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For the last year and a half, I've been using a Fujitsu S510 SnapScan page scanner, which is a natural competitor to the Epson GT-S50. So, when I was offered the chance to review the Epson, it seemed like a natural fit - somebody looking to acquire one is likely to also seek at the other. (Go to Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-fed Scanner to read that review. It was fairly far down, on page 4, when I last looked.)
Let's glimpse at the two scanners...
First of all, both scanners are top fed and scan both sides of a page in a single pass. They are infinitely faster than the scanners built into the "all-in one" printers and honorable for high volume scanning...the Epson is rated for 1200 pages per day.
The Epson GT-S50 comes with both TWAIN and ISIS drivers, giving it with a positive advantage in interfacing with software from other companies. Almost every program that can read from a scanner uses one or the other. The ScanSnap, on the other hand, uses its contain proprietary driver, which only ties into their ScanSnap Organizer program...a program that displays puny images of the scanned pages. Both scanners near with OCR programs, for converting scanned images to editable text, but, with the TWAIN driver, only the Epson directly interfaces with different programs - OmniPage Pro, Textbridge, or whatever else you seize.
The Epson driver offers more choices in output resolution. Whereas the SnapScan has four levels - Normal (150dpi), Better (200dpi), Best (300dpi) and Edifying (600dpi) - the Epson has eight levels ranging from 75 dpi up through 600 dpi. For some curious reason, neither company's software allows you to name the output file before scanning. After scanning, you'll need to manually rename each file with something recognizable. (The default date/time sign doesn't give you any useful information if you need to pick up a file a month later) .
The Epson ships with software for both Macintosh and Windows systems. I've tested both versions in a mixed Windows/Mac network and they both work smoothly. The Fujitsu ScanSnap, on the other hand, comes in dedicated Mac (S510m) and Windows (S510) models. I've only obsolete the Windows version.
Both scanners are similar in their physical shape, although the Epson looks quite a bit larger...it's about 1" longer, 2" taller and an saunter or two deeper than the SnapScan. It holds 75 pages in the input slot, versus 50 in the SnapScan. The Epson has a two-line indicate on the front. The SnapScan only has "scan" and "power" buttons. Both units are solidly built and give the feeling that they'll last for a long time...I've passe my SnapScan for 30K+ pages and it's collected going strong. Both units have user replaceable pads and rollers to support them running smoothly.
How do they operate in proper life? To initiate my testing, I fed the same 42 page document through each scanner. The document was complex as they arrive, with both text and color graphics on most pages. It was also laid out to be faded in a vertical flip chart (letter-size, but gallop on the short edge) ...from the scanner's perspective, the back-side of each page was upside down. My theory was that a scanner that could originate sense out of it could handle almost anything...
The Epson scanned my test document faster than the ScanSnap, but software processing of the scanned image took longer. The ScanSnap took 3min 10sec from the commence of the scan to PDF file creation, without using text recognition; the Epson took 4min 6sec. The OCR software runs in the background on the SnapScan, but runs in the foreground on the Epson. Because of this, the SnapScan can be worn to scan the next document while the text is being recognized, while the Epson remains busy until it's completely finished. My test document tied up the Epson for 12min 20sec from the time that I started the scan until the OCR finished and saved the file. My computer's no wobble, but a faster computer would obviously shorten that time. If you spend an outside text recognition package, you can always accelerate it at a later time and eliminate this time waster.
The ScanSnap features automatic rotation of upside down and landscape pages. (Everything is fed in vertically on both scanners.) The Epson doesn't...you acquire what you feed in. In my test document, the ScanSnap flipped the upside pages right-side up. The Epson left them upside down. Even with the upside down pages, the OCR worked beautiful.
The Epson can handle mixed page sizes in one scan. You can fall all your receipts in and have them scanned at once. The ScanSnap needs all the pages to be the same size in each scan...a longer page is assumed to be a misfeed and aborts the scan.
The Epson has a straight through paper path. It can handle credit card and ID Card scanning. The ScanSnap doesn't and can't. This makes the Epson perfect for a medical office where health insurance cards are always being copied.
The Epson can scan documents up to 36" long. The ScanSnap stops at right size (14") . This is useful when you are scanning cash register receipts, but as a practical matter, I seldom rush into anything else that's longer than 14"...at least not without also getting too wide for the scanner.
Using the default settings, the ScanSnap had a sharper output at 600dpi. Clicking the "unsharpen" box in the Epson software produced a scan that almost exactly matched the ScanSnap's output...why unsharpen actually sharpens is a mystery. In solid-color blocks, the Epson was clearly friendly, producing a solid-color output. The ScanSnap had a lot of off-color noise that was clearly visible when enlarged.
The Epson also has the ability to topple out colors, which is useful when scanning something printed on colored paper. It would also be useful if you need to rob a red "confidential" or "top secret" mark from a borrowed document. 
Besides the drivers and other utility software, the Epson includes PaperPort 11 SE, which is a visual file organizer. It operates similarly to the ScanSnap Organizer. I didn't test it out...the last time I installed PaperPort 11 Pro (NOT the SE version), it messed up my computer so badly that I ended up reinstalling Windows to accumulate rid of it. (If you have a runt to extinguish, go read the reviews on Amazon for PaperPort 11 Pro!) I acquire that Epson's version is more fine, but having been burned more than once, I'm not about to try any version of PaperPort ever again! Both scanners utilize the ABBYY FineReader software. It works nicely. The ScanSnap also includes a bulky version of Adobe Acrobat Standard...a $200 program if you were to go out and remove it separately.
So....which scanner would I catch? The short reply is that it depends on your application. If you're using both Macs and Windows machines, the choice is positive...the Epson works with both. Both scanners are built for years of exhaust and each has original features (e.g. card scanning) that point it in one direction or the other. The Fujitsu ScanSnap is designed to be a more "push the button and it goes" type of method. The Epson GT-S50 is more flexible. I like them both.
Update - August 3, 2009 - I've now had both machines running side-by-side for about five months. I now score myself almost always using the Epson instead of the ScanSnap. The reason is simple - the Epson NEVER double feeds. This may be a function of the newness of the Epson, but my Fujitsu isn't really that obsolete, nor, at 19K pages has it seen considerable service. The double feeding has become a right plight...I have to carefully glimpse everything going through the SnapScan to form determined that it's not skipping a page. Not ample.
Update #2 - November 14, 2009 - I upgraded one of my office computers to Windows 7 and the GT-S50 is working radiant. There no drivers yet available for the ScanSnap S510...Fujitsu is estimating the waste of December. Even their newer model, the S1500 won't have drivers for another couple of weeks.
I also need to add that I've have a less-than-satisfactory with Epson service. My GT-S50 keeps truckin' along, but another Epson scanner, a V500 Office started misfeeding after two weeks. Epson wouldn't ship me a replacement unit...their scanner service policy apparently requires that the scanner be delivered, at customer's expense, to a repair depot. Not nice. Not nice at all...
Epson Workforce GT-S50 Review
I've been looking to depart to a more paperless environment at home. It seems I come by a daily deluge of mail that I have no intentions of archiving in its unique make. I decided that the time is proper to salvage a document scanner and commence archiving these documents into PDF for safekeeping and retrieval.
My initial goal was to accumulate a Fujitsu Scansnap but I was a bit establish off by the fact that Fujitsu made separate scanner models for Macintosh and PC. Im on a Mac just now but I like the flexibility that PC encourage gives. So I decided to maintain my eyes start for any other defective platform scanners and the Epson was announced shortly afterwards.
So after unpacking the Epson Workforce scanner I noticed the heft of this product. It's a sturdy peripheral and well designed in my notion. The installation process was a bit
tedious. I had to supply my administrators password 6 times to install the various application and drivers. I do not know if Windows will have the same annoyance.
The software included for Mac is Abbyy Finereader 5 Bolt, Presto Bizcard reader, Epson Scan, Epson Event Manager. Let me be just and frank with you. The bundled software literally looks like it comes from the 90s. Epson should have done better and partnered with better vendors. Fujitsu includes Adobe Acrobat and a satisfactory Cardminder for business card scanning in addition to the agreeable scansnap manager.
The performance of this scanner is stellar. I ran a page through at 200 dpi and it felt as though it was ejected rather than fed. At higher dpi the scanner slows down a bit but its mild a proper performer. I've been having some issues with the deskew feature. I scanned a few petite documents and they were not properly deskewed and captured slightly bent. I looked at the driver and the deskew button was grayed out. Unexcited haven't found out why I'll preserve checking. All document scanners tend to skew the scans a bit so deskew is vital if you like your documents straight.
Application support- The Epson Workforce scanner uses TWAIN (industry standard) and ISIS (higher kill) drivers. I found that my Adobe Acrobat 9 easily accessed the scanner, and fleet created a searchable PDF via its OCR function. Acrobat with built in OCR and a document scanner may be all some of you need. It works very well. Other applications I tried didn't always have a TWAIN interface preferring to to utilize Apple's Image Win. No worries though you can setup which folder you want to scan too and some applications will "study" a folder for files to import. Suffice it to say you "will" acquire your documents into your app somehow even if you cannot scan it in natively.
Comparison. Fujitsu this year announced the novel S1500/S1500m Scansnap. It is not available nor on Amazon at the time of this review but it is now on Fujitsu's website. I downloaded the data sheet and user manual for the original scanners. They are impressive. In addition to a sensor that can speak if two sheets have been fed (a feature of the Epson GT-S80 at more $$$) they also automate some of the scanning. You can toss in files of differing sizes with no problems. The biggest thing though to me is the Scanmanager software seems so worthy more fluid and novel to me. I also read that it may abet both PC and Mac platforms in one draw which was a feature I had to have. I will retain my Epson which works colossal yet is no frills and notice if the Epson Scan software improves though I could peep myself replacing this scanner with the S1500m and taking advantage of the respectable Scansnap software.
I got the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 scanner because of my needs in copying oversize contracts and prospectuses that I have to deal with and one of the large things about this machine is the ability to copy 8.5 X 36 inches long,YES let me order that... UP TO 36 INCHES LONG!!!
After dealing with several different scanners over the past 12 years and the limitations in copying the longer than 12-inch contracts & prospectuses that near up, it's a joy to copy the 14 chase long contract that was impossible till getting this machine and the represent quality is broad,I did my scans at 600 dpi and it looked perfect.
Another feature that comes with the GT-S50 that is totally original to me is the ability to copy both sides of the documents at the same time and it does it so hasty and perfectly.
It took about 5 minutes to download the 2 discs that came with the Scanner and it was ready to go without any problems.
In the past every scanner I've had was bigger than one would hope for and this fair shrimp powerhouse folds up when not being mature into an incredibly petite dust resistant unit and I really am cheerful with it.
This machine is a precise winner.
