Canon DR2010M Mac-Compatible Canon Document Scanner receives 4 out of 5 mice

Notoriously hard to please, the team at Macworld Magazine in the US have recently awarded the Canon DR2010M, Canon’s new Mac-compatible Duplex document scanner, four of their coveted Macworld mice. In the scanning jury test, the DR2010M high speed document scanner scored very well on OCR Accuracy, and well on both colour and detail document scan categories and James Galbreith, Macworld’s Senior Editor described the DR2010M as ‘one of the fastest scanners [they’ve] tested.’. Here, we’ll provide you with a summary of Macworld’s findings and more information on the document scanner’s availability here in the UK.

Macworld's Review of Canon's Mac-Compatible Document Scanners

The first thing Macworld commented on is how compact the DR2010M is. For offices attempting to go paperless, but without the space for a larger flatbed model or the scanning functionality of an MFD, the Canon scanner is ideal, with a footprint about the size of a piece of A4 paper.

Besides size, the team were immediately impressed by the machine’s speed and ease-of-use;

It has a fifty page automatic feeder, easy-to-use software and is one of the fastest document scanners we’ve tested

Testing the document scanner’s speed, Macworld ran several tests: a single page, 300 dpi colour scan to a folder using the supplied scanner driver; a 10-page document with a mix of single and double-sided documents, and colour 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.  

Ease of Use

As far as ease of use was concerned, the simple USB 2.0 connection means there’s really nobody who’ll be able to groan. 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. Macworld found the software ‘easy-to-use and understand, stepping you through the capture, processing, and final destination of your scans.’

To test scan quality, Macworld printed the single-page 300 dpi scan test document on their office colour 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. Colours were also well reproduced, and the curved lines in the image were unbroken. In their OCR test with Acrobat, the DR-2010 performed very well, requiring very little in the way of editing or cleanup.

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.

The DR2010M is one of two new Mac-compatible scanners and has been available at UK Canon Scanner Dealerships since January this year.