Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

Ok, so my review is going to sound negative, but I do like this scanner. I just wish I knew what I was getting into before I purchased it and how to resolve Windows 7 driver issues.

I owned only HP scanners before purchasing this Epson. I liked the fact that Epson had an Automatic Document Feeder and a Flatbed. I upgraded from not having a ADF. By doing this, I sacrificed some computer processing speed, but gained manual labor speed, which was definitely worth it. My HP was very fast with pictures, but the Epson is considerably slower, which was not an issue for me, but may be for someone using in rushed situations. I had worried about purchasing a non-photo scanner, but the Epson preformed well with photos. I wish this Epson scanner came with the extra software their photo scanners had though.

I like the size of the unit and way it fits on my desk. The ADF works well, but much slower than expected and as a YouTube video showed. This scanner greatly decreased the amount of time and effort it would have taken me to scan the items I scan in comparison to my old scanner, which ironically was more powerful and processed quicker.

I was also worried that two-side documents would be a pain, but as long as you don't mind flipping it manually, Epson thought about this and it works well, unless ALL you documents are two-sided, then you might want to get a more pricey scanner.

Affordability is the main BENEFIT of this scanner compared to similar scanners.

The MAIN PROBLEM I experienced with this scanner was the Windows 7 driver not working properly. It allows the first few scans without much of an issue, but then you must restart computer or deal with extreme slowness depending on the scan type. It works great in Win XP and Win XP mode for Win 7 (not to be confused with compatibility mode, which did nothing). I should note that not all Windows 7 computers can handle Win XP mode for Win 7, but mine can.

Even in Windows XP, the scanner can be slow if you are not using black and white mode with speed priority selected. If you do select speed priority, you can hardly tell the difference, but the PDF OCR fine reader software performs much better when speed is off.

ANOTHER PROBLEM I experience is in regard to PDF's. I have the scanner setup to automatically PDF all items in each scan to one PDF. If something happens to the scanner or I want to edit the position of the PDF or add/delete pages, it can't be done without the pay version of Adobe Acrobat., which I have and therefore was not a major inconvenience, but it may be for others.

As for other issues, I had some issues at first, but most of them went away. This included a streak that appeared randomly and went away randomly after a few scans closer to the time it was new. I have scanned well over 4,000 pages in the few months I have owned this and the only reoccurring thing (other than the Win 7 driver issue) I can complain about is if you try to scan many pages in gray scale, the scanner locks up. It doesn't matter what OS you use or how long you let it sit, the scanner makes a "power draining" sound like it go the command to scan, but is broken. This might be a problem with my specific scanner though, may need to get the warranty honored.

If you are not sure what you scanned, you have no way to check without stopping your scan. This could be a simple fix if Epson would allow a "continue scan" button after going into "edit" scans mode, but it only says "cancel" or "accept/ok." Also, some of the options in the menus are not self explanatory, may take some people some getting used to.

Not sure if Epson could change the design or not, but the flatbed flips up in such a way that scanning a thick book is difficult.

Overall though, this is a good scanner, I would recommend this scanner to anyone who needs to scan lots of black and white documents and only occasional color or grayscale items. I would not recommend this to anyone with Windows 7 who cannot access Windows XP mode (like a computer within a computer mode). I felt the price was good, not great, for what I got from this scanner and I paid less than $200. If you are considering a scanner, consider this one...In my opinion, if you can get this for $175 or less, it is worth every penny. If you pay more than $250, I would really think about it.

This review was written 07/11/2011.

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

I am using the GT-1500 to convert our business files to pdf's for storage rather than box all the papers. I like the fact that I can scan the documents quickly in black and white and then add pages with signatures in color and still have only one continuous document. This is my first Epson but the best scanner I have ever used at work.

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

Love the software interface too! I bought this to batch scan papers for my clients and duplicate books. Works wonderfully and it has a "text enhancement" option which really works beautifully too. I haven't used it to scan photos yet, but read other reviews online which rated it highly. I have another Epson scanner (V700) which is also terrific.

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

The title of the review says it all - the quality of scanning is good, the software supplied is mediocre, but the ADF is terrible. I lose pages, even in a 5 page stack - even worse with 'fresh' office printouts of say 20-28 lbs that have only been printed and not read. Fanning your documents is essential. The pages are always skewed or just don't even feed. Flatbed scanning, especially with photographs is great - no ghosting, accurate color and even illumination. My main use is as a heavy duty document feeding scanner, and this just is not good enough. So after a year of frustration, I just took delivery today of an Epson GT-S50 as I thought the vertical and straight paper path would help with jams and double paper picking. BUT that is for another review - YIKES!

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

Have only owned for a couple weeks and my office already looks cleaner!
Use the scanner for small business document storage.
Can't beat the performance for the price.
Efficiently scan multiple, (2) sided documents to files.
Scans directly to the file you choose.
Very Easy to use.

Comments about Epson WorkForce GT-1500 Document Scanner:

I do a lot of music restoration. I scan the music, repair and clean it up (using Photoshop), re-size the images so they are consistent, and combine into a PDF for archive purposes. I used an "All-in-1" scanner for about 3 years. While it gave good scans, "All-in-1" generally means it doesn't do it all well. As office space was at a premium, I looked for a dedicated sheet-fed scanner. As Epson had a good reputation among photographers, I went over budget and purchased the GT-1500. First, the scanner - Best scans I've seen in a long time. No fringing, consistent illumination, excellent sharpness, and quick, both with the flatbed and the document feeder. It takes up less space, yet doesn't feel cheaply made. Now, to the software - I was intrigued by the 3 levels of options available, until I used them. Why do you need 3 levels, when a "Basic" and "Advanced" would work just as well and be less confusing to the first-timer? Why was there no option for duplex scanning? I know it is hidden in the final steps of converting to PDF, but I don't want to collate them till I have finished cleaning them up, then I use Acrobat to assemble them. With this software, I scan the odd pages, re-name with an 'A' suffix, then scan the even pages, re-number them in reverse order and add a 'B' suffix so they will be in the proper order. The All-in-1 machines have this built in. Shouldn't a dedicated "Office / Professional" scanner have this? There is a bug in the software that does not size the scans properly. For a project I bought the scanner for, each page was exactly the same size and the musical staff was 10.8" long for each page. While cleaning up the images, I noticed that on some pages the staff was only 9.5" inches long and 1 page had staves 8.2" long. I checked the originals and all were 10.8". In 140 pages scanned, 10 were smaller that the rest. The software was set for a 100% target image size. If accuracy of a scan is critical (especially regarding size), then this could be a serious issue. I have an automated process to resize the images to the same size, so it is not that big a deal. FOR ME. All in all, I like the quality of the scans, but for the money spent, I would expect Office and Professional grade software.