Plustek OS1180 - Flat Scanner for Graphics and Documents in A3 Format, Design Suitable for Libraries, Schools or Small Offices - Scanning A3 Documents in Approximately 9 Seconds

This is, without question, one of the best large-format flatbed scanners I have ever purchased. The scanner offers customizable resolutions up to 1200 dpi, which produces excellent image quality. It also provides multiple scanning options, including saving directly to PDF, scanning to a drive, or sending scans directly to a printer. The functionality is outstanding and extremely user-friendly. Recently, while scanning a lighter-colored photograph, I noticed a horizontal line appearing across light backgrounds. I contacted customer support, and their response was exceptional. Within 24 hours, they sent me a form to complete. After a few days of communication and troubleshooting, they promptly provided a prepaid shipping label so I could return the scanner for repair and replacement of the hardware component causing the issue. Between the product quality, functionality, price, and customer support, this is one of the best large-format flatbed scanners I have owned. I highly recommend it. Both the technical support and product support teams were responsive, professional, and committed to resolving the issue quickly.

I absolutely love this scanner. I have been working to diminish my stuffed file drawers by throwing away what I don't need and scanning what I want to keep. Some of the keepers were newspaper clippings and other larger items that my other scanner couldn't accommodate--other than scanning them in pieces. Thus began my search for a large-format scanner. Is this the best large-format scanner on the market? That depends on your criteria and how much you're willing to spend. Here's why it is the best for me. 1) If you compare the prices of large-format scanners, this is an unbelievable bargain. If you're trying to scan fine art, it may not be what you need. For my purposes of having high-def, clear copies of precious but mundane items, it was a screamin' deal. 2) This has a great user interface and is fairly intuitive and easy to use. It took me a little while (maybe 20-30 minutes) to figure out exactly how everything worked, which I consider not bad at all. It also has excellent instructions. 3) It offers a lot of fine tuning, with options of color/BW, level of definition/dpi, JPG/PDF, etc. 4) I initially couldn't get it to work and was ready to send it back. I called tech support, and I got a human. Not a human after a recorded menu. A real human answered the phone. The kind and knowledgeable tech support rep who answered the phone walked me through troubleshooting, and I discovered a huge, embarrassing, total rookie error. I hadn't fully plugged in the USB cable. The rep was totally kind about it. 5) Most importantly, this scanner creates clear, high-quality scans. Yay! Mission accomplished. (If you found this review helpful, I'd really appreciate if you would click the "Helpful" button. Thanks so much for reading! Liz)

Installation of software only took a few minutes. I have an Acer intel core 15 with windows 10. Abbyy Finereader 12 Spint made a quick access folder on my desktop so I just click it open to start the software. The scanner is lightweight but takes a lot of desk space and needs to be by both an outlet and your computer. Once the power is on it’s a lift flap to put item to be scanned on the flatbed. You can remove the hinges if needed and they go back in easily. The software feels ancient with limited options such as only 300 dpi or 600dpi. There’s not a lot of adjustment except brightness. There is either black and white, grey, or color. You get the choice of previewing before scanning which is nice and you can place multiple pages into one scan (but you have to place them each on the flatbed individually). You can scan to make a pdf, an image pdf, an image file (mine makes jpegs), word, etc. I’m using this for my scrapbooks which are 12 by 12. I’m making digital files in a pdf format and have made some into jpegs. You lose some of the quality but they look decent. The files start getting pretty large so I’ll probably need a hard drive for back up and storage. I’ve uploaded some of the massive jpegs to Shutterfly. I’ll update on how the prints look considering this is def like taking a picture of a picture the uploading and then printing so we shall see how that looks. Overall I’m happy with the quality and ease of use. It does sound similar to a fax machine at times when it’s scanning. Def not a silent machine. I love the size and capability and everyone in my family is already begging to use it. I’m happy with the price point as well since I priced out a company to scan my scrapbooks and it was 2.99$ a page plus other fees. Ten years of scrapbooks would cost a small fortune so this has saved me a ton. Plus I prefer to have the control even though it’s a time investment. I’ll update with any issues or concerns as I continue to use the Plustwj OpticAlim 1180 scanner. Questions welcomed.

I needed a scanner to transfer my comic pages and art pieces. 11x17 was the minimum i needed. This was the cheapest scanner i found. Received brand new, plugged in and drivers installed. Does everything i need it to and with barely a fuss. Scanning options for JPG, PDF and TIFF? Perfect. DPI resolution options from 100 to 1200dpi? Incredible (See image for example) It's day one and i can imagine this being a part of my work space for the long term (as long as the tech gods smile upon me). The user interface is a little intimidating, but on top of being able to customize scan quality, format, location, and naming convention, i love that i can make my scan automatically open on any program I want (in my case, Photoshop). Two things to keep in mind: 1. If after a few minutes of non use. Your computer might say "scanner not detected". Technically true. By default, the scanner goes to sleep after a few minutes. you can turn this off by checking the scanner utility section and turning off the auto sleep. 2. If your colors look too light or dark, check the gamma. I thought my color art pieces were scanning weird and the gamma was the culprit. I also love that the program has a preview button which has saved me a lot of time by testing the look before i take a real scan.

I scan lots of sheet music as an orchestra librarian, and lots of those parts are printed on oversize paper. This scanner was a good add on to my office in many regards. The good: Scan quality of printed materials was very good. I can understand that for graphic artists/ photographers, the quality of scans may not be precise enough, but it certainly met my needs. Scanning was quick, and fairly quiet. The scanner itself was pretty much a plug and play item. Since the time I bought this device, (July 2022) I have scanned several thousand pages of sheet music. But now the scanner is not recognized by any of my computers and/ or scanning software apps. I had not needed to contact Plustek tech support before this, but I can say they responded quickly and worked to diagnose the issue in short order. The bad: The scanner is just over a year and a half old, and is dead. I am faced with the decision whether to spend $170 for a flat rate repair, plus one way shipping, or buy a new one for not that much more (even their tech support admits the cost difference may make the cost of repair not a good idea). I knew at the time I purchased this unit that I was buying in the bargain basement price range of scanning equipment, and that this outcome (failure not that long after the warranty is done) was a possibility. So if you happen to own one of these, and it's lasted longer, I'm happy for you. For myself, I'll be looking into a different (translation: more $) scanner. Not the worst experience, just wish it had worked successfully for a longer time. As always, caveat emptor.

I needed a new scanner since I'd written a book called Marketing Mayhem! Selling Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis To Post-War America, available right here on Amazon. However, I'd hit a snag. Much of the book relied upon excellent reproductions of vintage 1950's press book advertising of classic comedies starring Dean and Jerry. The first go-round, using jpeg scans, produced muddy looking ads that were fuzzy and gray. I was horrified and needed a solution. I researched scanners on the internet and THIS one came highly recommended. I bought one here on Amazon and rescanned hundreds of original newspaper ads for publication. I'm thrilled to report that my book is now published and the advertising art scanned with this excellent scanner look VIVID and SHARP with sold blacks... probably BETTER than they looked when originally printed in American newspapers of the 50's. This scanner did the job for me!

So, in order for this scanner to work, I also needed to buy a Camera Color Correction Card that lives on the scanner and gets scanned along with whatever thing I'm scanning in to make sure the color is good. I'm not a big fan of the software you use to actually scan, because saved settings reset frequently, and it's kind of weird. When I say weird, I mean that when I click on the thing to instigate the scan, a prompt pops up, and I have to hit No to scan. It's weird, but whatever, I got used to it. I was pretty satisfied with its performance, even with the additional accommodations I made for it. That is, until about 10 months after getting it, and spending those 10 months in the same spot without moving, it started mis-scanning. No idea why. So I contacted support, and since it was within its first year, they did an RMA. So I had to ship the scanner, its USB cable, and its power supply to Plustek. Shipping the scanner cost me $100. I should NOT have had to pay nearly a third of the original cost of a unit that had a manufacturer defect. I received the scanner back in a timely manner, but I can't actually tell if it's fixed, because they didn't include the power supply and USB cable that I sent in that the scanner needs to operate. So, again, overall the scanner works, but not optimally on its own, and the tech support leaves A LOT to be desired.

The support was great. My scanner was disabled, and I tried reinstalling it as the web recommended. That did not work. So. I contacted support via Chat and was instantly connected. Andy gave me a simple solution: reconnect the USB to the computer, and voilà! It worked. Thank you, Andy, for the support. Very much appreciated.

I am totally happy with this product, it can truely scan very high quality images. There are various settings available to fine tune the image as you wish and you can save presets based on your preferences.

A3、A4の図面をスキャンして保存しています。 やりやすいです。

Lange habe ich nach einem DinA3-Scanner gesucht, der mir dabei helfen sollte meine Bilder zu digitalisieren, eben für die Ewigkeit bewahren und sie so vielleicht einem möglichen Käufer vor stellen zu können. Tatsächlich ist der Plustek der Zweite Scanner. Nach ein paar Monaten und 395 Scans später kann ich berichten dass ich an meinem Ziel angelangt bin. Der Plustek kommt sehr gut verpackt mit allem Zubehör daher, um ihn an einen PC anzuschließen und ans Laufen zu bekommen. Windows 11 erkannte den Scanner sofort, was der Vorgänger eben nicht konnte. Selbst wenn man sich nach der Bedienungsanleitung an die Reihenfolge der Inbetriebnahme hielt, wollte Windows 11 mit dem anderen Scanner nicht zusammen arbeiten. Das aber nur Nebenbei erwähnt, damit man nachvollziehen kann wieso es klasse ist dass der Plustek sofort lief. Die Aufstellungsanleitung ist eindeutig und leicht zu verstehen. Die mitgelieferte Software erlaubt es einen die Bilder schon korrigiert zu scannen. Da ich aber meine Bilder pur haben wollte, genauso wie sie nun mal sind mit ihren Rändern, Knicken, Flecken und Schmierhintergründen, ich generell in dafür vorgesehenen Programmen Bilder bearbeite, habe ich die Software nicht in allen Facetten eingesetzt. Die Schnelltasten funktionieren hervorragend, gehörten aber auch noch nicht in meine Arbeitsweise. Trotzdem; Nice to have. Der Plustek scannt gnadenlos alles, wenn man es dann eben möchte. Wie erwähnt wollte ich genau das. Der Scanner hält die Details auf 1200 dpi so genau fest dass man ganz leicht nicht nur die Maltechnik sondern sogar die Struktur des Papieres ganz genau erkennt. Gnadenlos, ist er eben, gnadenlos gut. Der Plustek ist eindeutig ein Scanner der auch einen Profi, der mal was zu Hause ordentlich digitalisieren möchte, zufrieden macht. Plustek scannt Schrift, Bild und Fotos locker ein. Ob Sie jetzt die Bilder beim scannen verändern wollen oder hinterher ist dabei vollkommen machbar. Eindeutig eine Kaufempfehlung für diesen Scanner.

Possiedo questo scanner da due giorni. La uso poiché, per motivi universitari, necessito di scannerizzare libri e portarli come PDF in un tablet, con chiari vantaggi. (Porto meno peso, gli evidenziatori non perdono nella pagina seguente, posso zoomare e prendere appunti nel bordo senza rovinare l'originale) Provengo da una Canon LiDe 400, uno scanner di marca che ha ottime prestazioni. Sfortunatamente, essendo una stampante A4, le scritte vicino alla rilegatura venivano illeggibili. Per cui ho dovuto optare per uno scanner A3. Da utente Windows, ho trovati online i driver, e impostato i vari pulsanti possono essere impostati, grazie ad un programmino presente nello stesso sito dove si trovano i driver. (Si trova lo stesso per utenti Mac). Una volta installati i driver, ho quindi aperto il programma "Scanner" presente di default nei sistemi operativi Windows. Le scan erano oggettivamente brutte. Troppo luminose, troppo sbiancate. Usando il programma "scan e fax" sempre presente di default ho potuto abbassare la "luminosità" e aumentare il contrasto, avendo scan praticamente indistinguibili dal LiDe 400 (a parità di DPI). Usualmente uso 300 DPI, ci mette circa 8 secondi. Ho provato 1200 DPI. Ci ha messo 1 minuto, 60 secondi e passa. A 400 DPI ci impiega oltre 20 secondi. I materiali non sembrano eccellenti, ma come stampante A3, fa il suo lavoro, ed è eccellente, per ora. Aggiornerò in caso di cambiamento.

A high quality A3 flatbed scanner designed for library use, but very useful for artists/graphic designers who need to make high resolution scans of books, illustrations or artwork. It comes with its own driver software which works even on older Macintoshes/ PCs, and can be operated either from the desktop software or using the preprogrammed buttons on the scanner. There is a good range of options for different resolution scans, cropping and editing. I found it very easy to install and use, and the quality:price ratio is excellent. Highly recommended.