Customer Reviews

Epson GT 2500 Plus Document Imaging Color Scanner (B11B181061)

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

 

 

Exceeded my expectations. I operate a rather complex home office environment with both Vista and XP computers, wired and wireless. The scanner integrated in fairly smoothly and works accross this heterogenious mix of compute resources equally well. Document feeding is snappy but things get slowed a bit due to network transit times (100MBPS Eithernet). A great way to share a high preformance (in the context of home office) Scanner. I've used many HP machines for years, this is a far better solution and a solid design from Epson.

I was forced to abandon my old HP Scanjet IICX after 28 years of faithful service. There were no drivers for the scanner in Windows Vista or Seven. In addition, the SCSI interface card was not supported by either of the two operating systems.
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Forced to buy a replacement, my wife and I researched the internet for the ideal scanner. It must have the following features:
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. . 1. It must be business grade. . . . I do not want to buy another scanner every two to three years.
. . 2. Scanning rate must be fast. . . . I hate waiting.
. . 3. Price range must be between $500-$700. . . . I do not want to mortgage my house.
. . 4. The manufacturer must be established and respectable. . . . I want updated drivers in the future.
. . 5. User evaluations must be excellent. . . . I do not want to waste my money on trash.
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The GT-2500 met all of the above criteria. However, this did not mean that it was perfect. There were four problems.
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1. It will only scan legal size using the automatic feeder. The scanning bed only accommodates regular size paper, 8.5 by 11.
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2. Because the automatic feeder is hinged on the side instead of the top, scanning a book is very awkward if not impossible.
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3. There are no drivers to make the scanner into a xerox or fax machine.
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4. You can not specify where to save the scanned file. In other words, there is no SAVE TO.

Even though this scanner is touted as networkable, it does not work in any kind of business environment.

First, it was EXTREMELY hard to set up. I had to call in my IT guy, because the instructions do not help at all, if things don't go exactly as they should. Secondly, there are two CDs that would I have had to install on EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER in my office, even though it says I only need to install EpsonScan.

Most importantly, though, EpsonScan does not work unless it has been closed on every other computer that's networked to our internet. Imagine needing to scan something and not being allowed to until you find the one person who left the program open on their computer. That simply will not work.

So, even though it says it's networkable, and technically, it is, it's not for use for more than maybe one or two computers.

I had to return it. Cross your fingers that Amazon gives me my money back.

I have owned the GT-2500 Plus for over a year, and I am very satisfied with it.

Scan quality is as good or better than the last two HP flatbed scanners that I owned. I like the Ethernet connection. It seems much faster than a USB port, although the scanning rate depends more on the scanning mode (Color vs. Black and White) The scanner weighs a lot, so it is not real portable. It is solid!

The scanner came with Adobe Acrobat 7.0, which is essential for scanning documents to pdf files. I scanned a document to pdf using both Adobe and the EpsonScan software, and the Adobe resulted in a more compact file. There is also a third party software package called Scan Direct that is needed to send scanned documents to other devices, such as printers or Microsoft Word. Once you are used to it, it works well.

For scanning pages from books the side hinge location is awkward. For a thick book, I scanned every other page upside down, then flipped the pages over in Acrobat. The feeder can be removed, if you are real careful. The cable stays connected , and it takes a lot of space to store it while you are using the flat bed, so I rarely remove it.

When using the sheet feeder, the scan size defaults to 8.5 by 14. I have learned to scan to a pdf file, then crop the pages using Adobe Acrobat. This is easier than trying to change the print settings. Also, the software is not the most intuitive. You cannot name saved scan settings, you can only save them with a number. If you have a lot of settings, this can be inconvenient. You need to run a preview scan to set the scan parameters. You can't just type them in before scanning. The file-save location is not obvious. It can be changed after you start scanning, or by clicking on the pull down next to the scan button. These are not show-stoppers, but someone could have done some testing beforehand.

The biggest problem that I have had: If the scanner is not powered ON when you start the software, the software locks up. Powering up the scanner doesn't fix the problem. Neither does restarting the software. You either restart the computer or go into task manager and shutdown the scanning process, then restart the software. After doing this once or twice, you make sure the scanner is on (or you never shut it off)

Scanning speed is very good. Not lightning fast like a $12,000 copier-scanner, But I routinely run scans of old phone bills or bank statements using the sheet feeder. For black and white, average scan time is about 1 second per sheet. For 24 bit color, the speed is about 30 seconds per page. The sheet feeder works tolerably well, depending on what you are scanning. I scanned a bunch of articles from 1932 and it handled the fragile paper without destroying it. One surprisingly nice feature is that when it does misfeed, (and every feeder will, eventually) the software handles the situation without complication. Remove the page, reload it onto the stack, and restart. The software picked up right where the fault occurred. I was amazed.

For personal document scanning in your home office, this is a very good scanner. The Ethernet communications make the price a bit on the high side. It seems worth it, so far.

This scanner is solidly built and scans much faster than my combination printer/scanner/fax. Has wireless capability, which I haven't enabled yet, so I can't speak to how well it works wirelessly.

I read the reviews of this scanner, which I have been mostly happily using for a little over a year. One thing that helps me a lot is that I created an Excel spreadsheet for my filenaming conventions. There are many categories of things I scan, and with my handy-dandy little filename file, I can find EVERYTHING!! I teach part time at a university which generates lots of files and there are personal and business things to scan as well. The personal stuff includes documents from deceased family members and from things I did many years ago. It enables me to save stuff and locate it easliy and I don't need so many file cabinets. Slowly, I'm getting rid of old papers - Hooray!

Regarding other comments, I don't know what some of the other reviewers were complaining about. These comments are specific to those complaints:
I decided where to save the files and it just saves them there. It was a couple of minutes or less to figure that out.
And I name the files anything I want to name them - that also wasn't rocket science. It does add a 3 digit number after your file name. So if it's a particular category, I set it at 001 to start.
I'm in a home office, so I don't network it, and the network comments don't apply to my setup. My computer is next to the scanner.
I also sometimes scan things from thick books - it's just like using a lot of copiers. You just lift the top and put in the book. And I like that it scans right to a pdf file. The other neat thing about their editing software is you can scan one side of the book from the right and the other side from the left and then click the edit button before you save the file, just click the turn arrows for every other page and make the whole file face the same way before clicking save! I LOVE that feature.
My scans take up the whole page. I don't know what white border that reviewer was talking about - I never saw it. Perhaps it needs to have the setting looked at.


Pros:
Speed, speed, and speed. I can't believe how quickly it works! So much faster than previous scanners.

I like that you can scan both sides of a page easily from the document feeder. If you have a mixed group of papers, some double sided and some single sided, you can use the editing feature to delete the blank pages before saving the file - it takes a few seconds for a big file.

You can use both the feeder and the tray in the same file by using the add pages setting.
It asks if you want to add pages before saving the file. Let's say you have many papers the same size and a few smaller pieces of paper that should go into the same pdf file. You scan some of the same size ones, click add, scan the smaller ones using the tray, click add again and then you can scan other sized ones in the feeder, and save all in one file. I love doing that for saving stuff from clients I had a few years back. All their paperwork is in one file, and I can shred the original papers.

The scans are very clear, either using greyscale or color, and the colors are fairly good. I wouldn't use this for fine photo work or fine graphics, but that's not why I bought this scanner in the first place.

If you have a smaller thing to scan, you can use the preview function to set the file size frame right at the edges of the smaller document, so your file is smaller.

It's VERY easy to use. It's easy to change the settings from color to black and white or greyscale. I scan most things in greyscale, and it's fine. It's also easy to change the dpi settings. For most things, I use 300. It's easy to read if it's printed out.

Cons:
Yes, it's heavy. It's supposed to be a desktop scanner, not portable.

I don't like that the cord comes out of the back so you have to leave more room at the back of the scanner just for the cord.

The major con is the document feeder sometimes gets jammed and I don't know how to make it know that the jam has been cleared. The jam clears very easily, and sometimes, it recognizes that it's cleared and continues like the other reviewer said. But most of the time, after it's cleared, it doesn't know it. I have to play with it, turning it on and off, lifting the lid, fiddling with it, and sometimes, just shutting it off, walking away, and trying again later - not good when there are several files to be scanned. This is why I gave it 4 stars. When it works, it's so fantastic. I scanned about 50 pages in what seemed like no time, clicked add, added papers of a different size, and saved the whole file in a very few minutes. It would have taken at least 5 times as long with my old machine. But today, I scanned 8 pages, it showed a jam, and took about 10 minutes to show that it was ready to work again.

It does clear easily. If I could find a way for it to recognize that the jam is over and work again in a short time, I would give it 8 stars out of 5! So because of the jamming, it gets only 4 stars.

I would buy it again!

The scanner worked nicely and set up as a network scanner was incredibly easy. It was not as fast as I hoped it would be and, unfortunately, stopped scanning after about 3 months. I have not had a chance to check it yet; might just be a slipped drive band (that pulls the scanning light) but I think that these things should be built to last a bit longer than 3 months.

When I have the time I will check it out and, if that is not the cause, see how good Epson's customer service is. I'll report back.

Ordered Epson scanner to replace an office one that I broke. This product came as described and worked great out of the box.

We needed a document scanner for our 7-person small business. Given the choice, I would never buy this again, nor any other Epson product.

- By far the biggest problem is the scanning through the Automatic Document Feeder. The resulting PDF pages have a big, white border around the edges (corresponding to about 3-5mm), and the pages are often skewed. I had the purchased unit replaced, same problem with the second unit. Compared to a fax or a photocopy, that's fine. Compared to any other self-respecting scanner, like the Canon this replaces, that's awful. Really awful. It makes business documents look like post-digestive system biological waste material. Worst thing about it is that it's a fundamental design flaw.

- As mentioned in another review here, the scanning software (Epson Scan) only allows one instance of it to be running on the local network. Having mulled that over for a while, it makes sense that only one person can be scanning at a time. But on the other hand, I'd rather be able to have the program running and just lock the scanner to my computer (and have it unlock either manually, or automatically after a period of inactivity).

- Doesn't come with any OCR software. For this price, it damn well should.

- The network card really isn't of any use, which makes the price premium over the GT-2500 vomit-worthy. Should have got the cheaper one and shared it through a standalone computer connected by USB. Damn.

- The network configuration utility (EpsonNet Config) is buggy on a Mac. Had to configure the IP address through Windows, as it refused to run "Could not find the files required to run the application." Support couldn't figure it out either.

- Support is pretty awful. If the unit is defective, they expect you to take the unit to one of the Epson "Care" (sigh) centers. So, not only is the unit defective and expensive, you should eat the cost of the fuel and salary to get it fixed - like it would be so difficult for a large multi-national corporation to arrange for shipping labels. Also, you have the usual jumping through multiple Indian hoops before going around the world back to our doorstep in Long Beach CA.

Stick to HP. Giving Epson a chance was a mistake.