The Best Scanners of 2023

Scanners can transform your physical documents, photos, and artwork into digital files that you can store, edit, share, and print. But not all scanners are created equal—make sure to get the right one for your needs.

What to Look For in a Scanner in 2023

A scanner purchase can seem daunting, given the number of options on the market. But you can cut through the clutter by looking for features matching your needs.

First and foremost, you’ll have to decide on the type of scanner from flatbed, sheet-fed, portable, all-in-one, and more. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

For example, flatbed scanners are more than enough for occasional scans at home, but they aren’t very fast. Similarly, sheet-fed scanners are great for scanning many documents quickly, but some can damage fragile documents. On the other hand, as the name suggests, portable scanners are suitable for on-the-go scanning but don’t usually have the best quality or performance.

Besides the type of scanner, you’ll have to focus on the performance and quality of a scanner—typically impacted by the resolution, color depth, and connectivity options. The higher the scanner’s resolution, the more detail and clarity you will get in your scans. But high-resolution scans also take up space on your hard drive and take time to process. 300 dpi resolution is typically more than enough for home use, but you will need 1200 dpi for professional-grade prints.

Color or bit depth reveals the amount of color information a scanner can gather from a photo. Higher color depth is better, but unless you are a professional that needs the highest quality, you don’t need more than a 24-bit color depth, which many modern scanners have.

Connectivity options can also be important for some people unless you plan to connect your scanner to one fixed computer and scan using that. Modern scanners can connect using USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi—which is best for you will vary widely depending on your setup and available ports.

Best Scanner Overall: Ricoh ScanSnap iX1600

The Ricoh ScanSnap lineup (previously known as Fujitsu ScanSnap) is widely loved for its impressive performance and long life. And the iX1600, the current flagship model in the lineup, is no exception. It’s an excellent scanner for your home or office, particularly if you often have to scan documents, receipts, business cards, and photos. It’s fast and produces clean and clear scans.

In other features, you get a 50-sheet single-pass automatic document feeder (ADF) and the ability to connect the scanner via USB or Wi-Fi. It can also scan both sides of the paper in a single pass.

Moreover, the company’s ScanSnap and ScanSnap Home companion software are easy to use, and the scanner itself features a touchscreen with plenty of options to get your work done.

Another helpful feature of the iX1600 is the built-in support for profiles. You can save up to four profiles, each with its scanned document destination. So one profile can send the scans to the computer, whereas the other can have scans delivered to their email or cloud folder.

The only downside is its price tag. Unless you plan to scan many documents frequently, it’ll be an expensive purchase, and you’ll be better off with our budget pick.

Best Budget Scanner: Canon CanoScan Lide 400

If you don’t want to spend too much on a scanner purchase or need something for occasional scans, the Canon CanoScan Lide 400 is a solid option. It can capture photos and documents at a high resolution of 4800 dpi and is reasonably quick at scanning. Of course, you won’t get the speed of an automatic document feeder, as it’s a flatbed scanner and you have to swap out the documents manually.

The scan quality is good, and the colors look accurate and vibrant. Plus, the bundled software is relatively easy-to-use, and you get five buttons on the scanner for a quick scan.

While the Lide 400 doesn’t take up much desk space, the company bundles a kickstand-like pedestal for upright positioning to reduce its footprint even further when you aren’t using it.

The Canon scanner is barebones in terms of connectivity options. It can only connect to one computer at a time, and it does so via USB. There is no wireless connectivity or Ethernet support, but that shouldn’t be a problem for home users.

In short, the Canon CanoScan Lide 400 is excellent for basic document and photo scanning. If you only need to scan photos or documents occasionally, you can’t go wrong with this purchase.

Best Photo Scanner: Epson FastFoto FF-680W

Have stacks of photos to digitize? Then, Epson’s FastFoto FF-680W is your friend. It can accept batches of up to 35 photos in one go and supports dual-sided scanning in one pass. 300 DPI scans take about a second, and while 600 DPI takes longer, it’s still very fast. Plus, the automatic photo feeder keeps your images safe.

The Epson scanner also supports wireless connectivity, so you can use a USB cable or go completely wireless.

In other highlights, the FastFoto software is excellent and allows you to organize the scans and apply automatic image tweaks like red-eye correction during the scanning process. It can also improve colors, crop, or rotate pictures if needed. You’ll also be happy to know that it keeps both original scans and their enhanced versions, so you can choose whichever you prefer.

Beyond its photo-scanning prowess, the scanner is pretty good for documents. So once you are done digitizing your printed photo collection, it’ll remain useful.

However, the Epson scanner can be an expensive investment for most home users, particularly if you only have a fixed bunch of photos and aren’t planning to scan too much in the future. In that case, our budget recommendation will be more suitable.

Best Scanner for Small Businesses/Offices: Raven Pro Document Scanner

Every business, small or large, has to deal with physical documents, and the Raven Pro Document Scanner can help you digitize them easily and quickly. Built with offices in mind, this Raven offering comes with network support, whether you want to go wired or wireless.

It has a large 8-inch color touchscreen with everything you need for a PC-free scanning experience, with the Raven PC app allowing computers to manage scanning. While there are no official mobile apps, you can use any TWAIN-compliant options.

It’s also easy to deploy and needs the document in-feed tray to be added to start scanning. The feed tray, it supports up to 100 documents in one go. It can scan 60 one-sided or 120 two-sided documents in a minute, which is among the quickest scanners available.

Scanning resolution tops out at 600 DPI, which is pretty good for documents. You can also reduce the DPI to 400, 300, or 200 to save space and increase the scan speed.

Among other features, you can send your scans to various destinations, including cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Local destinations are also available, and you can choose multiple destinations for a single scan.

Regarding limitations, the Raven Pro can’t separate multiple documents by itself, and you’ll have to do so manually. Plus, as the scanner doesn’t buffer between scans, if you send scans to the internet and have a slow connection, you’ll have to wait for each scan to upload before the device can start the next.

Best Printer Scanner Combo: Brother MFC-J4335DW

If your printing and scanning requirements are infrequent, but you prefer to be ready, an all-in-one printer is a good option. The Brother MFC-J4335DW is an all-in-one (AIO) that is perfect for regular home use. It combines the functionality of an ink-jet printer with a flatbed scanner that comes with an automatic document feeder. The device can also function as a fax machine if you need it.

This AIO has a relatively compact size and will fit perfectly on your desk. You can connect the Brother AIO to a single computer or network, depending on your needs. Plus, the built quality is good, and it feels sturdy.

Printing and scanning speeds are reasonable, with output quality acceptable for casual use, whether for a home or a small office. But don’t expect both scans and prints to be perfect or very high-quality.

Another advantage of going with the Brother offering is its low-running cost. According to Brother’s estimates, the bundled cartridges will let you print around 1000 pages using black ink or over 700 using color.

The Brother MFC-J4335DW is also reasonably priced and performs better than most competitors. But the photo scans could be better, and the built-in screen is tiny and not touch-enabled.