PLANon DocuPen

By Aleksi | Permalink |

1 comment | September 13th, 2007 | Trackback

Docupen

I hate scanners, I’ll be honest. Probably because most of the dealings I’ve had with them consist of utter failure, and poor quality. I do like spy movies however, so little gadgets that make me feel like James Bond or Jason Bourne have a special place in my geeky heart.

Okay, so the DocuPen may not help you save the world, but it may help you save a list of instructions, and with surprising clarity. Given my previously described background, I was extremely skeptical when I tested this hand-held scanner. The Pen, resembled just that, a pen. Obviously, it’s longer than most, as it has to span the width of an 8×10 inch sheet of paper, but it’s not much thicker than one.

How to use it: You operate the DocuPen by hand, meaning that once you turn it on, you are responsible for the image by rolling the pen down the image you are scanning. If you scan too fast, a red X lights up and flashes at you, telling you to slow down. I was never able to completely master the timing of the scan, but with some more practice it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Turning the device on is actually the start/stop button-this would be the one gripe I had with the scanner. Without reading the instructions first, (I always try to figure it out myself, initially) it’s almost impossible to figure out how to operate the pen. Once you turn it on, you can select different scan qualities, as well as black and white, and color. I performed the scan on the different settings to test the quality of the scans, and was most surprised by the highest setting on color. Unfortunately, the device’s default memory limits to only one scan on the best setting, but it can be expanded by adding additional memory, which we did not try. Scanning on the lowest setting is a waste of time, honestly, as I could not get anything that was of any quality at all. To get the images off, the pen has a USB connection that you can plug into your computer, and using some pretty simple software, extract the images.

Here are the test scans, reduced down to 25 percent.
Full Color Image
Full color text

Why you need one: The Pen is cool! You get some pretty decent quality scanned images with the portability of having a hand-held scanner. Great for maybe scanning a contract or some sort of list.

Why you could pass: It could be a waste of money if you really had nothing to scan. If you don’t have good hand-eye coordination or don’t want to spend some time learning how to use it, you won’t be able to get a reliable image.

Rating: 9 out of 10

The Bottom Line: Could save your life, but you will have to spend some time learning it.

The DocuPen is available from the PLANon website.