Digital Home Thoughts: Canon's Portable Scanner Can Help You to Get Organized in 2011

"The Canon imageFormula P-150 Scan-tini ($295 direct) isn't the smallest scanner I've ever seen, but it's small and light enough to earn its designation as a portable. More important, it may be the smallest scanner possible that offers both portability and the conveniences you'd expect in a desktop scanner.... Canon has managed to shoehorn a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF) into the P-150, along with duplexing (scanning both sides of a page at the same time) capabilities. Its speed would be a reasonable clip for a desktop scanner, at 15 pages per minute (ppm) for black-and-white and grayscale scans and 30 images per minute (ipm) for duplex scans. In color mode, it's rated at a still reasonable 10 ppm and 20 ipm."

If getting organized is one of your New Year's Resolutions, a nice place to begin is by converting paper documents into electronic ones. But while multi-function printers have made scanners commonplace, few of these include the ability to perform duplex scanning, which can be a great productivity aid. Canon's P-150 combines duplex scanning with reasonable speed and true portability, at a sub $300 (US) price tag. Beyond it's petite size of 1.6" x 11" x 3.7" (folded), portability is enhanced by the P-150's ability to operate off a single USB port, and to scan and save (as an image file) without the need of loading software onto the host machine - although most users will want to load the bundled software, which includes Canon CaptureOnTouch, Nuance PaperPort, and New Soft Presto! BizCard. Certainly, the P-150 should not be considered a high-volume production scanner, but for many people in the SOHO market the small format, portability, and relatively low price should put it on the list of units to consider. Whatever your resolutions are for 2011, here's hoping they reach fruition, and that the new year brings you contentment - along with the all the digital toys - ah... that is "tools" - that your heart desires!