Get High-Speed Color at a Midrange Price

by Doug Henschen

The document imaging market has seen a spate of new high-speed, color-capable scanners in recent months, but the lowest-priced model among them is Fujitsu's fi-4990C. This $29,995 bargain delivers production speeds at a midrange price. While top speeds and features might not match top-of-the-line competitors, the 4990C offers a lot of options for image processing, image compression and future upgradability.

The 4990C is a duplex, sheet-fed scanner that looks just like its two-year-old, bitonal/grayscale twin, the fi-4099. The key differences are on the inside, where color support features include tricolor CCDs, circuitry for electronic color dropout and an onboard JPEG compression board. Most other features and specs are identical to the 4099: peak optical resolution is 400 dpi and rated bitonal speeds are 90 pages per minute (ppm) in simplex mode and 180 images per minute (ipm) in duplex (portrait scanning letter-size documents at 200 dpi).

Fujitsu promotes color scanning at 90 ppm/180 ipm at 150 dpi, but we prefer the 200-dpi standard. Rated color speeds at this higher resolution are 88 ppm/135 ipm. Due to bandwidth constraints, the scanner is no faster when scanning documents in landscape orientation. The transport has to slow down to capture all the information across the wider document dimension.

When you're dealing with scanners this fast, performance can depend on your host computer. For "optimum color throughput," Fujitsu recommends a minimum of a 1 GHz computer with 512 MB of RAM or more. We tested with 1.0 GHz and 1.9 GHz computers, both with 512 MB of RAM and Ultra ATA/5 (7,200-rpm) hard drives. We fell just shy of certain rated speeds while surpassing others. Using the included ISIS driver and QuickScan, a handy scanning application provided by Pixel Translations of San Jose, CA, we reached bitonal speeds of 88 ppm/ 176 ipm. Color speeds (at 200 dpi) were 88 ppm/150 ipm. In short, all simplex speeds were 2 ppm shy of the rating while color duplex speeds were 15 ppm faster than expected. Interestingly, the 1.9 MHz computer was no faster for ordinary scanning, though it markedly improved the performance of image processing and third-party boards we also tested in this review (see sidebars below).

The most impressive aspect of the 4990C is its range of image processing options. In bitonal operation, Fujitsu's ScanRight Image Processing options include auto deskew, auto crop, text enhancement, noise removal, image emphasis and automatic separation. The last feature detects the difference between text and photos and chooses the appropriate threshold for that area of the page. You can also select between five preprogrammed settings for common document characteristics.

Quick Scan Vendor: Fujitsu, San Jose, CA, www.fcpa.com Product: fi-4990C Description: High-speed, sheet-fed scanner supporting color, grayscale and bitonal scanning at up to 400 dpi resolution. Rated Speed: (8.5" x 11" @ 200 dpi) 90 ppm/180 ipm bitonal, 88 ppm/135 ipm color. Tested Speed: (8.5" x 11" @ 200 dpi) 88 ppm/176 ipm bitonal, 88 ppm/150 ipm color. Duty Cycle: 10,000 pages per day. Strengths: Low price; solid image quality; onboard JPEG board with seven selectable levels of compression; comprehensive bitonal image processing including auto deskew, auto thresholding, auto crop, background removal and electronic red/green/blue color dropout. Twin slots support third-party boards and possible future technologies. Weaknesses: Speeds are somewhat slower than top-end competitors; doublefeed detection isn't designed for mixed document lengths and thicknesses; lacks dual-stream (simultaneous color and bitonal) output; lacks color deskew and onboard barcode reading. Price: $29,995 including ISIS and TWAIN drivers and ScanRight IPC image processing; backside imprinter $2,595.

When scanning in color, fewer image processing features are required. Color images naturally require less fine-tuning to reveal all of the original's detail. More information means larger files, however, so Fujitsu has included an onboard JPEG board with seven compression settings. The board defaults to a midrange setting that yielded typical color file sizes of 600K to 800K (at 200 dpi). By combining lower resolution and higher compression, you can easily get down to the 100K range for fast screen viewing and Web downloads (although you may sacrifice detail and, at the highest compression settings, gain unwanted JPEG artifacts).

The 4990C has an extra expansion slot on the back of the scanner for "future technologies." For example, Fujitsu plans to support color Virtual ReScan boards expected from Kofax. Advanced JPEG 2000/JPM compression boards are another possibility, although none have been announced.

The 4990C starts scanning from the bottom of the transport. A capacious 1,000-page auto document feeder handles everything from A7 index cards to A3 double-letter documents (11.7 inches x 17 inches). The transport itself is 12 inches wide, and you can slow it down to manually feed large or delicate documents. The feeding guides center documents to minimize skewing, and three height adjustments raise the hopper to minimize loading time for smaller batches.

The transport uses a combination of rubber and permanent metal rollers. The rubber pick rollers and break rollers are easily removed for cleaning and replacement. Documents are illuminated by one user-replaceable bulb on each side of the paper path. The upper housing can be raised for easy cleaning, maintenance and jam clearing.

Fujitsu relies on a series of infrared sensors along the paper path for skew and doublefeed detection. When scanning bitonally, the sensors can detect document edges that are out of alignment and use this information to electronically deskew the image. The 4990C doesn't support color deskew or barcode reading, but we added both of these features in our test by using the 650i Adrenaline Ultrawide SCSI board from Kofax, Irvine, CA. This $1,095 board also supports additional image processing options (see sidebar).

The Fujitsu fi-4990C can spot doublefeeds based on length. If you know that all the documents in a batch are 8.5 inches by 11 inches (or another common size), then the scanner can be set to stop or sound an alarm if the sensors spot a shorter or longer document — a dead giveaway that there's been a doublefeed.

The scanner can also detect variations in paper thickness that might indicate a doublefeed. If you know all your documents are of uniform weight, then the scanner can be set to stop or sound an alarm if it senses a document that is thicker than the rest of the batch.

In our testing, length-based detection was more reliable than thickness detection. We taped together three sets of documents and interspersed them in a batch. The length-based mode caught the doubles every time, while the thickness mode missed them more than once, even after recalibrating the thickness setting.

These two doublefeed detection modes aren't designed for batches of mixed document sizes and weights. For this reason, Fujitsu acknowledges that the 4990C is best suited to consistent documents, yet we experienced very few misfeeds or unforced doublefeeds while scanning everything from onionskin to card stock.

The 4990C's closest competitors are Kodak's i820, a $65,000 model that scans at 120 ppm/240 ipm in color (in landscape orientation with auto rotation), and Panasonic's KV-SS905C, a $35,000 unit that scans 97 ppm/194 ipm (portrait or landscape). These models offer dual-stream color and bitonal image output, which is not available from the 4990C, as well as variable electronic color dropout, versus Fujitsu's red, green and blue drop out. Both competitors also use ultrasonic doublefeed detection, which works even with mixed document sizes and weights and is, in our experience, more reliable than infrared detection. The Kodak also offers color deskew at full rated speed and a standard patch code reader and prescan endorser. The 4990C's postscan endorser is $2,595.

A more favorable comparison can be made against Kodak's midrange color scanners. The Kodak 4500D, for example, is priced at $26,990 and scans at 85 ppm/170 ipm bitonally at an interpolated resolution of 200 dpi (landscape with auto rotation). Color scanning is limited to 150 dpi, with speeds of 57 ppm/114 ipm. For not much more, the Fujitsu delivers higher resolution, faster speeds and variable JPEG compression. Points in the Kodak's favor are ultrasonic doublefeed detection, dual-stream (simultaneous color and bitonal) output and marginally better mixed document handling.

In our tests, the 4990C offered great image quality, reliable paper handling and plenty of options for image processing and compression. While it's not the fastest production scanner or the best choice for mixed document sizes and weights, the 4990C offers solid speeds, high resolution, third-party board support and, most attractive, the lowest price of any color-capable scanner in this class.

COLOR DESKEW AND BARCODE VIA SCSI

Vendor: Kofax, Irvine, CA, www.kofax.com

Product: Adrenaline 650i

Description: Ultrawide SCSI board offering host connectivity and useful image processing features. Supports TWAIN, ISIS and Kofax Image Controls imaging applications.

Strengths: Offers color deskew, color/bitonal barcode reading and high-end bitonal processing features including border removal, line removal, image markup, image filters and forms recognition. Supports most major scanner brands with imaging-savvy technical support.

Weaknesses: Color deskew and color barcode reading are software-based processes that slow scanning. In our tests, color deskew speed was 39 ppm/40 ipm at 200 dpi with a 1.9 GHz computer. Barcode reading was 79ppm/80 ipm at 200 dpi color.

Price: $1,095

JPEG, PDF & TIFF VIA VIDEO

Vendor: Dunord Technologies, Montreal, www.dunord.com

Product: I-3320-1

Description: Video output system including a scanner board, front and back IDE cards, cables and Dunord's Scan-to-File application. Supports variable PDF and JPEG compression as well as uncompressed TIFF compression output in color or grayscale.

Strengths: Supports PDF with three levels of selectable compression and JPEG with five levels of selectable compression. The system also delivers uncompressed TIFF for specialized applications.

Weaknesses: Does not output bitonal images. Requires a fast processor or dual processor to sustain rated speeds; tested with a 1.9 GHz computer with 512 MB of RAM and an ATA/5 (7,200-rpm) hard drive, scanning slowed to 66 ppm/80 ipm.

Price: $4,995.