After many false starts with several scanners the Epson GT-1500 has earned a permanent place in this book scanner's office (until the prices on commercial units come down). Most of the reviews for the Epson GT-1500 are, quite reasonably, predicated on the idea that most customers will use the product in a small or home office environment. This review is from the perspective of one who wishes to use the GT-1500 as a book scanner or archival tool. Pros: - The GT-1500 is extremely fast. Much faster than any of the Canon or Brother scanners that I tried and faster even than Epson's own multipurpose scanner/printer/fax machines. - Document handing on the ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) is remarkably reliable. From glossy magazine papers to heavily milled 32lb papers to newsprint-quality paperback paper the ADF seldom jammed and never grabbed two sheets of paper. - Resolution is great for OCR (Optical Character Recognition. Cons: - Epson Scan software is clunky and far from convenient. More on this later... - For a Mac user, the scan to PDF function does not allow for an editable text layer behind an optical scan. In fact, it does not even seen to allow for editable text at all. - No duplex functionality and worse yet, very limited naming option makes recreating double-sided documents (like the pages in a book) a real pain. - Included Abby FineReader Software is a joke unless you plan to scan only a few documents or are willing to take whatever the scanner spits out with its auto "scan to PDF functionality." On the pros, the scanner is remarkably well built and seems to handle automatic document feeding well with a minimum of hassles. While the scanner is able to scan at a native 1200 ppi its ability to perform OCR and automatic deskew is capped at only 600 ppi. Functionally then, the scanner is only useful for document archival up to 600 ppi unless one wishes to run through each page with Photoshop and manually correct the image before sending it through a second round of OCR conversion. However, 600 ppi is sufficient for OCR with all but the most demanding (Hebrew or Sanskrit) documents so this is not a huge issue. Also, this is not a fault of the scanner itself but Epson's included software. This note will be struck again and again: the scanner is great but the included software hobbles it. On the cons, book scanning means being able to handle a high volume of pages in an orderly and efficient manner that does not suck your life away. My first couple days with the GT-1500 were mind numbing, soul stealing excercises in document renaming and workflow headaches. This was due, largely, to two oversights on the part of Epson's software: 1) the scan naming functionality is weak. Documents may be named with a re-occuring string of alphanumeric character plus a strip of ascending numbers beginning with 001 and topping out at 999. While this is fine for single sided documents, it makes for frustrating dual sided scans. The workable solution is to scan a book's first 40 odd pages that will be labeled something like "Book 001" and so one and then rename them all so that they read "Book 001b, Book 002b, etc." Then scan all the even pages with the normal "Book 001, Book 002, etc. so that they fall into the correct order. This batch renaming can be accomplished in Photoshop for PC users or in Mac's Automator program that resides in OSX. Would it have killed Epson to include the ability to name files with multiple fields, descending numbering, or just the ability to designate a batch of pages as "odd" and the other "even?" This brings us to the joys of Epson's included Abbey FineReader software. First, unlike the IRIS software included with Canon's scanners, the the FineReader software is largely a stand-alone product. The exception is in the automatic "scan to PDF" functionality. However, as a stand alone product it reveals itself to be a cheesy sut rate version of Abbey's otherwise outstanding OCR products. First off, the software does NOT for the creation of editable text. Thus, whatever the OCR reads on the page is what will be included in your PDF or stripped out as a text document mistakes and all. For PC users, one can opt to buy the full software for an additional $500 and actually get something that does the job. For Mac users, the only option is to pay an additional $100 and get the "Express" version which does at least allow for batch processing of file folders (something that Epson's included version of the Abbey software does not). This is nearly unforgivable in my opinion. If one wants images that are straight beyond the narrow abilities of Epson's automatic deskew they must manually correct the skew in a program like Photoshop and then sit and manually open each individual file and save it as a converted OCR'ed PDF while manually typing in the name of the new document. NO, Abbey's software can't even be bothered to default to the name of the original file. Instead ever file is called "TEXT" until you manually enter in its proper name. So, for a person scanning books the included software is a joke unless you are willing accept wonky text angles and mistakes in your searchable PDF files. The only complete solution is to buy Abbey's full version of the FineReader OCR software that includes the ability to batch process and edit the resulting text before resaving the whole document as a converted PDF file. The work-around solution for MAC users is to pay an additional chunk of change for the "Express" version to get batch processing and just deal with the mistakes that the OCR software throws-up periodically. That brings us to the most easily fixed broken-link in Epson's "Epson Scan" software: there is no manual de-skew. The auto de-skew is barely functional in general--far less so than Canon's script to do the same-- and without manual control some pages are bound to wind up a bit wonky. Fortunately, Epson's ADF is quite competent at pulling the pages in relatively straight as long as the feed arms are kept tight to the edges of the stack. However, generally first and last pages tend to get pulled a few degrees (or thirty) off of straight. For those who are unwilling to pony up thousands for camera based book-scanning solutions or unable to build DIY projects that do the same, the Epson GT-1500 can turn an average book into an archival string of bits in about four hours start to finish. This is fast enough to equal cheap college text books (borrowed from friends or libraries and digitized) and easy enough to allow for a person to convert often used reference books into searchable digital PDFs. However, for those with deeper pockets there are better camera based options available. So while the Epson's scanning software greatly limits the scanner's native abilities there are no other options available in the sub $500 range that turn a book into a file as easily. The duplexing abilities of Fuji's Scansnap series of scanners would be a great step up for those willing to pay $500 (and sacrifice a document table) or so but the reality is that most people are still going to pay an additional fee to buy scanning software capable of producing editable text. The final words on Epson's GT-1500 is "good enough" and worthy of five stars only in that it does the job that very few others do--even while it does it poorly.

PROS: * No Wait Warm Up * Exceptional Scans of Text, Color and Gray Scale * Light Platform * ADF up to 40 sheets * Epson Software has Home, Office and Professional Mode * Hamrick Software (The BEST for Photos) compatible CONS: * NON-Duplex Scanning * Occasional Jamb, Mis-Feeds Comments: Faced with a project of digitizing all my Treasure Magazines, Operational Manuals, the usual onslaught of Bills and Misc, it was apparent to me that using my trusty Epson Perfection 4870 Scanner would be tedious. After a day or two researching the reviews on Amazon, Buzzilion, Epinons and Google-Yahoo Searchers, I decided on the Epson Workforce GT-1500. Amazon seemed to have the most competitve price including service so within 5 business days, I received my brand new GT-1500. Software Installation and USB Hook-up to my Dell Laptop (Windows 7) was a breeze. I had de-spined a bunch of magazines & manuals in preparation of the 'project' using a 17 Page Rated Guillotine Cutter by XACTO. I used the Epson Office Mode with enhance of the text descreening. Since the Treasure Magazines (Western and Eastern, Lost Treasure, Treasure Found, Treasure, Treasure Search) use a Combination of Color and Black and White, I found the easiest method was to scan all the pages in Color and then improve the contrast and brightness control via paperport. On Operational Manuals, I used either Gray Scale (150 dpi) or Black & White Text (300 dpi) and tweak the results via Epson Scan and then tweaking the results further using the tools found in Paperport 12.1 depending on a variety of factors. All my scans were saved in PDF format to Paperport 12.1 where you can also make each PDF document searchable. On a limited basis scanned a few photos and the results were spectacular and better than my Epson Perfection 4870 Photo Scanner. Issues: Occasionally because of the thin pages of the magazines, the ADF would draw in 2 pages causing a jamb up. This was easily cleared and restarted when the amber warning light was flashing... then restarting to the static green (go) light. Once bothsides were scanned, a press of the coallate (ALL) would sort both sides properly and then saved to paperport. SOMETIMES though a mis-feed caused usually by a log jamb in the lower bin or a Hiccup in the scanning separation of each page would put the GT-1500 in a BLINKING Green Mode where the software goes into a ZOMBIE state and the only way to correct the situation is to RESTART the software and start over. I called EPSON support and spent 30 minutes with Tech Support and there was no way to RESUME scanning when the scanner goes to a Blinking Green with the Software Mis-Functioning. I will try the Hamrick Software in which I have a lifetime registration. Hamrick Software makes for the BEST results in Photo, Film and Slide Scanning and works well with the Epson GT-1500 although a bit slower on the scans. One last thing... the Epson Perfection 4870 (90) Software in its automatic mode can look at a document and determine whether to scan it Color, Gray Scale or Text fairly reliably. Like to see that software feature incorporated in the ADF process software for the GT-1500 or future models. Conclusion: I really like my GT-1550 and 4870. Is a V-750 in my future???

This scanner scans great images and its paper handler is pretty good considering the cost of the unit. If you get one of these scanners, the first thing you should do is to find better software to drive it. My requirements are relatively simple, I just wanted to be paperless in my office so all incoming documents are scanned into PDF files and all outgoing printed correspondence is scanned before mailing. I always scan in color regardless of the document. I use Paper Port to perform the scanning and conversion into PDF. The Epson scanner has a scan button on its front panel which you can assign to launch any app, in my case Paper Port. Press the Epson scan button to launch the app, then press it again to scan the first page. Scanning additional pages simply requires an additional push for each page. Then when done, clicking a button on the paper port scan dialog will terminate the scanning and prompt for a file name. Scanning a stack of pages is as easy as scanning a single page, and putting pages on the flat bed can be intermixed with pages added to the document feeder. The document feeder works well but does have its limitations. For example, if you want to scan a stack of pages that are currently stapled together it won't work if you simply remove the staple and insert the stack. The reason for this is the staple pierces the pages and forces a small amount of the upper page into the lower page between every two sheets. This creates a mechanical lock between the pages that the document feeder cannot overcome. The solution is to take each page and force the staple hole dimples to go flat using your fingernail, then feed the stack into the scanner. Another minor deficiency is that sometimes stack feed pages are scanned slightly skewed. This will mostly be corrected by the auto rotation software, but not always. Unless I am scanning more than 10 pages at once, I typically use the flat bed mode for scanning. Color reproduction and detail is great.

with some twenty file drawers of papers, mostly business documents, I went on a quest to reduce the volume by archiving those documents where permanent paper copies are not needed. A document scanner looked to be my best option. The GT-1500 fits the bill. I loaded the software in my MacBook Pro which took quite a bit longer than I expected. At times I thought the installation failed, however by being patient and not aborting the installation, I was rewarded by a complete install. Then it is simply a matter of connecting the cables and turning on the scanner. (BTW the directions say not to connect the USB cable which is incorrect. You need to connect the USB cable.) The document feeder operates at about 20 ppm (in the 300 dpi and B&W mode), which is great. With this setting it takes about 1 meg of memory per 20 pages. You can also select grey scale and color settings, however with those settings the scans take longer. The alignment is not always sharp so some pdf scans can be a bit off, you just have to be careful in loading the pages. If the pages have dog eared top edges due to staples being removed, you can reverse the feeding and go bottom first. Then after scanning of the document is finished, click on the edit icon and flip the pages before saving the document. For lengthy documents, after the first batch is run through the scanner, click on the add pages icon and continue batch after batch until the entire document is complete. You can also change settings for individual pages in a document, for example if one of the pages has a color image, you can select color for that page. It just has to be a separate scan rather than in the middle of a stack of pages. The completed scanned document can go wherever you chose in your computer. The default on the Mac is the document folder. I also like the relatively small foot print and light weight of the scanner which make for portability. My only concern is how well the document feeder with hold up long term. So far I have no problem after feeding about 1500 pages, however the feeding mechanism has plastic parts which has me a bit nervous.

I wanted to replace an old Brother All In One machine and I did plenty of research about it. I wanted to buy a nice cheap scanner to replace it buy my wife insisted I spent a little more and got something nice. I came to Amazon and read the reviews of all the scanners that had the price I had in mind and I ended up picking up the Epson GT-1500 because it had plenty of good reviews and it sounded like a good buy. It arrived promptly and although I have never followed instructions because I consider myself a tech wiz, I decided to once again follow my wife's instructions and read the manual before I did anything with it. It instructs you not to install from the CD but asks you to go to the Epson site to get the latest driver so I did that. I followed the installation to the letter and about three minutes later, I was scanning my first document. It wasn't a very nice copy but I did not customize my scan because I just wanted to see it working. Once it did, I turned off my computer and went off to gather the pile of documents I needed to scan. I restarted my computer and when I clicked on the application, I get an a message that says "Epson Scan cannot be started. Please use the trouble shooting assistant to solve the problem. Do you want to open the trouble shooting assistant?" After seeing the message, I choose yes and I did every single instruction they said I needed to do. It did not work at all. After about an hour of frustration, I went searching for help forums on the internet and many people had the same problem. They said you had to uninstall the application and then restart your machine in a safe mode. After this, you had to go and delete the folder where the application was installed so that there was no trace of it. After this, restart your computer and try installing again. I did just that and again, I got the same message. I decided to use the Paperport application that comes with the software and I was glad to see it was their latest version 11. When I tried to run again, it says the scanner cannot be started. Very angry and frustrated, I turned to the internet. I did not understand how a gadget that worked so well in the first start, was failing all of a sudden. I found this place that states the Epson software has the ability to update itself and change things around once its in place. At this point, I gave up and put my old thing back. The only thing I got from this expensive mistake was the Paperport application that I could have had for under two hundred dollars. It works great with my old scanner and the brand new Scanner Epson GT-1500 now sits in my garage properly packaged. It now forms part of my cemetery of useless electronic equipment. To be honest, I feel a little ripped off.

This stand-alone scanner is perfect for the jobs I have to do. The accompanying software installed easily. I used the online help initially to get started and found it to be excellent. I used several of the many features on the first day I got it and it was perfect. Scanned photos, black and White and color. I used it to scan old letters into a PDF file. It performed perfectly. The size is just right to sit next to my computer for easy access without having to jump up and down to load. The feature I most like is its ability to scan several photos at once then put them in separate files. What a time saver as I have four boxes of very old family photos I am working on currently. I only have to divide them by black and white and Color as the settings for scanning will be different. This also has the ability to make color corrections, cropping, back-lighting corrections and a few others. I have not yet tried these features but I am looking forward to it. It can also be used like a copier through the computer to a connected printer.

Ok, Had this thing for a few weeks now. As a flat bed scanner, the software and flat bed are great for scanning high resolution images into the computer. We have been archiving old family pix and creating thumbdrives for use with electric picture frames. Very satisfied with the results. However, the PRIMARY use of this machine is for multiple page documents to capture finance data for the destruction of paper files. For duplex scanning it is a pretty quick job. Does have a tendency to skew the occasional paper and jam but tolerably not very often. The issue that brings the overall rating way down for us is the lid of the scanner. There is a separator that snaps into the lid that directs the paper into the receiver bay for the documents. In this separator is a clear flimsy plastic window that is adhered into the the end and snaps into the other side. This window is easily scratched and picks up any residue from scanned documents. Anyone that works to scan documents knows the print job is often marred with residue from laser printers and cheap inkjets. This residue is easily transferred to the flimsy plastic window in the scanner lid. It is impossible to remove the scratches and residue from the window. This creates long lines vertically on the image. Looked for an image count or page count for the scanner but was unable to figure out if it tracks this data. My guess is something like 300-350 total scanned pages. Wish I would have spent the extra $150 and bought a Scan Snap from the competition. I have used one of these for documents only in the past and they are capable of a quick cleaning and doing hundreds of documents even in a not pristine or clean environment. Plus they have a MUCH smaller footprint than a flat bed design. I will keep this one for pictures since it uses an easily cleaned flatbed and have many many more to get scanned. If your requirement is extremely light duty document scan and heavy individual item scanning requiring lifting the flatbed lid then this would be ok. For a more professional level document scanner, spend a little more and get the SCansnap.

I always thought HP scanners were good. until I had the hp 5550c which i used for about 5 years for scanning fabrics and emailing the cads to customers. But the HP always had software issues that made it extremely buggy, especially if there are other hp peripherals attached to your system or network which i had via a HP printer. I took a chance with the epson workforce reading the positive reviews. I have used this product for a year and it is not only bug free but the speed, color and user friendly scan process had made my job a lot easier. I now use my Epson to scan all my documents into PDF's. As well as using its very accurate feeder and pdf converter. Its a must have for any office. And do not even think of getting an all in one Machine of you are serious about being efficient. This is the only product you will ever need for scanning, emailing and storage. PS I am About To buy a second Epson for my office, The Epson has become so vital to my work , I cannot afford not to have a backup of this scanning Work Horse!!!

The capabilities of this scanner are pretty impressive considering its small footprint. It's only 18"x12"x5" (approx.), fairly light at 9lbs, and yet it can automatically scan a stack of 50 pages at 25 pages per minute (or 10 ppm with double-sided scanning). This scanner is really designed for general document scanning, not for photos. If you want to scan photo prints or negatives, there are much better options, such as the Epson V600 Photo, which scans at a resolution of 6400 x 9600 dpi as opposed to this scanner's resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. You can get decent quality photo scans with this scanner, but I wouldn't buy this primarily as a photo scanner. The strength of this scanner is its document feeder. The noise level isn't too bad and I haven't had any issues with jamming yet, even with some papers with bends or crinkles. For documents that won't fit in the ADF, you can lift open the top and place them on the flatbed scanner glass and scan them that way. The scanner uses Epson Scan 2 software, which gets the job done and has a decent level of settings and options. The power cord is a little odd - it's a typical double-barrel power cord but the jack is set at 90 degrees from the cord to fit the scanner's power connector, which is tucked in a little nook at the back.. This is fine unless you ever lose the power cord in a move - then it would be tricky to find a replacement because I don't think a generic double-barrel cord would fit unless you could bend it 90 degrees right at the jack. A USB 3 cable is included. I am using the scanner with my older iMac that only has USB 2 and it works fine, so it is backwards compatible. For general office use I think this scanner is a good buy.

It was difficult for me to spend $200 on a machine that only scanned but I finally took the plunge. This scanner is a replacement for a HP 5180 all-in-one machine, which I was only using for scanning, it did print beautifully but cost too much in ink to be a high use printer like I need. I have an Epson Workforce 1100 with a bulk ink system for cheap printing. To say this is a scanner is a huge improvement is an understatement! I scan 100+ pages per week of homeschooling materials for my kids. This was a tedious and time consuming chore on the old machine but is almost fun on this one. Okay so scanning may not be fun, but being able to get the job done without any communication errors and literally in less than half the time (this baby scans fast) is great. I use the ADF for 75% of my scanning and the flatbed for the rest. Both methods yield the same excellent quality. There are many scanning options which are simple and quick to change as needed. When scanning numerous pages into one file (45 is the most I have saved as a single full-color file) the save process after the scanning is complete is a bit time consuming but I just let it do its thing in the background, it doesn't slow my computer down at all. There is a print feature on the scanner that will print the scan to the printer of your choice rather than having to save the file first. This is the only feature I have found that doesn't work like I had hoped, which is why I took 1 star away. When using this feature the scan takes a very, very long time in comparison to regular scanning. I thought I may have some settings wrong, but so far I haven't been able to speed it up which is bummer because lots of my scans don't need to be saved just printed. If I am able to remedy this problem I will change my review to 5 stars.