I got this scanner about 5 years ago, and throughout that time, I have never had a problem (well, when I upgraded to Windows 98, I had to send for a free software upgrade, but that's very minor). So, the minuses are VERY few, but the plusses - well, there are a lot of them.

Ease of set-up The hardest part of this is installing the SCSI card, which if you have any experience tinkering with your computer is a breeze. Simply open the case, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR GROUNDED, and then push the card into the slot. Then put the case back on and plug it in...

The software is also simple, and Windows finds the hardware quickly and efficiently. All in all, set up was only about 10-15 minutes.

Ease of Use This scanner is simple to use. Being a full-sized flatbed, you simply open the lid, put your photo, paper or whatever you are scanning on there and use whatever software you want to find the TWAIN device (scanner) and scan the image.

Software The scanner comes with a couple of pieces of software. Vista Scan is one of the low-lights of this scanner, although you can get much better programs. It is slow and there aren't a whole lot of options for scanning your pictures. I have Photoshop 5.5, which takes care of a lot of the things that Vista Scan can't, so I don't worry about it.

OmniPage is an OCR program, designed to scan printed pages and turn the text into documents. I only recently decided to attempt to use this piece of software, and was extremely pleased with the results. You simply add the page, let the scanner go (within the program) and then save it to a text file. I would say that the error rate is about 11%, but I was also taking a page that was a little crumpled, so I can't complain. The program overall did a fantastic job at text recognition and saved me tons of typing.

Presto! Page Manager Deluxe is a decent bit of software but pales next to Photoshop, in my opinion. But if you aren't lucky enough to be graced with Photoshop, Presto! does a decent job. It can be a bit memory intensive, however, so you could have some problems really turning your scans into good pictures for your computer if you are a bit memory-deprived.

Other Details The scanner has worked after being moved a half-dozen times and without a single problem. If there are any complaints, it would be the size, but if you want a scanner to do legal-sized document, there isn't much you can do unless you get a feeding-scanner, and I have had nothing but problems with those. Also, the scanning can be a bit slow, particularly at high resolution. I know that the newer versions are a bit quicker, and are still great values.

I haven't had to price the newer ones because I think that this one will last for quite a while. It handles resolutions of up to 1200 dpi (although VERY slowly), which is fine for the work that I do. The speed isn't a problem for me - if you are scanning a lot of things, you might want to consider a newer version. I know that when the times comes that I DO have to get a new scanner, UMAX will be the only one that I consider.
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Recommended: Yes