Xerox DocuMate 252

by Xerox

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 13 x 6.4 inches ; 9.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0001Q4I24
• Item model number: XDM2525D-WU
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

There's a lot to like about the DocuMate 252—the faster, better, easier-to-use workgroup scanner solution. Twice as fast as the leading brand workgroup scanner in duplex mode, the DocuMate 252 is the price and performance leader in its category. It also includes a powerful suite of applications that improve image quality, OCR accuracy, and document management. And, its revolutionary one-touch scanning and small compact size makes it easy to use on any desktop or in any department.

Features

• 600 x 1,200 dpi optical resolution
• 48-bit internal color
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface (USB 1.1 compatible)
• Duplex scanning at 50 images per minute
• One-touch feature eliminates up to 12 steps in scanning documents
• Superior image quality and OCR accuracy with Kofax VRS software
• Convert documents into PDF files that can be forwarded to network drives for sharing
• Small footprint fits easily on the desktop (6 by 13 inches)

Work Faster
The DocuMate 252 quickly handles many different tasks at hand, right at the desktop. It has a 50-page automatic document feeder that scans 50 images per minute using dual CCDs, doubling your speed and productivity for two-sided documents.

Work Better
The DocuMate 252's powerful software, robust functionality, and hardware specifications deliver the speed and quality you would expect from a more expensive scanner. A searchable PDF feature lets you send, copy, paste, re-use, and highlight text while maintaining the integrity of the original document image.

The bundled Kofax VRS software provides such capabilities as autoexposure, autocropping and wide angle de-skew. VRS also helps improve the accuracy of recognition software, thereby reducing the need for manual correction of intelligent character recognition and OCR results.

And document size is not an issue for the DocuMate 252. It scans everything from business cards and photos up to legal-size documents, with superior image quality.

Work Easier
The DocuMate 252's one touch technology scans from the desktop to nine different customizable applications or devices and documents can be converted to text-searchable PDF in one easy step. Now you can instantly search documents for keywords or phrases.

The DocuMate 252's one-step installation is a snap with the plug and play Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port. And it's small footprint, just 6 by 13 inches, makes it ideal for the desktop.

One-Touch Scanning Boosts Productivity
The DocuMate 252's one touch technology lets you send documents to one of nine preselected or user-defined destinations eliminating up to 12 steps in the scanning process. Think improved speed, performance, and most important, productivity.

What's in the Box
DocuMate 252, power supply, USB 2.0 cable, quick install card, technical support card, user's manual, CD-ROM (contains Kofax VRS 2.1, scanner drivers (TWAIN and certified ISIS driver), ScanSoft PaperPort Pro 9 Office, ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 12, Pixel Translations QuickScan Pro 3.0, ArcSoft PhotoImpression 4.0)

Product Description

Xerox DocuMate 252 Color Duplex Sheetfed ADF scanner. One touch scanning to nine preselected or user-defined destinations. One touch scanning to nine preselected or user-defined destinations. 600 dpi, 48-bit color (output), Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity (1.1 compatible). Built-in 50 page ADF, TWAIN and Certified ISIS driver, Windows XP Certified, USB cable

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed My Life, May 2, 2005

By 

Joseph Isenbergh (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Xerox DocuMate 252 (Office Product)

This is the first scanner I've owned that does everything fast and well. For the past several years I've been scanning paper files to hard disk, to the end of achieving a paperless life.

I bought 7 scanners between 1999 and 2005, including an Epson, an HP, 4 Visioneers, and the Xerox Documate 252. All were either sheet-fed or had document handlers. All but the Xerox Documate were fair to dismal.

I used several of the previous scanners with a succession of Macs, while using others on a PC. For Macintosh the HP scanner software always proved dysfunctional. It failed outright a signficant part of the time. The HP hardware was similarly afflicted. The document feeder choked on a high proportion of documents run through it (for reasons I could neither fathom nor correct). The Epson worked slightly better, but was slow and clunky. Its document feeder frequently stuck, and gagged on something as minor as a slight crease in the paper.

The Visioneers had these and other problems as well. Also, files created in the Windows environment on older versions of Paperport scanning software that was bundled with these scanners (Version 5.5, for example) almost always became corrupted in some way when I transferred them from a PC to a Mac, and vice versa. Therefore I had to keep my Mac and Windows scanned archives on separate computers.

When I bought a Xerox Documate 252, it proved head and shoulders above any scanner I had previously owned or even seen. [The Xerox Documate does share the Visioneer nameplate, but as far as I can tell it has nothing in common mechanically with earlier Visioneers.] It makes one-sided or two-sided scans, in color, greyscale, or black and white. It is fast and accurate. The document feeder handles everything I throw at it (with very occasional paper jams). Also, the more recent versions of Paperport scanning software (9.0 and above) that are bundled with the Documate produce pdf files as the default scans. Pdfs transfer well between Mac and Windows. [Some file names do not transfer fully from Mac to Windows, but all file names transfer from Windows to Mac in my experience. Therefore it is better to do initial scanning in the Windows environment. That is necessary in any event with the Xerox Documate, which functions only on Windows operating systems. The Documate does work well, to my own knowledge, on an Intel-based Mac running Windows XP in Boot Camp. I don't know, however, whether that also obtains for Windows Vista in a similar configuration.]

I got more useful scanning done in 4 weeks after I bought this device than I had accomplished in the previous 6 years.

UPDATE: I've now used the Xerox Documate for over 3 years. It has lived up to its promise, and then some. I bought a second one for a different office; it has worked equally well. I have also bought a Fujitsu Scansnap S500. The Scansnap is a capable scanner, at half the price, but not in the same league with the Xerox Documate 252.

There is one further development worth noting. The latest version of the Paperport scanning software (version 11.0, which I am now running on a Vista platform) handles paper jams more deftly. When the document feeder jams, the scanner now provides the option to save the pages already scanned to the Paperport Desktop and continue with the unscanned pages after unclogging the jam. This is a vast improvement over earlier versions, where a jam on the next-to-last page required a complete do-over. [I did not notice, unfortunately, exactly when this improvement kicked in, so I can't say specifically what level of upgrade is necessary to obtain it.]

SECOND UPDATE September 26, 2009: I am updating this review to report that after 4 and 1/2 years the older of my two Xerox Documate 252s has faltered mechanically. The problem is that the roller in the document feeder does not reliably grip the pages of the documents that I insert for scanning. As a result the scanner sometimes just whirs for a time, then stops. The document must be reloaded at that point and the scanning restarted. It helps to press the documents down and against the feeder, but that defeats the self-executing element of the scanner. My conjecture is that the roller (which is made of rubber) has become harder and has shrunk a little, so that it no longer grips paper with as much friction as in its younger days -- a kind of mechanical equivalent of bone loss. In any event, my original Documate 252 is now in semi-retirement. I still use it for short documents that I can help along by hand through the feeder, but not for long sustained scanning jobs. I have replaced the Documate with a Fujitsu fi-6130, which I unpacked and set up today. When I've had more extended experience with the fi-6130, I'll review it on Amazon.com. Meanwhile, I did try a few quick scans earlier today and was tremendously impressed with the mechanical performance of the fi-6130 (although the software is distinctly unwelcoming and will take time to absorb).

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Machine, December 3, 2005

By 

William Cronon (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Xerox DocuMate 252 (Office Product)

Having just read the other reviews, one of which complained about paper jams, I want to affirm that this really is a remarkable scanner, faster and more efficient by far than any other I've owned. Like the other reviewer who was satisfied with its performance, I would honestly say that it has changed my life too, making me much readier to contemplate converting vast heaps of paper files into digital format. Sure, jamming occurs occasionally, but how could it not? The reviewer who was critical of this aspect of the device isn't being realistic about the challenge of fast sheet feeding. I would say the autofeed function works 95% of the time, and at an astonishingly quick rate. Highly recommended.

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Looks Great on Paper, But Has a Serious Flaw, April 18, 2005

By 

Bernard Hunt (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Xerox DocuMate 252 (Office Product)

I tried to use this scanner in a archiving records application. When it works, it great. The problem is if the paper jams, then you have to turn off the scanner to clear the jam and you lose you whole scanning job! To make it worse, it's concept of paperjams is a page that is wrinkled or has been folded in the past. This just doesn't work when you are scanning old files to digitize them.

Nice try but the flaw makes it a no for use in the real world of document archiving.

I asked Xerox and they said this same problem exists in the 262 also.