I was looking for a business card scanner to help digitize my collection of cards. Based on my background (see below) I knew that there wouldn't be a perfect scanner out there and would have to find the best one available. I have tried a couple out now and this one is the best so far. It was easy to setup, works as it should, and has minimal errors.
Setup:
The setup is pretty easy and straight forward. Install the provided software (and activate it), plug in the scanner, calibrate it, and start scanning your cards. No OCR technology is perfect so it's important to check the data after the scan to make sure it's accurate. I know that's not ideal, but there is not (and may never be) an OCR software that is 100% accurate.
Reason for 5 stars:
It's very rare that I give 5 stars to a product that doesn't work 100% of the time but here is why. I am very familiar with OCR technologies and the software that is available in the marketplace and not a single one will be perfect. It's not the software's fault, it's the images you're scanning. It would have to be the most crystal clear image with no pictures or fancy fonts to get a perfect read. After testing out several different business card readers, this one is by far the best and most reliable. It is the best of the best (even though it's not perfect) which gets it 5 stars (I'm open to comments with your thoughts on giving 5 stars to a product that isn't perfect but is the best of its kind).
My Background:
I am a data consultant and work with large volumes of vendor invoices (up to hundreds of thousands for some projects) and run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to turn the images into text-searchable documents. I have spent countless days researching the best OCR software available to use at my company, and the best one still isn't all that great. It's not always the software's fault, more often than not, it's poor quality images that are difficult to interpret (O's and zeros often mixed up, etc.). It's crazy to think that in 2016 there still isn't a way to reliably convert images into text-searchable documents, but hey, we do the best we can. Because of this, I knew going into this purchase that unless the business card was white, contained no images, and used a very basic font that it would likely have some errors.
Overall I am very happy with this scanner. So far it is the best one I have tried and does a pretty good job. While I may have to make some corrections every now and then, it still saves me a significant amount of time versus inputting the business card manually. If you are looking to purchase a business card scanner then I would highly recommend this one. There are limitations with all OCR programs, but this one performs the best and will have the fewest errors.
Writing in-depth reviews to help other shoppers has become a hobby of mine. If you found this review helpful please mark as helpful below. Also, feel free to ask any questions and I will answer them for you!
I used this to scan and enter no less than 555 business cards for my bosses contacts. He uses a Mac and I us a PC, and we had no problem transferring these between computers. This helped me get the job done as quick and painless as possible. It's not perfect, but it reads cards better and is more user friendly than any of the other card scanners that I have used before. In comparison we ordered the top rated Dymo card scanner first, and it wasn't compatible with my bosses Mac, and after contacting Dymo's customer service (which was really hard to reach) he was told the software implants a "hidden file" that makes redownloading the software impossible. They actually told us we had to return it and wouldn't be able to use one again in the future on his machine. Yikes.
Just a tip, it helps to recalibrate if the scanner starts poorly reading the cards, which is really easy to do. I probably did it 3 times while running the 555 card batch. The card cover was also realty helpful for cards in poor condition.
I was in the market for yet another business card holder when I became aware of the mini card scanners. I decided that this was the better answer to organizing and quickly retrieving information from the 400+ business cards that I have collected to date. I spent a lot of time evaluating reviews of the various scanners on the market and this one seemed to meet all of my criteria. I received it recently and I am amazed. It does everything I need. It is easy to use and quick to install. I started using it almost immediately upon opening the box and now I have set aside time every day for scanning cards. The cards scan very quickly and you have the option of capturing both sides of a card as needed. The OCR function works very well but depending on the design, layout and fonts on any specific card you may have to spend an additional minute editing. In my case most formal business cards work the best and get completed very quickly. Most of the editing I end up doing is for cards from artists, and local small businesses who are trying to be more creative to stand out. Even so still easy to use. Also, I am a Mac OS X system user and this works great. Others I looked at were Windows based only. Great product. May have to buy more as gifts for some friends.
Almost every scan produces minor mistakes. On some formats name, address, title etc would be stored in the wrong order... but considering the reviews i read about other scanners, this would be the best so far.
As long as the standard fonts are clear, the OCR would work very well.
Considering its size, it is a pretty amazing little gadget.
Till a perfect device arrives on the market, i would go with this.
Can't say much of the product itself. Just my experience in trying to get it setup. I received a device that had the activation code already activated (can only be linked to one device). Called Customer Service and it rings a couple times and went to an unmarked voicemail box, so left I voicemail. Was doubtful I would get a return call. So I put in an online service inquiry. Later in the day I received a call back advising they would reset the access code and it was done immediately. They then followed up that everything was working ok. Great customer service if you have an issue.
The device itself is sleek and looks nice on your desk. So far the program and scanner work great. OCR works very well, although you still should double check it reads correctly and puts the information where you want. The program is user friendly. Some issues I've had so far are the job title and company are often placed in two separate boxes. So I have to move the title up to the company it belongs to. Second, I am an authorized delegate for my boss and I would like to sync the contacts direct to his Contact list, not mine. Not sure if this is an option with this scanner, my old scanner could do that. This one just exports the files there but that can cause duplicate entries if you Export/Import, rather than Sync.
Feature Product
- Digitize business cards in seconds. Scan, recognize, and save contact information directly turn business cards into accurate digital format in a few seconds.
- Support multiple languages. Recognize business cards in 24 different languages as well.
- Data exchange. Export/ import contacts to/ from Address Book and then to iPhone/ iPod, Microsoft Entourage; and export to vCard, CSV. Text, HTML, image file format or import from vCard, CSV, WorldCard File.
- Manage business cards efficiently. Complete set of management functions provided for editing of information, assigning multiple categories and also adding of individual information and photos.Search by keyword.
- Quickly and efficiently find your contacts with "Text Search" and "Advanced Search" functions. Clicking on the address or website in card information fields will link to the map and contact's website directly.
Description
The tilting open mail box entrance allows you to put in business cards easily, tilting close design protects the scanner from debris or dusts. Scans and recognizes business cards, then saves contact information into Address Book or Microsoft Outlook; turns business cards into accurate digital format in a few seconds. Complete sets of management functions provided for editing of information, assigning multiple categories. The intelligent mailbox concept with indication light, guide you to scan business card in the easiest way that you have never experienced. Powerful recognition kernel can turn business card into accurate digital format in seconds for efficient contact management.
This unit works great for reading business cards. As with most business cards readers, it is not perfect. But, it is one of the better ones I found with regards to accurately putting the correct information in the correct fields. I have tried 5 - 10 different scanners, including smart phone apps, and the software is the most accurate. However, if errors are noticed, the software allows you to highlight areas on the scanned card and put that information in the correct field. The units reads cards very quickly. I can easily scan one card after another. It will take a little longer to verify the information is correct and make any changes. The only con I can mention is it has trouble reading company names when they are in a logo format rather than a text format. Overall, I am very happy with this business card reader.
This is a game changer! After trying many different apps and methods on how to get business cards from tradeshows into our crm I finally splurged and purchased this. BEST DECISION EVER!!
My team typically will travel to around 8 events a quarter, and we will see 1,000's of business cards pass through our office every month. Getting all this data into the CRM, accurately and quickly is quite a task. Team members have tried phone apps, old school typing into excel, etc. This was by far the best.
The accuracy is great, traditionally styled business cards go in with 100% accuracy nearly everytime. New modern designs (With large off center logos, random fonts, and color) still get picked up with 85%+ . accuracy. It's truly a huge time saver. The only cards it doesn't work on are the ones with large areas of smooth raised ink on them.
As far as registration, is does limit the license to one, but per operation system. We currently use it on a Macbook that travels to the shows, and we have a "Business Card Station" which is an old windows computer we leave at the office. We didn't have to purchase a new registration to set both of these up.
I highly recommend this product.
It works! I accumulated over 300 business cards and this did the job far better than the CardCam app on my iphone ever could. The scanner scans images in black and white and the more exotic cards with colorful backgrounds or odd shaped logos will end up needed special care after the scanning is completed. All told, from installation to the scanning of the final card, the whole process took about 2 hours. There are a few problems which keep this from getting 5 stars.
1. Cards images are rarely ever scanned properly. As the card feeds into the scanner, the cards tend to swerve to the right or left, creating a cruved image. In most cases, this isn't an issue and the information on the card gets scanned just fine even with this distortion. But, if you want the image to be high quality, this isn't the scanner for you.
2. As with many optical character recognition (OCR) software, there is almost always a degree of guesswork when scanning certain fonts. Fonts in frequently used families (e.g. Courier, Times New Roman, etc.) come out fine, but all others are 50/50 at best.
3. Cards don't fully eject from the device when the scan is complete. Not a big deal breaker, but when doing large batch scans, it can add a level of inconvenience.
Of the 300 scans, a few problems did pop up repeatedly.
1. If the image is curved after the scan, phone numbers and other contact information may be affected. (An "i" could be interpreted as an "l" and vice-versa.
2. When one phone number is separated from another by a "|", you may get an extra digit in the phone number.
3. Phantom company names seems to be a recurring problem. I can't blame the software as it seems to be isolated to cards from individuals with long titles or long department names being mistaken for company names.
4. The software is well designed for identifying these problems and made resolving them very easy. I could sort by multiple fields and find the cards for individuals with missing names, missing companies, etc. and correct them pretty quickly.
Overall, it's the easiest card scanner I've used. I wish the image quality of scans was better and the card feeder better able to capture the card without distortion.
I have over 500 business cards I need scanned in. This device gets the job done. It's accuracy is better than the iPhone App I have been using. Like all OCR readers you will have to review the information scanned in. However, I have found it the most accurate of the devices & apps that I have used.It saves an image of the card and reads/imports the information, while scanning both front and back of the cards (requires you to pass it through two times). The only two challenges is that cards do not always go in evenly (resulting in the image being slanted) and the cards may jam or not go in completely (resulting in a partial image). Despite this, it is a great little tool.
I have scanned about 200 cards using this new scanner. It took the card in very quickly and recognized over 90% of the content correctly. A great time saver. I only need to double check things out a little bit, if the card is printed with fancy fonts or hard to read in the first place.
The contacts can be transferred to Outlook and Gmail contacts. Now it is a lot easier to manage and share contacts with my colleagues.
By the way, the scanner also comes with apps for smartphones. I tried it on my iPhone, works quite well too.
I highly recommend this card scanner!
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