The problem of cleaning out those accumulated treasure troves of letters, documents and photographs is becoming a bigger problem for professionals and businesses alike.
Many people are turning to scanners and digital files as a way to deal with this collected ephemera. But professional scanning services remain costly, and the act of organizing papers and photos in order to have them cared to can seem more effort than it’s worth.
Epson’s FastFoto FF-640 colour scanner is the solution to many of these problems.
The scanner comes with an array of features fit to help anyone preserve large quantities of photographs and documents. A single-step feature allows the user to scan both sides of any image or document, removing any lengthy process of flipping through their collection one page at a time.
The process is fast too: the FF-640 scans a document per second at 300 dpi, and a batch of up to 30 documents can be scanned at once. The FastFoto scanner is also versatile when it comes to size, and is capable of tackling small, wallet-size photos and prints at a higher resolution of 600 dpi that later can be printed larger than the original.
Businesses will be glad to hear that scanning stacks of small business cards, legal size pages and even single sheets of onion skin paper is a breeze with the FastFoto scanner. And Digital Journal is happy to report that we never experienced any kind of jam while testing the FF-640. The scanner treated all documents we tested gently.
The accompanying software, downloaded via Epson’s site, also has some handy uses. It comes with auto-crop, background removal, red‑eye reduction and colour enhancement, allowing for a range of photo editing solutions — including the restoration of faded photographs to their original look with just one click.
Unfortunately, the FF-640 is a USB-only scanner. While USB 2.0 functionality will serve most users just fine, a wireless feature would make the Epson FF-640 the perfect scanner.
If there’s any major drawback to this piece of equipment, it’s the price: $649.99 USD and $899.99 CAD. For that reason, Digital Journal recommends the Epson FF-640 scanner to either professional photographers or business organizations — though it remains a costly option for individuals and families.
