Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)IRIScan Executive 2 is a compact, portable, sheet fed, color scanner. IRIScan is USB powered, thus making it easy to use anywhere. The Mac version includes the OCR software Readiris Pro 11 for scanning text documents and photographs; and Cardiris 4 for scanning business cards..
I installed IRIScan on a Mac Book G4 running Mac OS X 10.5.2. Following the installation instructions I installed the Readiris Pro 11 software then plugged the IRIScan into a USB port. I next calibrated the scanner using the provided calibration sheet and was all set to begin. I chose a text document, fed it into the scanner and waited. The scanned result was a blank page I tried again, same result. I chose another document and once again it produced a blank page. The Quick Start Guide was of little use. I checked the settings and tried several more times but nothing happened. Because it was late in the evening I put it away and decided I would check it out another day.
My next experience began the same way, so I opened up the electronic 128 page User's Manual. I spent two hours reading the manual, which didn't have any troubleshooting information and no instructions relating to my problem, making minor changes in the settings, and trying to scan. Finally success! However, I don't really know what made the difference.
The first document I scanned had several inaccuracies in the final product. The User's Manual explains that there are so many fonts and styles and sometimes there are extra dots left on the page and the OCR has trouble interpreting the text, but there is a Learn button in the program that will allow it to learn the unrecognized font or letters.
I continued scanning several documents from different sources. They all scanned word-for-word perfect. One had a format discrepancy. A nice feature of this software is all documents can be saved to any text or word processing application and be edited and adjusted.
I was happy with the text scanning results and wanted to try photos. The photo scans were a complete failure. The black and white pictures were like negatives and the color photos were blotchy with lots of white space. I gave up on photos and decided to install the Cardiris software.
Cardiris installed quickly, I connected the IRIScan, opened the software and nothing. It would not work. It was then that I discovered an update for Cardiris which I quickly downloaded and installed. It connected with the IRIScan immediately and I was ready to try scanning business cards. What a great tool. The business cards are accurately scanned and can be saved in the Cardiris database, the contact information can also be added to your Address Book. The information can be sent to applications such as Microsoft Entourage, New Contact, Microsoft Excel and others. Cardiris was very accurate in reading the cards and inserting the information in the correct places in Address Book even when scanning a "busy" card.
I still wasn't able to scan photos, so during my next session with IRIScan I checked the website for information but there is no help for Mac posted. I finally decided to email support. I received a reply back in about two hours. They had me re-calibrate. Afterwards I tried scanning black & white photos, they weren't much better. Then I changed the setting from black & white to grayscale and tried again. This setting change corrected the problem with black & white photos and the resulting scans were great, but i still didn't have a solution for the color photos.
I emailed support again late at night and had an answer in the morning. This time they said to change one of the settings from Automatic to Custom. It worked! Now i can produce beautiful scanned copies of color photographs.
The software included with IRIScan is definitely not written for Mac OS X . I found the interface to be quite awkward and the supplied user information inadequate. However, the support response was quick and courteous.
You are able to save your text scans in many different editable files, PDF, word processing, text edit, email, etc. The Windows version of IRIScan includes a photo editing program which would have been useful in the Mac version. I had to crop my photos after saving them to get rid of the extra black background surrounding the picture.
The Windows version also includes a translation program that will automatically translate from one language to another. I was able to successfully scan in a German document but the translation feature does not exist in the Mac version.
The IRIScan is lightweight, small and portable with USB connection.. You are able to scan full page documents, business cards and photos with up to 600 DPI. Colors are bright and text is clear. The speed is slow.
Though my initial start up with IRIScan was frustrating I now can scan documents, photos, and business cards almost flawlessly. Because of its size and portability it is a good tool to take along wherever you may travel. If you are considering purchasing an IRIScan for a Mac you may want to look at the IRIScan Express 2. The additional price for the Executive 2 includes software that is for Windows only.
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