Document scanner. such as the
epson ds series
canon image FORMULA series
fuji scan snap series
if your serious about digitizing a lot of documents …
you can waste a lot of time with phone apps or walled garden applications with subscriptions and management software.
if digitizing a lot of documents is the end goal here … the time saving with a proper document scanner (not a MFC) is well worth its entry price. just be sure to assess your document types and needs and match the scanner accordingly .
No need for a real physical scanner unless you have a ton of documents. I use Scanbot on iOS, works great. Scans to PDF, then I upload to my encrypted GDrive.
You can also waste a lot of time with usb interfaced scanners as they need a computer. This is where networks scanners shine as you can configure a ‘scan to ftp/network share’ through a browser and be scanning in 5 minutes. I think it was literally 2 minutes after we got our ads-3600w that I did that since setup was identical to the ads-2500w.
And you’re right about the apps and saas stuff too as when they break due to updates or other software glitches, your entire workflow breaks.
I disagree with needing a dedicated document scanner. Today’s MFC machines provide more than enough speed for even medium volume scan jobs. And a the origin of network scanning was the big enterprise mfc machines in the first place, so it makes sense that the smaller version are quite capable as technology has improved. I seriously considered an newer and faster mfc over our 8500fn1 when the 8500fn1 was still outside of our price range. A laser mfc with network connectivity should have ample speeds for small to medium jobs and can be found for a song when you look in places like the cdw or provantage outlet/open box areas.
Only on large scan volumes of 100 pages a day would I recommend a dedicated scanner like our 8500fn1 or the ads-3600w–you just don’t need that much machine for smaller jobs if you have time.
I always advise all my friends, just in case, to digitize all the documents, to have a copy of the ones you need in the online format because so many unpredictable things can happen. I’ll tell you my story. I have a small brand and I make women’s jewelry and sell it in Europe. One day I sent a driver with my van to transport part of the goods from France to Italy. He drove to the customs office and pulled out all the necessary documents on the next seat, and left the window open. He left for only 15 minutes and at that time a terrible cloud burst began. The papers were soaking wet and the data printed on them with ink was blurry. He called me and I quickly sent him a pdf version of the copy, which I always have saved on https://supercmr.com/ that’s where I edit my CMR docs (excellent service by the way). Fortunately, he explained the situation and showed the documents, I also sent the CMR document to the border guards by mail and everything worked out.
Im using paperless-ngx right now and it seems adequate so far. You scan documents and it gets OCRed and saved in your (home)server. You add tags, set what kind of document it is and put in correspondents.
There is another one that I have looked into called papermerge. That one has a better UI and does the above job but it also have a customizable metadata field that could be exported (maybe to CSV format?). Unfortunately, it is a bit on the buggy side right now and paperless-ngx is the more mature solution.
Both could be run as a standalone server, docker or a TrueNAS app.
I fully support you in wanting to digitize all of your paper documents, as I just recently had the same idea. It’s a great way to get organized and stay organized.