This junior version of Raven Scanner is still soaring
The standalone Raven original document scanner provides you with half the capacity and two-thirds the speed, which is about $200 less than its Raven Pro equivalent, making it a viable alternative to more expensive models.
The $439.85 Raven original document scanner (2nd generation) is the predecessor of the Raven Pro document scanner reviewed here in October 2021 that won the Editor’s Choice Award. It is essentially the same document scanner, but with lower capacity and speed . This version provides the same 8-inch touch screen and pre-installed scanning interface and document management software as Raven Pro, but the price of about 200 US dollars brings some sacrifices: the original automatic document feeder (ADF) can only hold half of the Pages, its daily duty cycle is 4,000 and 6,000 pages, and its scanning speed level is one-third lower. Otherwise, Original and Pro scanners are similar, which makes the former less powerful, but still a powerful entry-level solution.
Raven Original measures 6.5 x 11.2 x 7 (HWD) inches, the tray is closed, and weighs 9.8 pounds. These measurements are approximately average among many competing models, although the device is one or two pounds heavier than the three Editors’ Choice Award winners: Epson RapidReceipt RR-600W, Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600 and Brother’s ADS-2700W wireless high-speed desktop document scanner Some other valuable competitors are Epson’s WorkForce ES-580W and Canon imageFormula R50.
Like Raven Pro, the most attractive feature of Raven Original is its 8-inch touch screen. The display is an efficient, tablet-like interface that allows you to create, edit, and save workflow profiles that define and retrieve your scans, from hard copies to searchable archives and everything in between Content-everything is on the front end of the scanner.
The front panel is not only a convenient, traditional touch screen for navigating menus and executing commands, it also provides a powerful scanning interface, optical character recognition (OCR) to convert pages into editable text, and resolution, destination, and file Choose the format (Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat image or searchable PDF, Excel, etc.). In other words, you can get a complete scanning solution and document management application, not to mention the ability to edit the scan after it is completed, all of which are on the surface of the scanner, not on your PC.
To be sure, Raven's scanner is not the only scanner equipped with a large touch screen, front interface and archiving program. About five years ago, PCMag reviewed Canon's imageFormula ScanFront 400. It has a full 10.1-inch tablet-sized touch panel, although it is larger and the price is about four times that. Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX1600 is the best product of 2021. It has a 4.3-inch display with similar functions, at least in terms of setting up and performing scans from the device itself. However, most of the document management functions of iX1600 belong to the bundled ScanSnap Home software.
Raven Original and Pro also come with a scanner interface and document management software called Raven Desktop, which you can install on a Windows or macOS desktop or laptop computer. (The software and connectivity are described in detail in the next section.)
The document processing on the original includes a 50-page automatic document feeder, which is half the size of Raven Pro’s ADF, as mentioned earlier, and the device has a rated scan volume of 4,000, while the number of scans per day is 6,000. At the same time, Epson RR-600W and ES-580W are equipped with a 100-page ADF, which can scan 4,000 times a day. Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600 and Brother ADS-2700W have a 50-page ADF with a duty cycle of 6,000 and 3,000 scans, respectively. Finally, Canon's R50 can hold 60 sheets of paper and can scan 4,000 times a day.
One of the more disappointing aspects of Raven Original is that, like Raven Pro, it does not directly support handheld devices (smartphones and tablets), although it does come with and supports TWAIN drivers for connecting and scanning to third-party applications Program. (Adobe Scan for Android and iOS is a good example.)
The standard interfaces of the scanner are USB, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Ethernet. You can scan directly to USB flash drives and other storage drives instead of computers. Although Raven does not support scanning directly to mobile devices using its own application, you can connect indirectly via Raven Cloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, OneDrive, Box, and Evernote.
The owner gets a Raven Cloud online storage account, which is not only free, but also offers unlimited space. You don't need to use it, but you must register for a Raven Cloud account to use the scanner. You and your team can also connect to Raven Original via the included Raven Desktop software via a wired or wireless network.
With Raven Desktop, you can scan to Windows PC or Mac or any cloud destination you like. With configurable workflows and wired or wireless connections, Raven Desktop and the front panel integrated interface are very similar, and it is relatively easy to switch back and forth between them.
Raven scores originals at 40 single-sided (single-sided) pages per minute (ppm) and 80 double-sided (double-sided) images per minute (ipm). I tested it with a touch screen interface and USB connection. (I also ran some tests on the Intel Core i5 test platform running Windows 10 Professional and got similar results, although I did see a slight performance increase when scanning the flash drive.)
In my first round of testing, I clocked when Raven Original scanned a single-sided and double-sided 25-page text document, and then formatted and saved the scanned text as an image PDF file. When scanning single-sided text documents, Raven Original averaged 41.6ppm. It scans double-sided pages at an average rate of 82.8ipm.
These results are about a third slower than Raven Pro. So far, among the non-Raven scanners mentioned here, only Canon R50 (also 40ppm/80ipm) is 1.3ppm higher than the original scanner in simplex mode, but lags behind by 1.7ipm in duplex mode. ScanSnap iX1600 is 3.1ipm faster in duplex mode. All others are slightly behind, but not much.
Next, I timed it when the device scanned the same double-sided (50-sided) text document, then converted and saved it to a more general searchable PDF format. Raven Original completed the entire task from hard copy to editable PDF in 40 seconds.
This is 16 seconds slower than Raven Pro, but otherwise it is about average. Both Epsons completed the work in 45 seconds, and the brothers completed the work in 50 seconds. Canon R50 is the second fastest after Raven Pro and takes 37 seconds.
However, if you find yourself correcting many conversion errors, the fastest scanner in the world is worthless. However, as I have said many times recently, it is difficult to find a scanner today—whether it is a $100 portable or a $2,000 office workhorse—that is not accurate enough for the average home office or business environment.
Like its Pro products, Raven Original scanned our Arial and Times New Roman test documents, with no errors as low as 5 points. Except for Epson's ES-580W, it beat or tied all the scanners mentioned here, and it scored 4 points without error in both tests.
I also scanned several stacks of financial documents, such as receipts and invoices, to understand how Original collects and manages financial data. This is as effective as expected, and the more I scan, the better the program seems to understand which numbers to put where.
About $200 or two-thirds lower than the list price of Raven Pro, Raven Original offers half the capacity and about two-thirds the performance. If it meets your needs, then there is no problem. You and your team can access all the features of this scanner from the front of the device itself or from any computer on the local network. Yes, if you need 6,000 scans per day, the Pro model is faster and worth the money, but if you don’t need that much scan volume, Raven Original is very cost-effective.
The standalone Raven original document scanner provides you with half the capacity and two-thirds the speed, which is about $200 less than its Raven Pro equivalent, making it a viable alternative to more expensive models.
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William Harrel is a contributing editor, focusing on printer and scanner technology and reviews. He had been writing articles about computer technology long before the Internet appeared. He has authored or co-authored 20 books-including the popular "Bible", "Secret" and "Fools" series-about digital design and desktop publishing software applications such as Acrobat, Photoshop and QuarkXPress, and prepress imaging Technology. His latest work is HTML, CSS and JavaScript Mobile Development for Dummies (a manual for creating websites for smartphones and tablets). In addition to writing hundreds of articles for PCMag, over the years, he has also contributed to several other computer and business publications, including Computer Shopper, Digital Trends, MacUser, PC World, The Wirecutter and Windows Magazine, and he has served as Printer and scanner specialist on About.com (now Livewire).
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