Xerox DocuMate 6440
No network support, but the affordable and versatile DocuMate 6440 is a top choice for heavy workloads
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £377 exc VAT from printerbase.co.uk
If you have a mountain of papers to digitise, the DocuMate 6440 from Xerox could be the answer: this USB-only scanner combines a big 80-page ADF with a fast quoted scan speed of 60ppm.
In fact, in our tests, we discovered that the 6440 was even faster than advertised. Officially, at 200dpi it can churn through 60ppm – but Xerox’s OneTouch software, running on our host PC, managed to scan our 25-page sheaf of double-sided bank statements in only 22.5 seconds, in both colour and greyscale mode – an average scan rate of nearly 67ppm.
Even when we moved up to 300dpi, our scan test completed in 33 seconds, for an equally impressive average of 45.5ppm. Only when we dialled the resolution up to 600dpi did the DocuMate 6440 struggle, dropping to a pedestrian 6ppm.
It’s a winner for output quality, too. Our 200dpi scans were detailed enough for document archiving systems, and OCR performance is great; we had no problem finding specific payees in our scanned bank statements.
The scanner’s raked paper input tray offers a slightly flatter path than most other upright desktop scanners, which is good for paper handling. The 6440 took all our small receipts, tissue-thin courier waybills and customer registration forms in its stride, and it had no problems scanning small stacks of embossed credit cards.
The input tray has a handy latch that quickly sets the paper guides appropriately for A4 or Letter-sized documents; you can also fold them out of the way, allowing the scanner to handle dot-matrix paper and documents up to 3m long. The DocuMate 6440 also has a dropdown paper catcher at the front and an adjustable flip-up stop in the middle for smaller documents.
The supplied software bundle covers most document-management needs. Along with OneTouch, you get Nuance’s PaperPort Professional v14, OmniPage Ultimate 19.1 and OCR tools, plus Power PDF for creating PDFs from other file formats.
The OneTouch software is as flexible as you could ask for: you can set options for resolution and colour mode, and choose to output your scan as a BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PDF or searchable PDF. You can also specify whether to scan to a folder, an
“It’s easy to scan multiple documents to a single file, with the software waiting patiently while you insert the next page”
application, a printer, an email address, a fax number, an FTP server or a SharePoint server – with additional relevant options appearing depending on the selected destination. Cloud support can be added via free plugins for Box, Dropbox, Evernote and Google Docs: you just have to request these via an online web form.
A particularly nice feature is the ability to set the manual feed timeout. This makes it easy to scan multiple, separate documents to a single file, with the software waiting patiently while you insert the next page. The OneTouch Acuity feature provides anti-skew, auto-crop and page rotation, plus blank page skipping and a handy option to redact selected areas of an image with coloured blocks.
The single function button on the front of the scanner can be used to access up to nine preset actions, which you can configure in OneTouch. The panel’s LED display only shows a number, however, so you’ll need to keep a list handy so users know what each one does. The DocuMate 6440’s lack of network support might be an inconvenience to some, but the versatile software goes a long way to make up for this. Add in fast scan speeds and a large ADF and it’s a brilliant choice for high-demand environments. SPECIFICATIONS 600dpi A4 colour ADF scanner 60ppm @ 200dpi colour/mono simplex/duplex 80-page ADF USB 2 max daily duty cycle, 6,000 pages external PSU Visioneer OneTouch and Acuity, Nuance PaperPort Pro 14, OmniPage Ultimate 19.1, Power PDF software TWAIN/ISIS/WIA drivers 316 x 168 x 191mm (WDH, closed) 4.2kg 1yr standard advanced exchange warranty