scanning something larger, like a magazine, you'll have to scan it page by page and lose the advantages that software offers when scanning books. By the way, about scanning pages from a magazine. Much luck. The expanded product description makes it clear that scanning glossy pages will be a challenge, and it is. Flare from the built-in light, regardless of the brightness setting chosen, renders the scan unusable. I've also tried many different multi-light indirect lighting configurations so far with limited success, so use caution. If your main purpose for this scanner is to scan glossy pages like magazines, you will probably be disappointed. Adding a polarized lens filter or some other solution to the flare problem probably should have been planned from the start. Once a book scanner that couldn't process a full sized book as a book or scan pages from magazines at all, this thing is a joy to use. The software is particularly good for creating searchable PDFs, as well as creating multiple pages at once from smaller objects like business cards or stickers in a single scan. Scan setup, crop scan area, rotate output, merge multiple scans into one PDF file, etc., everything is very easy and intuitive. The Iriscan Desk 5 looks well made, folds down for portability, has a cord long enough to be useful, and the built-in backlight works well for non-glossy pages or maps. The software (free download) is excellent. I really like the scanner, even with its limitations. If I ever find a solution to the glare problem when scanning glossy pages and update the software to be able to scan books page by page, I will love it. Highly recommended within its limits.