Scansnap scanners have been a mainstay of my workflow for years. Rarely does a day pass by that I don’t use one. In January, we brought word of two new scanners, the iX1600 and iX1400. This morning Fujitsu announced an addition to that lineup; the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 has a compact design but includes some impressive features.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 has a smaller footprint than its older siblings. Still, it retains all the speed and power that has resulted in Fujitsu selling over 6 million ScanSnap scanners since introducing the line twenty years ago.
Available in white or black, the scanner is simple to use while maintaining the robust features that make the ScanSnap line my choice for scanners.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 turns on automatically when you lift the cover to reveal the sheet feeder. From there, it is as simple as placing your pages into the feeder and pressing the single button on top of the iX1300. The result is high-speed scans of up to 30 pages per minute. That’s fast enough to make quick work of pretty much any job.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300’s Automatic Document Feeder features an innovative U-turn path mechanism that draws pages in from the top but then, after scanning, feeds them back up and out of the device just in front of the feeder itself. This design means you no longer need to rely upon the “paper exit tray” that typically extends in front of the scanner. This, in turn, saves space while still allowing the scanner to quickly make its way through up to 20 sheets of paper.
But that is only part of the story here.
At the front of the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300, there is a Manual Feeder. This allows for super-quick scans of individual documents. It also allows users to scan thicker documents such as plastic cards, folded papers, and pamphlets. These thicker documents would damage the rollers of traditional sheet feeder scanners and, therefore, require large, cumbersome flatbed scanners.
Documents placed into the manual feeder are pulled into the iX1300, scanned, and then returned to the device’s front. That means you can make a quick scan without ever needing to open the cover.
I had the chance to see the iX1300 in action during a demo over Zoom, and I was amazed when a thick clothing catalog that must have been more than a millimeter thick was handily scanned using the manual feeder. Of course, only the cover was scanned, but it was still impressive to realize that the manual feeder can handle documents up to 2mm thick.
As you might expect, the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 can be connected to a Mac or PC via a USB cable. Of course, since this is 2021, the scanner can also connect wirelessly over both 2.4 and 5GHz networks. That, in turn, means the scanner can be placed anywhere in your home or office and still be accessed.
However, it is not just the hardware that makes ScanSnap Scanners so powerful but the tight integration of that hardware with Fujitsu’s all-in-one software, ScanSnap Home software.
As Fujitsu explains about the software, it “serves as a home for content, enabling easy document management, utilization and profile customization on both Windows and Mac. ScanSnap Home automatically organizes content by its type, whether its documents, receipts, business cards or photos and even creates searchable metadata so users can find their scans as easily as it was to scan them.”
In addition, a new mobile version of the software is available on Android, iOS, and Chrome OS and lets users scan on the go without the need to access a Mac or a PC directly.
Finally, with ScanSnap Cloud, the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 can scan directly to cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox. This allows users to create high-quality images and searchable PDFs on the go without the need for a computer or smart device nearby. With the push of a button, your documents are scanned and stored in the cloud. What could be easier?
Other features include Automatic Name Generation, Automatic Rotation, anti-skew technology, the ability to add multiple tags to each scan to help save time with the post-scan organization, and later searchability.
As Daisuke Kutsuwada, President and CEO of Fujitsu Computer Products of America, observes:
From your entryway to the home office, the ScanSnap iX1300 is the perfect scanning companion. Fitting into even the tightest of workspaces, it’s powerful enough to scan several documents at once or manage materials like cards and booklets up to 2 mm thick, and it does so quickly. Plus, it comes equipped with Fujitsu’s leading ScanSnap software making it incredibly simple to operate, organize, classify and send scans to your preferred tech device or cloud service, wirelessly. The experience is seamless, delivering the same high-quality scans that fans of the ScanSnap line have come to expect, reinvigorated into an even sleeker design.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 is available in your choice of white or black for just $325.00. That’s a relatively inexpensive way to get all the benefits of Fujitsu’s impressive hardware and software combination. We’ll take a deeper dive when the review unit arrives. In the meantime, you can learn more here.
