Customer Reviews

CardScan 600c - Sheetfed scanner - USB

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK so the title is only half right I really can't type. That's why this little machine is a godsend.

I'm a computer builder and programmer by trade so I get lots of people who ask me what they should buy in the way of toys. Without question if you "collect" business cards this is a must have.

Installation is a no-brainer and the software is better than what would be expected. I would say that the export features in the software will take care of 99% of PIMS and DBF's that people frequently use.

Sure its a pain in the arse to verify every card you scan but once your collection is added you will only be doing a few a week and that's not so bad.

As with all current OCR that has to work with many fonts and styles you are going to get errors. The included OCR software really does a above average job of getting it right the first time. Better than my typing it in that's for sure.

Another nice feature is that you get a stored copy of your card you scanned. Why is that important? If your eyesight is going like mine, seeing the card at 300% resolution for correction is far easier than reading 6 point type from people who feel they need a life story on a business card.

I could go on and on but this is a top notch product. So why only 4 stars?

Until OCR can get it right 10 out of 10 times I can't say its perfect. This unit is pretty darn close though and well worth the money.

I have a bunch of business cards collected through out the years about 500+. Things where very hectek going through them, even the latest rolodex couldn't handle that much. But the cardscan solution is amazing.I reaserched it for a while and couldn't find a better product. When my wife got it for my birthday I was very exited and opened it out and set it up in few minutes. But I was really surprised when the cardscanning went like a brease over many different patterns and fonts. The ones that had realy difficult patterns hard to see by eye the card scan tried its best and I had to make minor corrections in some of the fields.
The only reason I'm giving it a 4 not a 5 is because it couldn't work with my Lotus Notes Mail Client. It can export to it but it cannot launch it and send a mail directly from cardscan.
I do recommend this to anyone who wants to stop spending more time looking for business card than the actual phone call to be made. I use to find the price high but now I can see it is well worth it.

To the person who says it doesnt scan the graphics - it does.
It can store the image from both sides of the card and the english text from one side.
I find it easy to use and very useful. Mostly i dont bother to verify the cards as there is almost always enough data stored correctly.

Why only 4 stars

I would like easier ways to select which contacts to transfer into other programs (I scan everything since its so easy but i dont need a lot of the data on a daily basis so i dont want to transfer everything) and easier ways to split and merge databases by batch selection. It has these facilities but its too hard !

As someone who lives and travels in Asia many of my cards have the local language details on the back. You can scan the back you cant print it. Give a printed copy to a cab driver is an easy way to get to where i want to go when i cant speak the language.

Finally the copy and paste is fiddly.

But i use it every day and i have all my cards going back 7 years accessible by a simple text search.

The installation went without a problem. Plug it in, install the software, scan the calibration card, and it works. The software, however, is rather flawed (Version 6). Often it does not recognize characters correctly, and for example leaves out the dots in email addresses. The correct allocation of the text is also flawed, as it for example mixes up titles with names etc. For example, after the scan I got quite a number of persons called Mr./Ms. "Professor" instead of e.g. "Smith". On top of that, I frequently scan Asian style business cards (in Latin characters), which get mixed up even more. However, so far still manageable, although it needs a lot of reediting. The big issue I have is with the synchronization with outlook. I ran into multiple troubles during synchronization. The software is unable to overwrite or edit outlook data, but only adds new entries. I wanted to add pictures of the business cards to my existing outlook entries, but this involved importing the scans into a separate outlook file and then copying the images by hand. Importing from outlook to cards can also added most entries instead of modifying them. Backing up your Outlook data before synchronization is a MUST so you can reverse screw-ups by card scan. I also had the software crash on me frequently, loosing unsaved data, which is particularly annoying after scanning and editing 20 business cards. Currently I use the cards can software only for scanning, and then copy the new entries into outlook, check for errors, and then erase the cards can data file. The image quality is acceptable, the speed is good (5s per card) and the device is not too loud. On the positive side, the tech support was very fast. Although they could not resolve the lack of functionality in the software, they were very courteous and always replied within 24 hours. Card Scan offers to store your cards online on their server, but while they have a reasonable privacy policy I still don�ft want anybody else have access to my contacts. In Sum: Good hardware, Prototype Software, usable with caution.

If you regularly collect business cards, this is a must have addition. It seamlessly scans them to your computer and puts all items in the correct fields. It also hot syncs with your palm and keeps a backup at cardscan.net. Prints address labels in a snap too. Love it.

Tired of the piles of business cards on the desk? This may be the solution to a clean desk. The scanner scans each business card and the software places the text into its corresponding fields in the address book. The scanned image goes in the address book entry.

The set up including installing the software, connecting the scanner into the USB port, and scanning the first card takes ten minutes. Like any scanner on the market, the scanned text has typos and it is not always in the correct field. The software compensates by retaining a scanned image in the address book entry for easy reference.

Use the CardScan software and integrate it with other technologies. Click on a contact's address while connected to the Internet and it takes you to Mapquest for a map. Include a personal business card with outgoing Outlook emails. Transfer contact information to compatible PDAs, contact managers, digital mobile phones or paper organizer software.

Also useful especially for travelers is CardScan.Net, a secure server that stores the scanned contact information for accessing on any Web browser using a personal password.

I don't know if you're one of us, but if you have an overwhelming amount of business cards in your possession, then you are one of us. You collect and collect and collect, and there's never any organization to the madness that is the business card. It's the most widely used source of contact in today's business world, and Corex Technologies has found a way to read the card extremely accurate OCR, and then integrate the information into so many different products such as my Outlook address book, my Palm Pilot, and even to some phones!!!! I don't know how I EVER got along without my new CardScan 600C. A+ in my book

I thought the cardscan would be a big time saver. The scan function works just OK. All cards require some editing. The synchronization is just worthless with Outlook and Act. I found that you could not have a middle initial, prefix or suffix. A duplicate deleted in cardscan and ACT cannot be resolved. The only way to use this hardware is to forget synchronization. Just create a new file whenever you have a bunch of cards to scan and export the data. Great idea - inadequate software.

The Cardscan Executive advertises that it will print in all the typical planner formats, Daytimer, Dayrunner, Franklin etc. It doesn't do what it says. The right edge of the page is cut off losing important information like half a phone number or half an email address. Technical Support was no help, they said "it's a defect with the program". None of the advertised formats on the pull down menu worked, or using the edit format feature. Users cannot change the width of the fields. Other than that it's a pretty cool product.

I have been using this CardScan for a while now and it has proved to do an adequate job however I recently changed to the Vista operating system and the scanner stopped working so I went looking for an downloadable update on the company website but was unable find any. I contacted CardScan by email and they replied that I would have to purchase their $80 (plus S&H) upgrade to get my unit to work with Windows Vista. All of the other hardware vendors for other products I use with my computer (Dymo LabelWriter, Neat Receipts, etc) either offered a free downloadable Vista update or an update for a reasonable charge. Because of this I did not purchase the way overpriced CardScan upgrade and can now only give this otherwise good product two stars. I will not be purchasing another CardScan product in the future.