Plustek SmartOffice PS286 Plus Document Scanner

I used many of these in my CPA firm office for years. Each staff member has one on their desk. For the money, this is a great machine to have. Takes up little space on the desk. When paired with Adobe it is a powerful scanner. Quality of scan is good. The price is such you just replace when it "wears out". You can not go wrong with this one.

I love this scanner, it saves me so much time! I can scan one sided and two sided documents consecutively and save them as one document. You can also manipulate PDF's.

This is the second time I've purchased this little scanner. I was with a company that I ordered this scanner for my desk and when I left the company, the new employer did not have a scanner for the desk so I suggested this one based on my satisfaction with it. I have had a great experience with the PlusTex tech support in setting it up with the operating system as well as my current PC. I recommend this scanner, it's a workhorse for it's size. LOVE IT!!

After seeing the video for the Plustek PL2550, which claimed it has "Dual illumination to eliminate folds or wrinkles" I contacted plustek to learn what other scanners had "Dual illumination to eliminate folds or wrinkles". After a few attempts got someone to reply and after a week of exchanges, the kind representative (I removed her name from this post as she was the middleman) answered my question on June 27, 2013 with the following, small paragraph: Finally got an answer for you. The PS286+ does indeed scan with dual illumination to eliminate folds and wrinkles. I have attached examples handled down to me to show this. If you have any more concerns or question regarding this you can contact <contact information removed> As a result of this information, I ordered the PS286 Plus and received it on July 1, 2013. After just an hour of testing I concluded, not only did they lie, but the scanner is horrible. The following is the email I sent to plustek: I ordered an PS286 Plus and received it today. Problem #1) I just performed a test scan, and contrary to your previous email, the image clearly has light hitting rippled paper from one direction: clearly this scanner only has one light source per side. It may have dual illumination if you count both sides but that's mandatory for all duplex scanners; furthermore, the hardware clearly only has one light bar per side. Conclusion, false advertising. Problem #2) Using the "Button Configuration" window, under #1, I modified the following settings: ADF (Duplex); Scan Mode: Color; Resolution: 600. Every scan comes back with a Scan window that reads "Program was unable to allocate enough memory to perform this action. Close other programs and windows and try again". When I open my "Windows Task Manager" it shows Physical Memory Available is 29822! And before someone starts pointing fingers, I have no antivirus software as 34 years of building computers I've learned how to avoid them, and even though my I7-3770K processor with 32 Gig of ram on my Asus Maximus V Extreme, could handle many processes running in the background, I don't let it work that way. I like to keep a sleek machine so it's NOT my computers fault. This is beyond unacceptable. plustek's inability to compile 64 bit software when over 75% of machines sold in 2012 were sold with 64 bit software is insane. It's like someone ordering new motor for their car and they are delivered a horse with the hardware to bolt it to the motor mounts of the your car! Just because Microsoft can emulate 32 bit software on a 64 bit system doesn't mean it's a match! Edit: After not being able to find an auto-update feature, I went to the plustek web site and downloaded the latest drivers and after a total of three restarts, the memory error is now gone. Still, as previously stated, I like to keep a tidy machine but my task manager clearly shows the plustek software running in the background all to be 32 bit. So your horse is working, albeit anything but modern & new. Conclusion: I'm done, I'm contacting Amazon for a refund. The lazy software team aside, the hardware is not only overpriced but when I finally got a successful scan, side A cropped by over 3mm (photo says it all) and Side B was skewed illogically.. no text or graphics were in line with the rotation. I have been misled about a scanners abilities, plus the plustek software team is clearly either unable or unwilling to produce up to date solutions for new hardware, plus a single duplex scan at 600 dpi takes over 68 seconds? The USB 3.0 specification was completed in November 2008, Microsoft has been producing consumer level 64 bit windows since April of 2005. Plustek, this is bad business. I have written to three different emails at plustek and <name removed> is the only one who took the time to respond. So, <name removed> Please don't take my frustration personal. One thing I'd like to point out is: I asked what scanners-- plural.. have dual illumination, and was given one part number, as if it was my only choice.. was it? <name removed>, you have been kind, and I thank you. Your kindness isn't enough to counterbalance all this .... !

This scanner is very fast, accurate, easy setup and works well with the Paperport 14.0 Professional software that I purchased to use with it. It's also very portable and easy to carry around.

Great machine with a reliable document feeder, coupled with a broad-based software suite. I could suggest a few changes to the design, only to make it more robust, however I'm happy with it's performance.

I purchased this scanner one month ago and out of 30 days of scaning I was able to succeed 5 consecutive days without encountering problems. The scanner would mysteriously begin giving me a totally black output on the pdf file. I would waste hours re-booting the computer, toggeling the device on/off, and re-loading the drivers. I found the on-line PDF "user guide" to be minimal and it never mentioned the problem of a black output. I wrote to techincal support one tim e- they hinted that it might be a defective unt. On the last day of owning thing device I spoke to technical support who did nto have an answer as to why - but I could send it to them for repair. The second otion was to re-load the drivers (this ws the 5th time) - and it did not resolve the problem. I finally gave up and AMazon was gracious enough to grant me a refund for a defective unit. The Brother ADS 2000 - for a few dollars more -is a much better unit,

the only drawback is that it jams and often the entire sytem needs to be rebooted which is a little bit of a hassle.