February 2002
Panasonic Offers a Compelling Combo
by Doug Henschen
Joining what is rapidly becoming a crowded market, late last year Panasonic began shipping a
color-capable scanner for high-speed production document imaging. Panasonic's KV-SS905C (905C) is
based on an existing bitonal model, but the addition of color CCDs, color processing features and
new scanning software has yielded a new model capable of delivering 24-bit color images at speeds
approaching 100 pages per minute (ppm). The scanner offers a compelling combination of speed, high
400-dpi resolution and helpful features, and it is competitively priced at $34,999.
The sheet-fed 905C handles everything from business cards to ledger paper, and in our tests the
scanner met its rated simplex speeds of 98 ppm bitonally and 97 ppm in color (all speeds quoted for
8.5-inch by 11-inch documents at 200 dpi resolution). The scanner also met its duplex speed of 174
images per minute (ipm) in both color and black and white. Scanning speeds are identical in portrait
and landscape orientation; due to certain bandwidth limitations, the transport slows when scanning
along the long edge of a document. This limitation means you can't increase throughput by scanning
in landscape and relying on the host computer to rotate images.
The 905C's auto document feeder (ADF) and 12-inch wide paper transport turned in a solid
performance, with few jams or double feeds. Our test batch included everything from onionskin to
card stock, yet paper handling was smooth and steady. The ultrasonic double-feed detector did its
job even with variable paper thicknesses.
Quick Scan
Vendor: Panasonic, Secaucus, NJ
www.panasonic.com/scanners
Product: KV-SS905C
Description: Sheet-fed, duplex scanner offering high-speed scanning with bitonal, grayscale or 24-bit color output.
Rated Speed (8.5" x 11" @200dpi): 98 ppm/174 ipm bitonal; 97 ppm/174 ipm color. Multistream (simultaneous bitonal & color output) 67 ppm/268 ipm.
Strengths: High-quality bitonal output. Built-in dynamic thresholding and barcode recognition. Onboard TIFF, PDF and JPEG compression. Useful bundled scanning utility offers multistream (simultaneous bitonal & color) output, auto deskew, auto crop, stored document settings and a zonal capture feature.
Weaknesses: Color images look dark without adjustment. JPEG compression lacks adjustability. Multistream output set at 300 dpi bitonal/150 dpi color. Upgrade to 256 MB cache should be standard, not optional.
Price: $34,999
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The 1,000-page ADF offers an alternative setting for smaller batches up to 200 sheets. This
setting cuts loading time when scanning batch after batch. A third setting is available for manual
feeding, and you can slow the paper transport and open a back hatch to create a straight-through
paper path for delicate and oversize documents — even long medical or scientific log readouts.
The optical resolution of the 905C is 400 dpi in both color and black and white, and you can
interpolate to 600 dpi bitonally. Once an image is captured, built-in circuitry supports bitonal
dynamic thresholding, which automatically adjusts the conversion of information from the red, green
and blue arrays to white or black pixels. This setting slows scanning a bit (about 87 ppm in our
tests), but it ensures optimum human and OCR readability, even when light and dark documents are
included in the same batch. The scanner also supports barcode recognition and conversion to TIFF,
JPEG or PDF formats.
One feature unique to this model is the user-selectable reference plate design. Plates on each
side of the paper path that serve as the background for scanning can be switched to expose black or
white surfaces. The black side supports automatic crop and deskew features, while the white side
yields brighter images when scanning thinner paper.
While most scanners in this class include only TWAIN and ISIS drivers, Panasonic also bundles
Reliable Throughput Imaging Viewer (RTIV) capture software. This simple utility does not replace
conventional document capture or forms processing systems, but it can deliver better batches and
images to these applications, with useful features including programmable document settings, auto
deskew and auto crop.
RTIV lets you create as many as 50 stored settings for the documents you encounter on a
day-to-day basis. For example, a setting could be created for "claims" or "resumes" with stored
settings for color vs. bitonal, resolution level, processing steps and compression types. RTIV also
supports the use of control sheets that invoke specific scanning parameters.
RTIV's auto deskew and auto crop features apply only to bitonal images. The first feature
automatically straightens images that are skewed up to 11 degrees during scanning. Auto crop matches
the image size to the document when scanning mixed-size documents. One caveat with these three
settings is that deskew cannot be performed at the same time as cropping and/or dynamic
thresholding, although the latter two can be applied in combination.
Another potentially useful feature in RTIV is the ability to output color and bitonal images
simultaneously. With a single scan, this "multistream" mode simultaneously captures bitonal images
suitable for OCR or ICR software and color images suitable for key-from-image data entry or customer
service applications. This setting slows scanning to 67 ppm (with 268 bitonal and color images per
minute). Unfortunately, multistream resolution settings are preset and cannot be altered from 300
dpi bitonal and 150 dpi in color.
Yet another RTIV feature lets you capture up to three user-definable image zones from either side
of a document, and you can set the scan settings for these zones independently from the primary
image. This feature might be useful in forms processing applications in which important data fields
or signatures appear in fixed locations.
Assessing image quality, the 905C impressed us with its bitonal output from the start, but the
color output required a second look. Color images on the preproduction unit we first tested had a
dark, blotchy appearance, so we took a second look at a production model. Color images from the
finished product looked better and more uniform, but they were still a bit dark. With adjustment, we
were able to capture good color images.
While onboard JPEG compression is a nice feature, the 905C offers no way to adjust the
compression level. Panasonic chose a conservative setting that renders high-quality but rather large
color images that might not be suitable for Web publishing or emailing. Most of the documents we
scanned were in the 600K to 800K range. The same documents scanned on competitive scanners with
adjustable compression could be crunched to half this size.
If you want to take advantage of the 905C's maximum 400-dpi resolution for color images, you'll
have to add RAM to the scanner's standard 64 MB cache. Additional RAM is also essential if you want
to use dynamic thresholding through the ISIS driver rather than through the RTIV software. Given the
low cost of memory these days, we were surprised Panasonic did not include the upgrade to 256 MB.
Another upgrade available is a $1,999 post-scan endorser.
The SS905C offers a good combination of speed and built-in features, and the free bundled
software combines a few of the basics found in Kofax's popular VRS image processing system with some
(although certainly not all) of the flexibility offered in Kodak's $15,000 High-Volume Capture
Software.
This model is competitively bracketed by Fujitsu's 4990C, a new scanner we're currently testing,
and Kodak's i820, which was reviewed last month along with the entire i800 series. While the Fujitsu
is less expensive at $29,995, it does not include barcode recognition, PDF conversion or RTIV
features such as multistream (color/bitonal) output and custom scan settings.
The Kodak is much more expensive at $65,000, but the i820 scans up to 120 ppm/240 ipm in
landscape orientation, and processing options including the dual-stream output do not slow the
scanner. The Kodak includes an imprinter and separate patch code reader, and the auto crop and auto
deskew features also apply to color images. While bitonal image quality was on par with the
Panasonic, the Kodak's deskew was more reliable. The i820 and i840 delivered brighter color images
without adjustment, and they also offer an adjustable JPEG compression setting. Finally, Kodak's
dual-stream output is available to any application through its drivers, and you can mix and match
any combination of resolution and processing settings.
With its fast 98 ppm/174 ipm speed, plentiful built-in features and helpful software, Panasonic's
KV-SS905C is a solid and affordable choice for production bitonal scanning and basic color needs.
The scanner can deliver good-quality color images, too, but if you expect to do a lot of color work,
the need for exposure adjustments and the lack of control over JPEG compression may add extra steps
and more time to your scanning process.
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