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Going Paperless Part 3 - Choosing the best file format

OrganizationEdward Kiledjian
Image by xmodulo under Creative Commons License

Image by xmodulo under Creative Commons License

This article is going to be short and sweet. It will answer one question

"What format should I scan my documents to?"

Regardless of the scanner or scanning software, typically they can save documents in JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF.

The answer is PDF, end of discussion. PDF is an industry standard, allows for the inclusion of multiple pages and is accessible almost on every device in the world.

Unless your a multinational company, you don't have to worry about what version of PDF you are saving to. 

Going Paperless Part 2 - Choosing the right scanner

OrganizationEdward Kiledjian
ImageTrac 5300

ImageTrac 5300

Before we talk about the different methods to capture information and workflows with digital information, I am going to talk about scanners right upfront. 

Like everything electronic, scanners come in all shapes, sizes and prices. On one end, you have the single sided, single page portable scanners (like the Doxie Go)

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Or you can splurge on a high quality, high volume, fairly automatic, double sided scanner with built in sheet feeder

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Jargon

Before we discuss which one is best for your particular needs, we need to demystify some industry jargon.

  • ADF - Automatic Document Feeder is a mechanism that allows you to load many pages into the device and the ADF will automatically feed them to the scanning engine one by one.
  • Duplex - The basic scanners like the Doxie are simplex scanners which simply means they scan one side of a page. The more expensive scanners support duplex mode which means they automatically scan both sides of a page.
  • PPM - Pages Per Minue is a measure of how many pages the scanning engine can process per 60 second block. 
  • DPI - Dots Per Inch specifies how much detail the scanning engine can digitize when processing a page. The higher the number the higher quality the scan but the larger the final file and the longer the scanning will take.
  • TWAIN / ISIS - TWAIN and ISIS are industry standard protocols of how a device communicates with a scanner. 
  • OCR - Optical Character Recognition is a software function which can "read" a scanned page and convert it into editable text or add a hidden payer within the scanned file to make the scanned picture searchable by keyword.
  • MFD - MultiFunction Device is typically a scanner built into a printer

Smartphone apps

I have tested dozens of smartphone apps (both IOS and Android) and have yet to find one that matches the quality of a "real" scanner. These apps are great when you need to capture something while on the go (such as on a business trip) but typically this is my least favorite option.

You can already read one of my past articles comparing some of the more popular iPhone document scanning apps called "SCANNER PRO, CAMSCANNER+, GENIUS SCAN+ AND PRIZMO DOCUMENT SCANNER APP TESTS" here. 

Ignore the hype

Many of the blogs you read about scanner or going paperless talk only about the Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanners. Some do this because they genuinely love them and others do it because they received free demo units or other consideration. 

The Fujitsu ScanSnap devices are fantastic, easy to use and powerful, but they are expensive for the average home user. There is no use buying a sportscar if you need a 4 door family sedan.

MFD is fine for most users

If you buy a decent Multifunction Device from a reputable brand, you will likely be satisfied with the price/quality ratio. You can find decent MFDs in every big box retailer, online electronics store and even the direct sale manufacturers. 

Right now I use a Brother MFD at home and am satisfied. Remember to look at the specs of the various devices using my jargon demystifier above. 

Regardless of what you choose, you want a device that:

  • has an automatic document feeder of at least 15 pages
  • has paper size guides on the ADF to allow for the scanning of different size documents (paper, receipts, tickets, etc)
  • has a colour scanner
  • comes bundled (or has available) drivers and scanning software bundle for MAC and Windows (you never know where you will be in 2-3 years)
  • is TWAIN or ISIS compliant so you can use other software with it (such as photo editing software)

Going Paperless Part 1 - Reducing your paper exposure

OrganizationEdward Kiledjian
Image by Joybot under creative commons license

Image by Joybot under creative commons license

A couple of years ago, I made the switch (personally) from a paper filling system to an all electronic document management system.  There are a bunch of benefits by going digital that include:

  • free up lots of space
  • make finding information faster and easier
  • easily transferring or sharing information 

I want to help you go paperless and the best way for me to do this is to slowly break-up different tips and recommendations over a series of articles. Each article will have a call to action which means you'll be asked to do something but the change will be slow and easy.

Anytime we start a restructuring program, the first step is to clean-up our inputs. This means consciously getting paper out of your life when it is not absolutely required.

As an example, I use to receive a great big product catalog from the New York city retailer B&H (they sell via store and online). The truth is I never used their catalog since the information on their website is always more fresh, so I asked them to stop mailing me. Same thing with my bank, credit cards and utilities. Where possible, I switched from a paper invoice to electronic. I asked retailers to stop mailing me catalogs, flyer and pamphlets.

Where possible, switch from paper communication to digital.

Most governments accept digital copies of invoices for tax calculation purposes as long as the information is clear, easily accessible, easily retrievable and backed up. Since I have readers from over 70 countries, you should check with an accountant or lawyer for your country specific laws but I am sure most will find digital perfectly acceptable.

The other courses will follow shortly

Adobe Lightroom coming for Apple's iPad

technologyEdward Kiledjian
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9to5Mac (link) is reporting that Adobe will release an iPad version of its Lightroom photo management app. The discovery was made when Lightroom for mobile briefly appeared on Adobe's website. The information was pulled when 9to5Mac asked Adobe for comment & clarifications.

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The Adobe webpage didn't mention the iPad but an Adobe employee confirmed it was iPad centric to 9to5Mac.

Looks like Lightroom for iPad will sync with the full Lightroom via the Adobe creative cloud which means it will require a subscription and 9to5Mac reports that it will cost $100 a year (which seems fairly steep).  

Does this get you excited? Would you spend $100 (plus a full Lightroom subscription)?

25% of everything at Griffin Technologies

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Griffin is a well established manufacturer of smartphone accessories and they are now offering a full 25% of everything with the code SPRING25
You can use this discount to score some sweet gear for your iphone, ipad, ipad mini, android device and even a mac or PC. Griffin even has an Apple certified Lightning cable you can pick up through this promo for as low as $13US.
Start shopping before the deal is gone.