Do you scan a lot of documents and want to be sure the process you are using complies with industry best practices and standards? There are many things to consider when setting up your scanning defaults and we are here to help you with what defaults to choose.
Copier Lease Center has helped clients set up their scanning for years. We have seen people make some common mistakes, and we have also seen some choose excellent best practices as we have helped with the hundreds of copier and scanning installs we have done over the years.
In this article we will discuss how to set your scan size, if it should be color or black & white, what DPI to choose and naming nomenclature.
Consider Scan File Size
The first thing you need to consider is how big you want the file size to be on your scanned documents. For many companies, having a smaller scan size is really important, especially if the server the scanned documents are hosted or has a limited disk space. Most companies are happy when the PDFs are under 250kb each or smaller.
Color or Black and White?
The next thing to consider, which also affects the file size, is if it scans in color or black and white. Color scans tend to be bigger when it comes to file size, but sometimes people need colored scans (especially when it pertains to legal documents). Some clients actually have a color preset for scanning for items that should be scanned in color, and a black and white preset when it is simply a document scan, which can have a lower quality image quality but is completely suitable for standard document scans,.
What DPI (Dots Per Inch) Should be Used?
For document scanning, most of the time, 200dpi should work. However, if you want to scan images, you will probably need to bump them up to 300dpi and perhaps 600dpi. You can check for these by trying different dpi settings and then looking at the screen to check if the quality of the scans are sufficient for your needs.
Naming of Files
If you are scanning a lot of files, it is also good to have a naming nomenclature to go along with the scanning process. There are additional tools which we sell that can automatically append naming to scan files, which can make it much easier to find the documents.
Having your files have a name like Client-Document-02-20-2023.pdf is easier to find than IMG29343232.pdf and a little work upfront can save a ton of headaches down the road when it comes to scan retrieval. When any system is set up, the input energy and the retrieval workload must be considered. Using tools to make documents easier to find, you can turn looking for documents from hours to seconds.
These are some of the key areas you should be concerned about when setting up your scanning policies. We are here to help you with your copier’s scan settings and would love to help you get a copier lease.
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