Epson - WorkForce DS-860 Document Scanner - Black

Customer Images

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• See
  More

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Robust High Speed Document Scanner for Offices

  • Top 500 Contributor
  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • My Best Buy® Member

  First caveat about this scanner is it’s for Windows only. If you have a Mac, you should install its drivers and software in a virtual machine running Windows, and it will work just fine. But it will not be recognized natively by macOS (or OS X). Second caveat about this scanner is it is not meant for the user who occasionally scans a few docs, receipts, and business cards. This thing is a beast with exceptional scanning speed (65 ppm), high duty cycle (6,000 pages daily), and a long 3-year warranty (Epson’s warranty is 3 years, not 1 year as listed in the Best Buy description). PROs • Fast, double sided scanning • Clever document catch tray that curves up (see photos). This underrated feature ensures long pages don’t fly off the tray after being scanned, while maintaining a small footprint. • Software has plenty of settings to fine tune the scan such as resolution, quality, color and so on. It also has some unique features such as text enhancement, color dropout, and customizable thresholds to skip blank pages. CONs • Only supports Windows • Only USB 2.0 connectivity – should be USB 3.0. An optional LAN interface is available. • No wireless interface Out of the box The scanner is small and lightweight. Included is a CD with drivers and software, though it’s easier and better to grab the latest software from Epson’s website. Installing the driver and basic scanner app is a breeze. Actual Use My first test was a 2-page letter, double sided, black and white. It easily handled this small job. I tried DPI resolutions of 200, 300 and 600, and even the 200 DPI setting yields usable text. In fact, the letter was mailed to me folded in half, and at 200 DPI, the crease of the fold barely shows up. It does show up on the other two resolutions. Compared to another document scanner I have, Epson’s output on text is more accurate to the original font . That other scanner renders the text more “bold” than the original font. As a next test case, I scanned one of those ubiquitous coupon post cards from Bed Bath and Beyond. Here, I was testing color accuracy, and while it is more accurate my other scanner, I would not use it to make faithful reproductions (for example, photographs). It’s certainly good enough for color docs, though. My final test was a stack of 29 sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper. The stack had a mix of black and white, color, single sided, double sided, and 6 blank sides. That means the “raw” input was 29 sheets x 2 sides = 58 pages, of which 6 were blank. Scanning this set should output a 52 page PDF if it detects and skips the blanks, like my other scanner did. I left the settings on auto detect for page size and color/BW, and set it at 300 DPI. Whereas my other scanner took 62 seconds to process the stack, this Epson did it in 25 seconds! That’s a huge productivity gain if you scan frequently. But then I noticed that my Epson output was only 51 pages, not 52 like my other scanner. At first I thought the Epson skipped a page. Finally I figured out that the skip-blank-page feature has variable thresholds. In my case, I had a low threshold so the scanner skipped a page whose body was blank but had logo in the footer (see photo with paper). So even though the page was technically not blank, it was functionally blank and the Epson skipped it – very smart. What’s Not to Like File naming. You cannot create a custom file name of the output on the fly. For example, you might run a job and want to save it as ABC. Then you may want to run another job and save it as XYZ. Unfortunately there is no “Save As…” option once a scan is completed. Instead, you have to specify a file naming rule before scanning. So you can tell it to name the jobs ABC plus a sequence number or date etc. You have to overwrite the rule if you want the next job to start with XYZ. Alternatively, you can rename the file directly on your PC and ignore the file naming rules altogether. Either way, it's an extra step. Image Enhancement Options. There are some unique options to process the scan such as text enhancement (better legibility) and color dropout (e.g., ignore colored highlighter or ink marks). Unfortunately some of these enhancements are mutually exclusive—you can't use color dropout together with text enhancement, for example. The bigger issue is that these image enhancements can penalize performance. When I ran the 29 sheet stack test with text enhancement turned on, the job took 3 minutes and 14 seconds to finish versus 25 seconds without text enhancement. Summary If you’re in a small or medium sized office that’s Windows based and does frequent scanning, this should be on your short list. You will have to spring for the optional network adapter, however, if you can't use it on a dedicated PC.

  • 
  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by ricks

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Small Business Hi-Speed Document Scanner Workhorse

  • Top 500 Contributor
  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • My Best Buy® Elite Plus Member

  Epson WorkForce DS-860 Color Document Scanner—Black I’m positively thrilled w/this scanner! For starters, it offers very easy setup & software installation. In my attempt to gradually convert our small business home office to paperless, I’ve been slowly scanning documents on an HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-1 Multi-Function Flatbed Printer for several mos. The HP has a document feeder, but it’s extremely slow vs. the Epson, which auto-feeds docs w/lightning speed. The Epson feeder holds up to 80 sheets, though I tested it w/just 25 sheets per job w/o a hitch. I used the Document Capture Pro software to make fine-tuning adjustments, as it offers more flexibility/customization for each scanning job vs. just pressing the start button on the scanner & using default settings. I also find that it processes faster this way. I absolutely love the double-sided scan feature which auto-scans both sides of the document in 1 pass. (It’s also a ‘smart’ scanner in that it automatically skips blank pages.) I wish I’d had this feature a yr. ago, as it would’ve saved me many hrs. I’m now dramatically more productive w/this duplex scan feature. Scan quality/color output are very good. There are several DPI resolution/compression options. It can scan std. plain paper docs & irregular-shaped docs, incl. bills, checks, contracts, diplomas, envelopes, ID cards, licenses, receipts, tax forms, & even plastic cards, etc. Includes CD containing all software, drivers, & instructions, or you can download same from Epson’s website. PROS Setup: very easy; includes power cord, USB cord, & CD w/software/drivers Startup: no warmup time needed w/LED light source Speed: extremely fast auto document feeder, scans up to 65ppm in b&w, w/slightly slower speed for color Size: compact/small footprint (12”W x 8½“D x 8”H)--occupies minimal desk space Volume: heavy-duty workhorse w/6,000 page/day capacity Features: double-sided scanning w/multiple file formats, DPI resolutions (200, 300, 600x600, & 1200x1200 interpolated) & image enhancement/output options, incl.: auto detect size/type, color dropout, skew correction, skip blank pages, text enhancement, & OCR to create searchable, editable docs Quality: creates clear, accurate text, images, & PDFs Compatibility: Supports TWAIN & ISIS scanner drivers Uploading: scan to the Cloud, Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, SharePoint, SugarSync, etc. Networkable: but requires purchase of optional adapter Warranty: 3 yrs. CONS Price: a bit pricey for a small office (~$700), but if the machine proves durable, then it’s a good value Software: dated Windows software seems a bit low-tech, non-intuitive, & requires extra steps, but includes the basic features I need & gets the job done Connectivity: I would’ve liked a wireless option & USB 3.0 for faster data transfer speeds vs. the slower 2.0.

  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by CriticalEye

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Fast scanning, but not if you have a Mac

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 250 Contributor
  • My Best Buy® Elite Member

  My wife and I have a small business buying, renovating and renting single-family homes. With that comes writing leases, service contracts, loan docs, as well as keeping track of receipts for tax purposes. We used the Neat Scanner until they switched to an annual subscription service. Then we tried using an Epson All-in-One machine that printed well, but scans were tedious and slow. Now we have this scanner and I must say that it is a beast. I primarily use a MacBook for the business documents and tried relentlessly to get it to work with my laptop. After many google hits, YouTube videos and contacting Epson, I was still unable to get it to work. Epson responded with some troubleshooting tips that didn’t work. I finally took a look at the system requirements on their website and it says Windows, although they have an entire section dedicated to Apple connectivity and there are software downloads available for the operating system. I’m hoping there is some third-party software available to use with my MacBook. The footprint is small, setup is quick and simple and scanning with the DS-860 is fast and clear. The first time I scanned something, I clicked to preview it and it was really poor quality, which concerned me until I actually scanned the document. The quality was clear and it scanned super-fast. I did play with the settings to find the best resolution, while keeping the files small. It has OCR software that allows you to search for words instead of trying to read through the entire document searching for what you are looking for. I did notice when scanning business cards, that it didn’t always get everything written on the bottom. I turned the card upside down and it did better, but still disappointing. Not a deal breaker for me as I normally key the information into my contacts. Most importantly, I can now scan all of the bills from each creditor into a file and shred the mountains of paper that my wife refuses to get rid of for fear of the internet crashing and not being able to get a cellphone bill from 1992. Now for the negatives. For this price point, I would think it would have wireless networking included and better management software. What I loved about the Neat that I paid $200 for, is the software. It would scan receipts, recognize where it was from and categorize them. I could then edit them and put them into separate folders. Hopefully I can find some third-party software that will give me the same benefits as the Neat system. I would also like to be able to use this with my MacBook. I am now tied to my Windows PC, which is a bummer. All things considered, if you are a Windows user, with lots of receipts or documents to scan, this is a no-brainer. Its speed and ease of use make it a mandatory piece of office equipment. I gave it four stars for lack of Mac support.

  • 
  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by TechFan