Need recommendations for a SOHO / SMB Multifunction Printer (MFP) w Document Feeder to scan to PDF

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Mods: I posted this is the relevant & appropriate / off topic sections in four different forums
- NotebookForums
- ThinkPad Forums
- PrinterForums.net
- PrinterTechForums.com

I have not received a single reply or recommendation. Where should I post this to get some EYEBALL time with people and get some feedback?

The contextually 'appropriate' sections of the forums where I have posted, do not have a lot of visibility with the people I want to get audience with.

I was just thinking what a timesaver my HP Officejet 5610 is! I'm dealing with many, many applications and credentials for locum tenens work and it is just the best. It scans to many formats including pdf both plain and searchable. The document feeder seems reliable and the HP software allows you to select an 'additional scan' mode to scan a large document. I easily scanned a 49 page application today in about 20 page bites.

I did extensive research before buying. I'd stay away from Brother inkjet MFC's due to high ink costs - for example the lower end ones have a cleaning cycle which wastes ink. This was gleaned from Amazon reviews. I didn't look at the lexmark MFCs.

The HP can be found for as little as $120 at big box stores and even as little as $100. There are faster and more expensive HP MFC's but I doubt you'll get more bang for the buck. If only it had the ability to turn pages and scan a book!

Ink is always is pricey but you can get the large HP56 cartridge B/W for less then $20. I just wish it held more ink!

I like it so much I'm taking it with me on my gig next week.

Jim

We bought a Brother MFC-7820N about two months ago. It's a b&w laser printer/scanner/fax/copier (not inkjet) with an Ethernet port, document feeder and a flat-bed scanner. It's perfect as a reasonably small MFC, and the software is very reliable (you can set it to scan into PDFs).

Bought it from Staples for around $200-$250, minus a $50 rebate. Read the reviews on Amazon and you'll see that most people like this machine. I think its worth getting a laser printer (even just a black and white) over an inkjet because of the cost per page as well as the quality of the printouts, and getting the Ethernet port. I can't understand why more routers don't have a built-in print server with a USB port--don't most people use laptops these days?

If I understand correctly you are looking for a printer that will scan directly to a PDF rather than just provide a scanned image that you can convert later to a PDF.

If that's the case I don't know of a SOHO solution. If you're in the market for something bigger we use the Konica Minolta bizhub C351 in our office and it does a pretty good job of colour printing, photocopying and scanning directly to PDF. You just key in your e-mail address and it will send the PDF to your inbox.

As much as I don't like Dell printers, the 3115 is a pretty decent color laser MFP and is really quick in scanning to PDF.

It's not an MFP, but it is (IMHO) the best affordable archiving scanner out there: the HP Digital Sender 9100C.

Check Ebay for "hp digital sender" and you may find one for between $200 and $300. These things spit out PDF files and are absolutely ideal for archiving work.

Probably a bit too much $$$$:

The Ricoh IS200e, either by itself or attached to one of their laser printers. It can scan to PDF that it emails to you. Neat, eh? 33ppm in B&W.

http://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/pr...&tsn=Ricoh-USA

The IS100e is cheaper.

I have an HP OfficeJet that has worked pretty well for me. I can scan into various applications, including PDF> My only gripe is the scanned files are very large. (>750K per page) Our scanning copier here at work is 50k per page.

- About the Searchable PDFs. Are they size wise larger than plain PDFs? How does it become searchable? How / where does it pickup & tag keywords?
- My low end brother MFC does do this cleaning bit. But I've had it for a long time and it did not eat as much ink (i feel). Plus, its 3rd party cartridges were super cheap online through a 'printing supplies' site.
- I'll look for the HP to see options.

- I seem to leaning more & more towards a laser as read more reviews. esp. price per page & print quality wise.
- I agree about the routers. They must have printer ports. I use laptops ONLY these days.
- Can you Scan to PDF using your model through the ethernet connection? How many pages can you feed it? Have you tried multiple page / PDFs? How fast / slow is that? (Sorry, those are a lot of questions.. just brainstorming)

My 70$ Brother MFC scans directly to PDF. Its not just the machine, but part of it is the software & drivers that came with the machine. I have acrobat etc & other PDF convertors but I'd rather have a simple 1-button or 1-click solution so that I can scan multiple page documents into PDFs. Hopefully, duplex scanning too..

Can you share some more detailed experiences on that based on some questions I asked above (about Scan speed / multi page docs et)? Please. Thanks in advance.

I'll look for it. Appreciate your insights. .

IS100e at a warehouse is 900$.. Way out of my range .

- Your model number & experience scanning multiple pages into PDF?
- Which model do you have at the office? Do you think it is because the scanned files are being done at different quality levels (different DPIs)?

Appreciate everyones insights. I'll make sure to post what I find in other areas over here so others can benefit. Do let me know your thoughts.

Not sure. I assume the searchable pdfs are larger but I haven't done a comparison. If I remember when scanning a document with little or no text I'll select the plain pdf format.

I didn't mention that initially, the one button scan to pdf feature on the HP 5610 worked but then stopped working. It's almost as easy to start the software and then scan the document.
Have not reinstalled the software to see if the one button feature returns.

Jim

[QUOTE=xmlsoa;7531767]- About the Searchable PDFs. Are they size wise larger than plain PDFs? How does it become searchable? How / where does it pickup & tag keywords?

Rather than starting an entirely new thread, I thought I would just tag along on this one, given a similar query.

I am also looking to replace a multifunction printer and would appreciate some suggestions; if necessary, I would go with just a standard printer and continue to use my existing HP 7110 OJ for the other functions. The main stumbling block is that I have large Excel and PDF files which use both letter and legal size paper. So I need a printer which will hold both paper sizes at the same time and will swap back and forth between them within a single print job. I've tested or had someone test both the HP 7410 series and one of the Canon PIXMA printers, neither of which can handle the needed paper switching (on both you have to select a single paper size before printing). I've confirmed with an HP support technician that none of their Officejets have that capability. I do need some color printing capability, but for text and some limited graphics, not photos. I know the higher end HP laserjets can handle these functions, but I'd prefer not to spend that much. I'm currently using Windows XP, probably moving to VISTA by the end of the year, after it seems to be running smoothly. Wireless connection would be nice but is not mandatory. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

TRRed

No matter how good an inkjet is, it just doesn't produce multiple pages of crisp text.

Yes, it scans through the network into my laptop. Not sure the specs, but I have scanned in 15-20 pages at a time, and the speed seemed reasonable. I wasn't happy over the PDF file size (around 3 mb for 10 pages), not sure how I can reduce the size.


- I seem to leaning more & more towards a laser as read more reviews. esp. price per page & print quality wise.
- I agree about the routers. They must have printer ports. I use laptops ONLY these days.
- Can you Scan to PDF using your model through the ethernet connection? How many pages can you feed it? Have you tried multiple page / PDFs? How fast / slow is that? (Sorry, those are a lot of questions.. just brainstorming)

I imagine smaller, since, to me, "searchable" implies that the scanned bitmap has been converted to text (OCR). Text + font attibutes is way smaller than a bitmap.

Think about it: 8.5 * 11" @ 300 dpi = 8MB greyscale uncompressed. That's a lot bigger than a one page MS Word file (or most 1 page text PDF files).

I have a Brother MFC-425CN that I bought for about $120, it has ADF for 10 sheets and built in network capability. I would seriously look into the new HP C6180 that uses HP's "new" ink system and looks really good if I were buying today.

My Brother can't automatically scan both pages of a document but can create a multiple page pdf with a push of a button.

Sounds great. I appreciate your insights on that.
My current one does not have an ADF for copying. Its a flatbed MFP. I have a paper feeder for printing.. only.

Interesting. I will add that to my survey list.