If you have an A3 scanner...

Why not turn A4 documents 90 degrees and scan them in landscape instead? This will speed up the throughput considerably as the scanner has less work to do to feed each page.

Don't rely on the manufacturer's warranty

Most of the scanners come with a 12 months manufacturer's warranty. The service varies dramatically between manufacturers - some offer a next day swap-out, an engineer within 3 days or worse still a return to base, meaning you can be without your scanner for up to a week!

An alternative to this is taking out the extended cover available on all scanners. We'll get an engineer to you, usually within 24hrs and if the machine can't be fixed onsite, we'll give you a temporary equivalent to tide you over.

Contact us on 0800 088 7362 for further details.

Selecting a resolution (dpi)

For general A4 black and white documents (such as invoices, letters etc.), you don't need to set a high resolution for scanning. The majority of our document scanners scan up to 600dpi, but this is not necessary for day to day scanning.

Instead, we recommend 200-300dpi max. Of course, if you find the quality isn't quite good enough try increasing this. Even colour documents needn't be scanned at full resolution - only photos should generally require 600dpi.

Remember - the higher the resolution the more space the resultant file will take up on your PC. Also, the scanner will have to scan more thoroughly, and therefore each page will take longer to scan.

Paper Preparation

When scanning batches of documents try paying more attention to good preparation of the paper as this can save time and money in the long run. Efficient preparation can help maintain top image quality along with good paper handling and high throughput of your images. This will decrese the possibility of poor image quality, jams, multi-feeds and accidental damage to the product.

Cleaning and Care

Make sure keep on top of cleaning all rollers inside the scanner at the required intervals with the recommended manufactures cleaing products (details and instructions can be found in the Operator's Guide for your product).

Replacing Consumables

Ensure that you change the consumables at the required intervals, this maybe down to the age or the number of scans completed. Dependent upon scanner model, these can include: Pick roller, Brake Roller, Separation roller, Pad Assembly, Tyres and Feed Modules.

Maintaining good image quality

The scanner's quality can be affected numberous factors suchas heavy dust, chemicals, toner particles, inks or paper dyes. It can also be affected by smears or scratches on the glass surface of the optical units. Additional scanning software such as Kofax Elite can improve certain scanned images, increasing productivity and efficiency.

Periodic Preventative Maintenance

It is good practice to keep your scanner well maintained and in a first-class condition so rather than waiting for issues to arise it is adviable to book an annual service with us for an engineer to give your unit full assement and clean. Common indications that your scanner requires maintenance are:

• Sensor alarms/errors (normally the result of dust build-up preventing sensors from operating)
• Persistent paper jams despite cleaning and consumable change (normally caused by residue build-up on rollers or dust inside sensors)
• Poor image quality such as lines down scanned image or other artifacts (normally caused by dust and/or residues on the glass guides or inside the optical units)
• Unusual 'grinding' or 'knocking' noises (normally caused by advanced build-up of residues, dust/toner on rollers and moving parts, or sometimes staples preventing normal operation)