Expert's Rating
Pros
- Duplex scanning
- Easy to use software
Cons
- OCR scans required some formatting help
- Colors were undersaturated
Our Verdict
Canon’s imageFormula DR-2010M is a compact, desktop document scanner. It has a 50-page automatic document feeder, easy-to-use software, and is one of the fastest document scanner we’ve tested.
The DR-2010M connects to your Mac via USB 2.0. It scans both sides of a document simultaneously, at resolutions of up to 600 dpi and 24-bit color.
There are three buttons on the front of the DR-2010M that can be configured through Canon’s Capture OnTouch software to scan to file, to a particular application, to a printer, etc. The software is easy to use and understand, stepping your through the capture, processing, and final destination of your scans.
Jury test: Scan
| Color | Good |
|---|---|
| Detail | Good |
| OCR Accuracy | Very Good |
Scale=Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor
To test the speed of the scanner, we ran a few tests: a single page, 300 dpi color scan to a folder using the supplied scanner driver; a 10-page document with a mix of single and double-sided documents, and color and black and white images and text to a folder using the provided document; and lastly an OCR scan from Acrobat Professional 9. The Canon’s speed was impressive, with the single page test taking just 7 seconds to complete; the 10-page test to file took just 34 seconds; and the Acrobat scan took 10 seconds.
To test scan quality, we printed the single-page 300 dpi scan test document on our office color laser printer. The DR-2010M scans were deemed to be of Good quality overall, without much in the way of noise and artifacts in the light areas of the image. Colors were also well reproduced, if a little undersaturated, and the curved lines in the image were unbroken. In our OCR test with Acrobat, the DR-2010 performed very well, requiring very little in the way of editing or cleanup.
Timed trials: Scan
| 1 page single sided 300 dpi to file | 0:07 |
|---|---|
| 10 pag double- sided 300 dpi to file | 0:34 |
| 1 page single- sided 300 dpi to Acrobat | 0:10 |
Scale=Minutes:Seconds
How we tested. We connected the scanner via USB 2.0 to a 3GHz Mac Pro that had 2GB of RAM and that was running Mac OS X 10.6.2. We recorded the amount of time it took to scan a single-sided document with mixed text and graphical elements at 300 dpi with automatic color settings and 24 bits. Then we scanned that same document to Adobe Acrobat 8. We then scanned a 7-sheet, 10-image job at 300 dpi, with automatic color detection and blank-page skipping turned on.—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Lynn La
Specifications
| Scan resolution: Optical | 600 dpi |
|---|---|
| Max scanning bit depth | 24-bit |
| Connection | USB 2.0 |
| Scan sizes | 8.5 x 39.4 |
| ADF capacity | 50 sheets |
| Special features | Duplex scans |
Macworld’s buying advice
If you’re looking for a scanner to help pare down your paper pile, the imageFORMULA DR-2010M should be on your list. It probed to be both easy to use and fast, with good image quality and impressive OCR capabilities.
[James Galbraith is Macworld’s senior editor. Product photo by Peter Belanger.]