Scan to Email or Straight to the Web

By Maria Medina

Despite the progress we’ve all made, not all documents are digital. When we need to share paper documents, we either fax or copy and mail them, often at great expense. But just think, if you could email those documents, you could save on long distance and postage or overnight courier charges. And if it’s a color document, do you think faxes or black-and-white copies will do justice to the original?

Email collaboration, color capture and scan-to-the-Web functionality are the big ideas behind Acrobat Messenger Software from Adobe (www.adobe.com) and the Digital Sender 8100C from Hewlett Packard (www.hp.com). Both solutions convert your paper-based documents into digital form so you can send them as email attachments, as email with a URL or as traditional faxes. They both convert documents into color or bitonal PDFs.

The 8100C is Hewlett Packard’s newest Digital Sender with a lower price point of $1,300. It scans 5 pages per minute at 300 dpi bitonal (versus 15 ppm at 300 dpi for the $3,800 model 9100C).

Unlike a fax machine, the 8100C runs on an IP network using a 10-base T connection. Installation in our lab went smoothly. We entered an IP address, IP Subnet, IP Gateway, SMTP server address and user profiles using the four-inch LCD display panel and alpha/numeric keypad.

Quick Scan
Product: Acrobat Messenger
Supplier: Adobe, San Jose, CA, 408-536-6000
www.adobe.com
Rated Speed: Depends on the Scanner
Resolution: 300 dpi, 24-bit color
File Formats: PDF, JPG
Street Price: $1,499 (not including workstation or scanner)
Strengths: Easy three-step delivery. Offers image and thumbnail views as well as rotation and annotation options. Supports full-text OCR in PDF images. Supports duplex for two-sided scanning.
Weaknesses: Almost twice as expensive as the sender, requiring the separate purchase and setup of a workstation and scanner.
Product: Digital Sender 8100C
Supplier: Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA, 650-857-1501
www.hp.com
Rated Speed: 5 ppm in color
Resolution: 150 - 300 dpi
File Formats: PDF, TIFF
Street Price: $1,300
Strengths: Network attached scanner/email/fax unit with good color image quality, security and low price point.
Weaknesses: Lacks image viewing, rotation, annotation and OCR. No image storage capabilities.

Once setup is complete, you can place as many as 25 pages in the ADF or use the letter-size flatbed. Next, you type in your user name, subject, the recipients’ email addresses (and cc: recipients) and press the send button. Unfortunately, the tiny LCD screen is not suitable for image display, so just like a fax machine, you can’t view your scanned results before you send.

In our tests, color images had good quality. In bitonal mode, the 8100C had trouble capturing light blue ink and light pencil marks. The ADF can only handle documents stacked in portrait orientation; if you send a landscape document, your recipient will see it sideways. If you choose the TIFF option, they can always rotate the image, but Acrobat Reader won’t let you rotate a PDF image (though you can always print it out — that is if you don’t mind going back to paper).

HP did a good job with security and a few extra features. For example, the 8100C can send you an email confirmation if the email was sent successfully, and it can automatically cc: the sender without their having to enter the email address on the cc: line. This lets you check to see that the scans came out all right. Since the sender operates on a network, the server will notify you if there was an error sending your message.

Although the 8100C has no image storage capabilities, Hewlett Packard packed in enough memory to store 4,096 user names, 200,000 public email addresses and 256 email addresses for each user.

Acrobat Messenger is a software package priced at $1,499, and to this you’ll have to add the cost of a scanner and workstation. Despite the cost difference, we feel this solution offers a better overall value than HP’s Sender.

Acrobat Messenger was easy enough to set up, though it was a lot more involved than with the stand-alone 8100C. We loaded Messenger on an NT workstation, installed a fax modem and hooked up a Fujitsu 600C simplex color scanner (though the software will also support duplex color scanners). Image quality and speed depends entirely on the scanner you choose.

With Messenger, you can scan and deliver color or bitonal PDF or JPG images in three easy steps, and you have the option of making your PDF files text searchable with built in OCR software.

Messenger’s intuitive interface is set up to look like a copy machine control panel, with a big green “start” button. Once the scanning is done, the next step is to enter the delivery options, email addresses and/or fax numbers.

Just like the 8100C, Messenger sends images as email attachments, as emails to a URL or as traditional faxes (thus the need for the fax modem). The software is meant to be left up and running, ready for service on its own workstation placed in a central location, much like a fax machine. Adobe recommends a modern PC with at least a 400 MHz processor.

One big difference with HP’s Sender is that Acrobat Messenger lets you examine the images and document thumbnails before you send. Using a toolbar you can zoom in, rotate landscape documents and post electronic sticky notes, highlights and stamps. You can also save a backup copy of the images on a floppy disk. Messenger relies on NT security, reading and verifying email addresses and passwords directly from your corporate server.

In essence, the Digital Sender 8100C and Adobe Messenger serve the same role, and both can support a printer to act as a complete fax replacement. We found Acrobat Messenger both easier to use and more versatile. Viewing the documents on screen before sending was a big advantage, allowing you to rotate images and annotate as needed. With OCR as an option, you can send searchable PDF images into a Web-accessible repository.

The Adobe Messenger interface was straightforward and easy to learn. With the Digital Sender, even after a little practice, we found it hard to remember the menu routines on the 8100C. The lack of image viewing, rotation, annotation and OCR options were clinchers.

Price is, of course, a big difference between these two solutions. Even if you were to choose a low-end color scanner and workstation, you’re looking at a minimum $1,000 additional investment if you choose Acrobat Messenger. Depending on your hardware and needs, you may also need to deal with fax/modem and SCSI cards and cable and setup issues that you won’t encounter with the Sender. Nonetheless, we feel the extra time and money will bring you a more flexible solution, making Acrobat Messenger our Editor’s Choice for scan-to-email and scan-to-the-Web versatility.