[pomo81]

You can imagine my joy in finding this forum. I've been scanning texts for archival purposes for nearly 20 years. I've spent the past two days scouring this forum and getting introduced to fantastic software I had not known about. Abby, Omnipage, and Paperport I'm familiar with; Scan Tailor and ScanKromsator are new to me and had been desperately needed.

I don't have much need for OCR, but fast flatbed scanning is a must. In nearly 20 years, I have not come across a flatbed scanner that is faster than the old -- and big and heavy -- HP 4C scanners, which can do 4 300 dpi 1-bit (black and white) legal-sized scans in one minute. Opening up a book on the glass and doing two facing pages at a time will yield 240 scans (480 pages) an hour.

All of the "fast document" scanners seem to have a speed rating only on the ADF, not the flatbed, which seem to be terribly slow. I think some of the Epson flatbed scanners might be able to come close to 4 legal-sized 300 dpi, 1-bitscans a minute, but I'm not certain. The old AGFA SCSI scanner did 3 scans a minute.

I have no idea whether I can get my HP 4C, which can still be bought new or in very good condition on Ebay for nearly nothing (it's the shipping that costs), and required SCSI card to work on a Vista or Windows 7 machine, as I have mine connected to an XP machine.

I'm always on the lookout for a faster flatbed USB 2.0 scanner, but I've seen nothing. I'm thinking about a digital copier that can be connected to a PC, as I'd like the flatbed scanning time to be just as fast as a copier. I'm also thinking of going the route of a photo box with two SLR cameras.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw in a word on these old 4C scanners and finally take part in this forum, which I had sorely needed the past 20 years and found only two days ago.