Customer Reviews

IRISCard Pro Business Card Scanner

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

 

 

I have a Mac G4 laptop running 10.4.8. From opening the box to having 20 cards well scanned was only about 20 mins. 2 things to be aware of: First, you cannot scan the back of a card (other than making it a separate entry in the database). If you are like me and constantly jot info on the back - you will need to enter that text by hand into the notes field.

Second, it cannot recognize 'reversed' text (white text on a dark back ground). Even very clear, sharp, large text is completely lost. Of my 20 cards, 2 had reversed text, and I had to enter those in by hand.

All in all, the recognition was very very good. Lots of smarts there. The product configured easily and worked as it should. The interface is a bit goofy - but not too bad. I thing this is a good purchase

Iris has loads of experience developing OCR software so I'd hoped for something better.

1) The software throws an error message and crashes if the data files are not on your local machine so don't store them on a server. I lost of lot of data that way until I isolated the source of the error. There is nothing in the readme that lists this restriction.

2) The scanner worked for a day (scanned in 150 card) and then just stopped working. No error message from the application, I'd click the scan button, accept the scan dialog box, the box would close, but no scan.

3) Iris only does M-F 9-5 Eastern time tech support.

4) Of the 150 US business cards that I scanned, the software was not able to recognize the business name in about 50% of them. I had to enter it manually. Did not have that many problems with other fields though.

Scanner came packaged with the wrong software. I did not know this and tried to install the driver multiple times using several tricks. After about 2 hours of fooling with it, I went to their website to get help. Their web help consists of a FAQ guide. None applied to the driver not installing correctly. I emailed their technical support. 24 hours later, no answer. I called the tech support line, left two voice messages. Still no reply. Finally I used the customer service option and got a human. I believe the only human working there. He emailed me a link to the correct software. After 6 hours of downloading, I installed the software and it worked correctly. Today, (1 week later) I received a reply to my original product support request email with the software link attached. Good thing I was not needing this too quickly.

Pro's - Seems to recognize text fairly well. Although scan quality appears to trip it up often. Database supplied seems usuable.

Con's - Poor support. Don't rely on this if you want to use it for trade shows (as I did). You have to click the scan button each time you want to scan a card. No ability to "Train" the software to put text in the fields you want. No custom fields, you are stuck with what they supply. No way to scan both sides of a card and store both images under one card.

After reading all the reviews I was quite hesitant to buy this. However I run on a Mac, and you only have two choices. I bought it from Amazon for their return policy, you can definitely find it for less elsewhere.

After scanning 18 cards, I'd say it works pretty well. It does have limitations, its pretty easy to proof read the scans and fix them. I think 'easy to use' sums it up. I think its just barely 4 stars.

The only really INFURIATING thing about it is that it has a really IRRATIONAL liking for toll free numbers - if there is a toll free number on the business card it chooses that as the primary phone number. As a salesman, you NEVER want that number, you ALWAYS want the direct dial.

It doesn't do well with two tone business cards - it will correctly read the text with light background but may not read the text with the darker background. It has trouble with "(" and ")" in phone numbers, and takes the "x" off of extension numbers. You'll quickly learn its peculiarities.

Even with all this, it saved me an immense amount of time.

FYI, I run on Mac OS 10.4.9, installation was really easy and it worked from the start. I did read and follow the 'getting started' guide on the installation CD

I've got functionality as expected - to scan business cards and arrange it. Recognition usually is not a problem, even in Russian, but sometimes (about 20% of cases) software cannot understand field's purpose. I have to spend 30 seconds for card scanning and about 2 minutes for additional check and final approval.
But, once checked, you're able to use database forever. Definitely I'll continue using it; secretary would be a great addition for the tool :)

The card reader I got doesn't work; cards don't feed. It feeds the calibration sheet, and that's it. It just grinds away doing nothing when I put a card in. The "online support" has an FAQ with one entry in it. Why bother?

Support is lame, 9-5 Eastern. As I live in CA, that's not really acceptable.

I was swimming in business cards and felt constantly disorganized. I knew I needed a business card scanner and I shopped and compared every make, model, and brand before deciding on the IRIS CardPro. The CardPro is so easy to use. I love that it saves the actual image of the cards in my Outlook Contact folder. I am organized and can see the top of my desk again. This product changed my life!

Installation was a breeze. It is very simple to use and scans cards extremely accurately and quickly.

It sounds like a very nice product but I had issues from the start. It will not scan a business card that is mostly black. Scanning pictures is almost impossible. The business card data import function is poor and the user is required to go in and make several changes to the imported cards. It is not worth the price unless you just want images of the business cards. I have returned to importing the business card information by hand because it takes longer to use the scanner and correct all the mistakes. I would not recommend this to anyone unless you have disposable income and lots of time.

Overall I am happy with this scanner. It was easy to setup and get started.
I think it is a little weak on is reverse type. Matter of fact
I have yet to get the OCR to work with reverse type.
I have also exported the files to my Act database with success and the scanning is very fast.
I think it does a good job and I would recomend it to anyone with a pile of business cards on their desk.