Travel Scanner

A travel scanner gives you portability with its small size, often weighing under a pound, and its independence from AC outlets. Modern travel scanners generally can be powered by a USB port.

Certainly they allow you to digitize photos and documents from receipts and buisness cards to full letter size pages, but many of them also allow you one step convenience in organizing and syncing those documents with programs where you'll be using them to generate reports, send to customers, and so forth.

These portable scanners are even good for use in an office setting where space is at a premium.

They're also time savers. You won't have to wait to fill out expense reports or search for documentation when you file your taxes. You just file your scanned material as you go and you can generate that report when needed. By scanning documents, you'll have to dedicate far less time to data entry as well.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing a travel scanner:

Size
Some portable scanners aren't as small as others. Some can weigh a few pounds but many are under a pound. Check the dimensions if you'll need to be placing the scanner in a bag or briefcase or have a designated space in which to place it.

Color and Resolution
For good color reproduction you'll want a minimum of 36-bit color. Higher resolution helps produce images that are clearer and more detailed. For instance 600 x 600 dpi is better than 300 x 300 dpi. If you'll be using the travel scanner for photos you'll need higher resolution for good results, 1800 x 1200 dpi for instance.

Compatibility
You'll need compatible ports on your computer and the scanner will need to work with your operating system. USB 2.0 connections are common.

Speed
Just like copiers and printers, speed is something you may want to consider. Travel scanners in general aren't lightning fast but 3 pages per minute is probably a reasonable minimum. Single use buttons can speed up tasks. For instance, a single button to e-mail documents and another to make copies make performing various functions quick and easy.

Document Feed
Some travel scanners are sheet feed devices, they aren't flat bed scanners due to the need to keep them small. However, this means that scanning 3D objects and books generally won't be possible. However, check to be sure it will scan the documents you need. Most will scan receipts and letter sized documents. However, you'll need to check if you want to scan legal size documents, photographs, and so forth. Some are designed specifically for photo scanning.

Some of these portable scanners have duplexers and can scan both sides of a document in a single pass, this obviously saves a great deal of time. Some have ADF (automatic document feed) which can speed things up a bit as well

Software
For many people, the quality and speed of the scan is important but not as critical as what the scanner can do with those documents onced scanned. Some travel scanners can save documents as a PDF or in JPEG format. Some can organize your documents. You may be able to save them to files/folders, export them to programs such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Quicken, TurboTax, and others, or send to your smartphone. You may have one button access to e-mailing documents, uploading to a website, or converting the document so that it is searchable or editable. Some software allows you to make image corrections, or it may automatically auto rotate or auto size images.

Power Supply
Be sure you know whether the travel scanner you choose will be battery powered or AC powered. Without the option of using batteries you'll just need to remember you can only use the device when you're near an AC power source.