Review: Canon Scanfront 220 scanner

The Scanfront 220 is a remarkably compact network scanner, requiring little more desk space than the average fax machine.

Documents are loaded into an auto-feeder at the top and ejected at the front, and the Windows CE computer with a large integrated touchscreen for local operation was remarkably easy to use.

Power comes from a separate AC adapter while, on the side, you’ll find a 10/100Mbits/sec Ethernet port for Lan attachment, plus two USB2 ports to enable documents to be scanned direct to USB flash memory.

An on-screen keyboard is displayed when required, with connectors for a physical keyboard and mouse also available.

Scanning performance depends on the documents and settings involved, with a top speed of 26ppm (pages per minute) when scanning black and white and 16ppm for colour (both at 150dpi). Doubled-sided scanning is also supported, with both sides scanned at the same time, giving a maximum throughput of 52 and 32 images per minute respectively.

Some preparatory work is required before you can start scanning, but very little technical expertise is required. Plug the device into the network and it will get an IP address using DHCP (a static address can be assigned if preferred), after which you can connect to and manage the scanner remotely, from a browser.

One of the first tasks required is to set up user accounts, with options to authenticate locally or through a network server. Alternatively you might want to consider the professional model - the Scanfront 220p (£1,059 ex Vat), which comes with an integrated fingerprint scanner.

Next, you need to specify the SMTP server to use when scanning to email and add some addresses to the shared address book. Similar setup work is also required to specify targets when scanning to an FTP server or an SMB file share, with a browse option to find shared folders rather than having to type in long UNC path names. Users can also configure address books and other settings of their own.

Once configured, the scanner is very easy to use. Simply walk up and put your documents into the 50-sheet feeder, then log on and select the scan option required using the large buttons on the screen. Black and white, grayscale and colour documents can all be handled with built-in correction technology to cope with poor-quality originals. Scans can be saved as either TIFF or JPEG images, or to standard or searchable PDF files.

Press the start button and documents are quickly scanned, after which images can be previewed on the screen before accepting the job and transmitting the results to the final destination. Standard jobs with all the settings pre-configured are another option, while security is addressed by the ability to password protect and encrypt PDF transmissions and log all transactions, complete with a copy of the cover page. Memory can also be wiped after each scan. We found it all remarkably fuss free and very easy to get to grips with.

On the downside it’s not cheap, offers only limited OCR facilities and is far from the fastest scanner available. However, the Scanfront 220 does the job and, for the price, gives more than acceptable results. Added to which, very little user training is required, making it worth considering both by companies looking for a general-purpose network scanner and those with more specialist document management in mind.