Epson DS

Replacing the Editors' Choice award-winning DS-770 reviewed here in May 2018, the Epson DS-770 II Color Duplex Document Scanner ($649) is another medium-to-high-volume sheetfed document scanner designed for modest-size offices and workgroups or perhaps for duty as a busy personal or hybrid scanner. Like the original, the DS-770 II combines relatively fast throughput with industry-standard high accuracy. It lacks networking and support for most handheld mobile devices, though it works well connected to a single computer via USB or as a walk-up device operated from its front control panel. The category of non-networkable midrange scanners may be a bit of a niche, but the DS-770 II has the right mix of comparably low price and high capacity to claim an Editors' Choice award of its own.

The Epson DS-770 II measures 6.9 by 11.6 by 6.6 inches (HWD) with its paper trays closed—like most document scanners in this class, its desktop footprint roughly triples with its trays open for business—and weighs 8.1 pounds. Given an inch or so and a pound or two, it's about the same size as its many capable competitors. To name only a few, there's the Canon imageFormula DR-M260, the Raven Pro Document Scanner, the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600, the Brother ADS-4700W, the HP ScanJet Pro N4000 snw1, and Epson's own wireless-networking-equipped DS-790NWN.

In keeping with its just-the-basics configuration, the DS-770 II's onboard control panel consists of a handful of buttons—Power, Double Feed Detection Skip, Slow Mode, Stop (Cancel), Start (Scan)—and five status LEDs including Error, Automatic Feeding Mode, Ready, Double Feed Detection Skip, and Slow Mode.

The scanner interacts with Epson's Scan 2 or Document Capture Pro software for determining which parameters to apply during scanning (more detail on that in a moment). Of the competitors mentioned above, all but the Canon come with color touch screens that make selecting and executing scans from the front panel easier and more versatile.

The scanner's maximum optical resolution is 600dpi (1,200dpi interpolated). Color depth is 30-bit internal and 24-bit external, and the minimum and maximum document sizes are 2 inches square and 8.5 by 20 feet respectively. Depending on the software you use, supported export formats include image and searchable PDF files, as well as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The Epson's automatic document feeder (ADF) holds a generous 100 pages, and the device's rated daily duty cycle is 7,000 scans. The Canon DR-M260 is rated for 7,500 scans, but its ADF holds only 80 sheets. The Brother ADS-4700W and Fujitsu iX1600 are rated for 6,000 scans and have 80- and 50-sheet ADFs, respectively. The Raven Pro holds 100 sheets and is rated at 6,000 scans daily, while the HP N4000 trails with a 4,000-page rating and a 50-page ADF.

You can connect the DS-770 II to a single computer via a USB 2.0 or 3.0 cable. There's no support for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The downloadable software bundle consists of Epson Scan 2 and Epson Document Capture Pro, plus TWAIN and ISIS drivers for scanning directly into various popular applications.

Epson Scan 2 is the company's standard scanning interface. Its Beginner, Office, and Professional modes let you (and your team) select a range of options based on users' scanning experience. Epson Document Capture Pro is a combination scanning interface and rudimentary document management and archiving program.

If you need network support, Epson sells an optional Network Interface Unit that adds Ethernet connectivity for a relatively steep $350. You'll probably do better by considering a model such as the Epson DS-790WN that comes with wired and wireless networking built in.

Epson rates the DS-770 II's scanning speed at 45 one-sided (simplex) pages per minute (ppm) and 90 two-sided (duplex) images per minute (ipm, where each page side counts as an image). I tested the scanner using Document Capture Pro over a USB (what else?) connection to our Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Pro.

First, I clocked the DS-770 II as it and Document Capture Pro scanned, converted, and saved our single- and double-sided 25-page text documents as image PDF files. The Epson clocked 46.2ppm and 92.7ipm, which is average for this class. The HP, Brother, and Fujitsu scanners are all rated at 40ppm and 80ipm, while the Canon and Raven Pro are good for 60ppm and 120ipm.

Next, I scanned our two-sided 25-page document and converted it to the more versatile searchable PDF format. The DS-770 II finished the job in 32 seconds, which is quicker than most of its rivals discussed here (but slower than the high-end Brother ADS-4900W at 25 seconds).

As for optical character recognition, the DS-770 II is every bit as accurate as most of today's excellent desktop scanners, reading our Arial (sans-serif) and Times New Roman (serif) test documents with no errors at sizes down to 6 points. We occasionally see a scanner manage 5 points with one font or the other, but the difference is negligible—you'll rarely if ever run into type smaller than 10 points with real-world business documents. I should mention that the DS-770 II performed better than average in tests involving decorative and headline fonts.

Chances are, given this scanner's big ADF, relatively fast speeds, and limited connectivity, it would take one person a lot of time to reach its 7,000-page daily maximum—you'd have to load the feeder 70 times a day, or about 10 times an hour. Needless to say, most home-based and small offices don't have the resources to devote a team member solely to scanning, which may explain Epson's confidence in offering a three-year warranty; most users are unlikely to push this machine anywhere near its limits. In any case, the Epson DS-770 II, like its predecessor and many other Epson scanners, is a terrific machine well deserving of an Editors' Choice nod as a middle-to-high-volume, non-networkable document scanner.

It lacks networking and mobile support, but Epson's DS-770 II is a fast, highly accurate desktop document scanner for busy home or small offices or workgroups.

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