I bought this to replace my old scanner and absolutely love it. I had a couple questions and tech-support got back to me within 24 hours. Great support great product highly recommend.
Former “Green Lantern” comics artist Ethan Van Sciver recommended this scanner to me during a livestream on YouTube over a year ago, and I bought it. It’s awesome, and I couldn’t do without it!
First off, this thing is a bit big – well, it has a big footprint – but it is very thin & light, so it’s easy to stash out of the way when not in use. Works great on a Mac (M1-2 & Intel). Reasonably fast, good colour accuracy, does 1200dpi. A magnitude less expensive than anything else comparable.
Need to scan larger documents? Get this scanner and you’re all set.
Started off a little slow. The drive was outdated. Tech support walked me through where to find the updated version. Driver integrates with Photoshop but a little inconsistent. Prefer to use stand alone interface. Good quality scans. Easy control access on scanner.
This Plustek A3 large scale scanner was extremely easy to use. It was really plug and play. After connecting the scanner, a quick download of the drivers, and click of a button, you’ll be scanning.
The Scanner works very well now that I have figured out how to use it. Using the scanner is not totally intuitive. There are some quirks but I strongly encourage using Chat if you are stumped. Gerardo came on the line quickly, was patient and explained everything very well. From here I can figure out everything else I need. I recommend the scanner and Chat if you have issues.
Ich bin voll zufrieden! Innerhalb von zwei Monaten habe ich 1300 Scans gemacht und alles hat super funktioniert. Einzig am Anfang war mir nicht bewusst, dass ich eine Kalibrierung durchfhren musste (ein mitgeliefertes Programm). Damit hat dann alles gut funktioniert. Ich scanne Dinge in hochqualitts-Klarsichtfolien. Die geringe Fokustiefe war fr mich bis auf einmal kein relevantes Problem bei 600dpi Scannauflsung.
Capable fast large format scanner for a reasonable price, plus it scans directly to PDF with the included software. It also does OCR and can scan directly to Microsoft Word. I bought it to scan old model airplane plans from magazines and it works great. No driver issues or anything, it worked right out of the box after I installed the software. The drivers are available online but you’ll need a DVD drive to install the Abby’s Finereader 12 software.
I use this to scan 11×17 original comic book black & white art and find it excellent for this. It’s close to my desk so I can use the buttons on the machine rather than the computer interface & it works extremely fast. I got it on the advice of professional comic book artist Ethan van Sciver and I’m pretty impressed with this scanner. You can make a quick scan with the external buttons and it’s fine , but the onscreen interface gives you a complete level of control over the image you get. Wish I knew about this machine a long time ago , it’s great.
Scanner d’une grande rapidit et d’une grande qualit. Je l’ai achet pour scanner des albums photos qu’on ne peut plus transporter l’tranger vu leur encombrement et leur poids. Avec quelquefois des retouches avec Photoshop, le rsultat, projet sur un tlviseur est parfait.
Purchase this scanner to digitally score targets at our shooting matches.
It works perfectly. Scenes the target into the computer and the program we have installed reads the bullet holes and scores the target.
Save so much time doing it by hand also eliminates eye strain.
I had a very old Plustek A3 scanner bought about 2000 back in the days of Windows XP. It was good but eventually outdated. Years went by and had the need again. This updated model is far superior – lightning quick and looks good as well.
I upgraded from an old flatbed scanner on an HP Photosmart C4700 series multi function printer to this Plustek A3 Large Format Flatbed Scanner OS 1180. I was immediately impressed by how much scanning had improved and the value of a big 11 by 17″ surface. I noticed though that when I put documents on the glass in the corners up against the plastic that I was missing a small strip along the edge. It was maybe 1/16″ along the top and leading edge, but up to 1/4″ along the bottom and far edge. The online help people worked very well with me for probably two hours and then sent it to what I assumed was their 3rd and highest level of support. This is what they told me: “Upon review, it actually it appears the scanner is behaving normally. The max scan area for the scanner is : 297 x 431.8 mm (11.69″ x 17″) The surface of the glass is a bit larger to accommodate the materials. Thus the scanner does not scan to the very end of the glass.”.
At first that response made me angry. But after working with the help people I realized that I no longer needed to align work with the edges of the glass. I can put work anywhere on the glass at any angle and the scanner would crop and straighten it for me. That made me feel better and I have scanned a lot of fragile old documents since. I still think though that a good scanner should scan the entire glass, but it mostly does not bother me and I think I should have upgraded a long time ago.
Ich benutze den Scanner fr meine Zeichnungen und Illustrationen, welche ich auf DIN A2 und teilweise noch grsseren Formaten erstelle. Installation war einfach (Treiber-Download von der Website) und die App ist leicht zu verstehen. Die Farben werden nicht ganz 100% realittstreu wiedergegeben und der Scanner ist etwas laut, aber mit Photoshop lassen sich die kleinen Farbabweichungen problemlos korrigieren. Auchs ehr praktisch finde ich, dass man den Deckel einfach abnehmen kann und dann kann man problemlos sehr grosse Formate darber ziehen und scannen (und z. B. hinterher im Photoshop mergen). Ich vergebe gerne 4-5 Sterne.
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!
The instructions were a little lacking for basic set up, though a speedy response from their support chat got that taken care of (& they promised to forward my suggestions to the appropriate team to give a little more detail than “ensure the icon appears in the system tray” which mine did but there was no mention to double click on it & verify settings or how to get the scanner running, anything like that, no mention in bold, very visible print that the scanner goes to sleep after a set amount of time (brilliant but doesn’t help if the user is unaware & thinks it’s defective).
I personally was totally dissatisfied with the barring on scanned photos regardless of many changes in the settings including noise reduction. We can do much better taking a picture of the pictures with a good camera & not get any of the barring. I did not test the scanner on simple document scans for which it is probably ideal, but I do not need a large scanner that doesn’t fit where I usually keep my up-to-legal-size-page scanner but rather takes up my entire desk space for merely scanning documents; it was bought with a big project of scanning old photos from decades of photo albums before digital photography was the norm. Also, a WARNING: if you scan dark paper or pictures, you need to put a piece of white paper (simple printer paper will do) surrounding all 4 edges behind it for the algorithm to properly align the picture.
Their tech support was super (chat assistance came within 15 minutes of signing on to it (& had audible tone so you knew someone had responded) & next tier support communicated by email within a day to get more information & arrange for more thorough support). I appreciate their assistance in using this scanner, for the suggestion of various work-arounds, and for being positive & receptive to customer recommendations for future development (like considering having a white background built into their scanning lid if it works better for scanning dark documents & photos).
I’ve arranged for returning this scanner & will replace it with a smaller one that will fit into my designated scanner space & resume digitizing my photo albums using digital photography.
Needed to scan 12″x12″ scrapbook pages and other documents to store digitally and this is working out great! I use a Mac, so I can enhance to photo quality in Photos. Definitely saving us lots of money compared to paying someone to do this.
Gerade erst eingetroffen.
Meine aktuelle Bewertung:
Einfache Installation – schnelle Einarbeitung durch einfache Handhabung – super schneller Scan – gutes Ergebnis.
So wie ich es im Alltag brauche.
Appreciate not only the larger scan size, but also the ease of use and features that other scanners do not have. Anticipate a great deal of exploration of these.
I am a illustrator so I was looking for an A3 printer on a budget price. It took me a while to figure out how to scan the picture in. I work mainly in watercolours and after a while of tweaking the settings I managed to match the scan to almost near to my original then I tweak it a bit more in photoshop. So the colours are a bit tricky to match the original.
It is great for a budget scanner and it does the job.
Compatibility: I am using this scanner on MacOS 12.0.1 Monterey. So far, it has worked flawlessly. Installation was the standard procedure, not some strange custom installer. The scanner comes with a cable that has a USB-A connector on the host side. Recent MacBooks don’t have USB-A ports. So if you want to use the scanner with a recent MacBook, you will need a USB-A to USB-C adapter or else use a different USB cable.
Image Quality: I have scanned in black-and-white, grayscale, and color modes. All work well. And the different resolutions work well. The scanner correctly figures out the size of the page when it is in auto-size mode. And when you scan in PDF mode, it has no problem with documents that have a mix of page sizes., e.g., pages with foldouts. The file sizes are what one would expect. The black-and-white mode produces very compact files.
Scanning Application: The included software has a reasonable set of features. The user interface looks and feels like a native Apple application, which is good. Some scanner applications make their own strange user interface widgets that are unfamiliar and usually buggy. Refreshingly, this is not the case with the Plustek’s “MacAction 1.0.2.7” software. The OCR works well enough. There’s a setting for the language for OCR. Set that to the language you expect to be OCRing.
Downsides: Scanning a full-size page takes a few seconds. Of course one wants things to be fast, but the scanning is not that slow compared to the time it takes to open the lid, position the document, etc. So the speed is ok, in my opinion. One area for improvement is the OCR. When you finish scanning a bunch of pages with OCR enabled, the application performs the OCR operation. That causes the application to block for a while, which makes the user wait, losing productivity if there are more things to scan. It would be better if the OCR could be done concurrently with the scanning, e.g., OCRing each page as soon as it’s done being scanned. Doing it in the background afterwards is also a possibility, but that has potential downsides because scanned documents sometimes go in a junk pile, and background processing means that a problem might not be detected until later, when the originals have been junked.
Summary: I am completely satisfied with the Plustek OpticSlim 1180. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.
Is the connection No frills in the box just what you need to get going. I wish the USB and electric cord were longer. I also wish the software that comes with a scanner for Mac was a little less wonky. I’m getting the work done, but it’s with a fair amount of trial and error. The results of the scans are excellent let’s get that straight!
After much experimentation, my scan projects went well. The user manual has little in the way of explaining the scan interface screen options (of which there are many). All you tube searches for tutorial inevitably led to product commercials. Nice, but of little use. Still a great value and price point.
I recommend this product. But wish the user manual (pdf download) was more helpful.
Have Cannon USB scanner for normal work. Bought this primarily to scan 18 x 24 inch blue prints, two sets of 30 each in six scans each sheet and then stitching together in PhotoShop. Drawings folded not rolled, so first step is to get them flat. Then greyscale at 300 dpi.
Would have been nice if scanner had been 18 inches instead of A3 17 inches, could have managed in just three scans. But then who outside the US would need it so the price would be higher.
Flawless performance, auto deskew particularly useful.
Cannot think of any cons or improvements: a record purchase. Expect to use it often on books with the split page feature.
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I didn’t review this product right away after getting it, as I wanted to use it for a while before reviewing. I can now say that I’m really happy with it. The scans are crystal clear, the scanner is easy to use and it’s fast. My only reservation is that it creates really large files and I then have to reduce the file size in my PDF program. But that is a small inconvenience given the scanner’s many great attributes.
Figuring out the application was pretty straightforward. I was up and scanning in no time and because it wasn’t attached to a big printer, it was really easy to maneuver. Also really appreciated how easily it stitched together multiple scans into a single PDF, and cropped the pages accurately. Was also surprised how fast a cycle was because the available page area is so large. Super happy with the purchase.
Before this, I had an HP flatbed scanner and a Mustek large format scanner, both of which died eventually (after numerous years I might say). I use this kind of scanner VERY infrequently, mostly for music, but when I need it, I NEED it. Software installed fine, tried it a couple of times with various settings and it functioned just like I expected it to. You can’t beat it for the price!
Der Scanner kam gut verpackt und heil an. Ich hebe das hervor, da ein anderer A3 Scanner von einer anderen Firma vorher mit kaputtem Glas ankam. Die Installation ging schnell und problemlos. Mit der mitgelieferten CD wurden alle Treiber und Programme installiert. Scans knnen auf Knopfdruck erstellt werden. Auch Twain kompatible Programme wie IrvanView kann man zum Scannen verwenden. Die Scanqualitt meiner ersten Scantests ist sehr gut. Bin sehr zufrieden.
Software is a little dated & not super intuitive. For example to name the file & select a different location, you have to go into a button setup each time. There’s a numbering scheme that you cannot disable. It is not network compatible. However, it scans well & is fairly fast. The images are clear. The top cover comes off completely for larger item scanning.
Great slimline scanner. Easy setup scans document and drawings perfectly ( actually better than the giant xerox at the office) and sends directly to computer for emailing or filing. I’m a designer and this makes sending plan drawing to my clients and subcontractors fast, convenient and easy! Excellent product!
I just purchased my second Plustek A3 scanner. I bought one about 3 years ago, and it has worked so well that when I needed a second scanner for another work station I decided to spend the extra money for the Plustek A3.
I list hundreds of lots of stamps on eBay each month, and it is great to have the extra space to show larger items and multiple item lots.
The picture quality is excellent, and the interface is easy to use.
The only problem I can see is that it is a little noisy.
If you are scanning regularly, and need a larger scanner, I highly recommend stepping up to this one
Very nice scanner. The color illustrations came out nice, but I was told by customer support that for artwork is best to purchase the one priced at a little bit over $500 because it has a different scanner best suited for Artwork. Customer support is excellent!
I almost exclusively do traditional art, and the biggest problem I have in documenting my drawings is that nearly all flatbed scanners aren’t large enough even for 9×12 sheets of paper, so for many, many years I’ve been tearing paper edges down to fit a regular scanner bed and working in a smaller area–not ideal. However, this scanner COMFORTABLY fits 11×14 sheets of paper. Having this completely changes the way I do artwork and I can finally start working on larger artwork without without sacrificing the documentation quality to photos.
The scan quality is excellent–an 11×17 scan at 1200 DPI (the maximum limit) is about 20000×14000 pixels and you can even set the scan quality to lossless PNGs files. I can’t believe I did not get this scanner before, it is seriously a must-have for traditional artists.
A MUST HAVE FOR TRADITIONAL ARTISTS!! COMPLETELY changes the way I do artwork
Tech support is easy to find with a brief internet search. The size of the scanner bed is such a plus when scanning oversized documents. Perfect for the jobs we need it for!
I purchased this piece so I can make digital images of my paintings. As seen in the example, it makes excellent digital images from a scan of an 11″ X 14″ watercolor painting I recently completed. Larger paintings can be scanned in sections and pasted together in Photoshop.
I purchased this piece so I can make digital images of my paintings. As seen in the example, it makes excellent digital images from a scan of an 11" X 14" watercolor painting I recently completed. Larger paintings can be scanned in sections and pasted together in Photoshop.
I needed a scanner to transfer my comic pages and art pieces. 11×17 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.
Someone asked if this scanner was good for scanning LP covers. I replied, as did others, that it isn’t quite big enough for a an LP cover – just a few millimetres too short. I scanned one cover twice showing the difference from either side at 300dpi. You can stitch the images together easily using an app (I use Photostitcher) and it was my intention to also show the stitched image but for some reason Amazon won’t let me upload it. I’ve had this scanner a few months now and think it’s good value for money. I’ve been using it to scan black and white comic artwork and old comics.
This scanner is fantastic, especially at this price range. Stop stitching together 8 1/2 X 11 scans ! The high resolution settings are great. Scans are fast. Controls are comprehensive. You can fudge your way through it by just pressing buttons and clicking here and there. The quick guide is effective too. Super value for the money. A must for comic book artists drawing at 10 X 15. I cut off 1/2 inch from m by 11 X 17 boards to allow the full page to sit flat. After three months of use, I’m quite satisfied.
This scanner scans very good IF…you import from photoshop. I have scanned my full color 9×12 comic art on this scanner, importing it from photoshop, and I am impressed. It scans very nicely! However, the software that comes with the scanner does not scan as well unless you really work the settings. But for 350 bucks Yes baby
I’ve experienced a few issues while scanning – I scan the same page 5 times, and one if them is skewed. I contacted tech support and they suggested I uninstall and reinstall, which I did. It is a little better, but I am sure a much higher priced machine would not do this. But overall, because I couldn’t afford a $2000 machine, it works for me.
I purchased this scanner for my son to replace an Epson scanner that he had to stitch photos together after scanning because they wouldn’t fit in the same scan. This scanner is not only superior in the scanning area size, the resolution is at least 4 times better than the old scanner. This one is definitely worth the money.
This might be the best oversize scanner you would probably be able to get. I love the look of it, and the look of the scans, and it is fast enough and very quiet. But I wish several things about it were different. !q. SOFTWARE: Plus-Tek really should pair with better software. It comes with software that files your files in a weird, unusual photo-editing folder and program without even the ability to marquee for a smaller subject, for example I even called the company and was told that! And it has a terrible protocol of replacing files by subsequent files unless you rename (it doesn’t just put subsewquent numbering). BUT I (mostly) GOT AROUND THE PROBLEM by using software called VueScan, that came with a Plus-Tek film scanner I bought a few years ago. I wish I could use Image Capture, but the scanner isn’t recognized by Image Capture, at least not on my system (Mac OS 10.11.6). There is still a hassel with it crashing if I’m filing into the folder of the external drive I want to use, and naming the files as I’d like, so I have to work around that, too, by letting it file into an outer folder, and then swiping it into the correct one later. I also am not happy with the results of the adjustments to color, etc. But I’m learning to live with this, and to really enjoy scanning my large things without having to scan several times and composite, as I did with the regular size scanner I used to have. BACKGROUND: It’s black. Usually it’s white. If I want to print the scan, or if I scan a translucent or transparent original, I have to place a large white opaque sheet of heavy paper or artboard over it. This is a big hassle.
Item was delivered on time. It works perfectly and easily for what we wanted it to do – copy old photo albums. The larger format was exactly what we needed to make the job easy and fast.
Took me ages to install. Difficult way of setting up but good value for money. Some scanners are over a grand. Therefore, this is a good purchase made for my studies. The connection is good. Software runs well. Quite noisy which scanners can be! Little tricky finding the appropriate setting for brightness contrast etc but there are tools to help with that.
bought for my son in art industry. he asked for it. so far no complaints. i don’t have any other comments regrding tech support, interface etc. he likes it that’s all i know.
This scanner is great! I’ve been using an HP 8 x 14″ scanner for many years. It still works, but I do a LOT of scanning of 11 x 17 material, & have to split it in 2 pieces, & so I decided to get this one as well. It works G-R-E-A-T!!! It’s cut my scanning time in already, & maybe even by 67%. It even scans bound material almost as well as cut-sheet. Also, Plustek Customer Support is great — I had 2 questions that weren’t getting resolved by email, & so I called the support line, talked to Michael, & found out that the changes I was making to the software configuration weren’t holding simply because I wasn’t pressing the “Apply” button! Thanks again!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, especially if you do LOTS of scanning!
Si bien la interfaz de usuario del programa original es bastante bsica, todo mejora con el uso de VueScan. La acuciosidad del color no es ptima y requiere ciertos ajustes si se desea absoluta fidelidad. Pero lo ms importante para m es el gran tamao de la cama a una fraccin del precio de otros modelos de sta y de otras marcas.
The A3 scanner works fine, installation can be iffy (Windows 10) but worked after a couple of attempts, so don’t give up if the first time it stalls (unplug it and replug it in and retry). The scanner itself does a good job, note that its a document scanner so isn’t going to be super high res for photos or pictures, but will be good enough for most things. It is quite large in the box to prevent it getting damaged in transit, so be prepared for a large box. For the price its a good deal and product and does the job just fine.
This scanner is great. I had dark scans initially but fixed it in settings thanks to their customer service. Scans fast and the size is really convenient.
When it comes to scanning large format documents and images, this is the best scanner for the price. Scans high quality and at a fraction of the scanning time of competitors. You will not find a better scanner at this price level!
I’m very satisfied with this scanner! I’m really impressed with the quality of the scanned images, as a university student doing illustration this will really help with my course!
One happy uni student. It arrived earlier than expected which was wonderful. After reading reviews saying we might need tech support on installing, we didn’t. Works well and easy to use. Useful advice if you are using a thinner grade paper which you use for technical drawing, you might want to add an extra sheet of thicker paper or card so the block out the black cover when scanning, it just gives a clearer image and saves time on editing.
This scanner is exactly what I was looking for. I’m a comic artist who scans in inks in order to touch up my work digitally, and this scanner works perfectly for that. On top of that the scanner itself actually operates pretty quietly, the images are extremely high resolution, and the software for the product allows a lot of adjustments to get exactly what you need out of it. All in all I was extremely satisfied with this purchase, and it’s greatly improved the quality of my scans over past devices.
This is a really excellent product for both mono and colour photos also documents. It was easy to install and I contacted the serviced department of this company as there was a problem with the power adapter, it was resolved at once and very nice people to deal with. This is excellent value for money, will use company again, also delivered next day .
This large format 11″x17″ scanner works as advertised and is a great scanner for the price. It replaced a much older large format scanner that I owned and this new one is much faster.
I bought this scanner to scan artwork for print. My Mustek 11×17 scanner was no longer compatible with my computer and there was no upgrade. The Plustek works fine. You do need to do more adjusting with the gamma to get the colors correct and it is a little slower, but for the most part it does the job. Would definitely recommend it.
Installation problemlos. Handbuch-Informationen vom Hersteller vorab per E-Mail erhalten (Service positiv). USB-Datenkabel sehr kurz, was vielleicht die bertragung begnstigt. Integrierte Funktion zur Beseitigung bzw. Abschwchung von Bildpunkten bei “Scan” (JPG) sollte bei Bedarf abschaltbar sein (besser wre, wenn sie im Bedarfsfall zugeschaltet werden knnte und ansonsten entfiele), ist bei “PDF” erfreulicherweise nicht wirksam. Die Tiefenschrfe bei gewellten Vorlagen und Buchkopien ist extrem gering – daher Abzug von einem Stern. Die Abdeckung kann sehr leicht abgenommen und wieder befestigt werden. Mitgelieferte OCR-Software ist hilfreich. Eine Kalibrierungstafel wurde leider nicht mitgeliefert, wre aber wnschenswert. Insgesamt positiver “erster Eindruck”.
This scanner suited my specific needs perfectly, which was to scan pencil sketches from a couple of 9″ x 12″ sketchbooks. I had a LOT of sketches (around 350) and the sketchbooks were slightly too large for standard scanners. Scanning each sketch twice then using knitting software would have taken a lot more time due to the volume involved, so this scanner saved me a LOT of time.
Some other reviews complained about poor color quality scans, which I can’t attest to since I only scanned pencil drawings. For this use the scanner worked perfectly. The scanner took under 30 seconds for a 600 dpi TIFF scan. The options for the native software were fine for my needs, which mainly was to adjust for clear line drawings without too much bleed-through from other pages.
The one minor annoyance was that the scanner sometimes gave weird margins (i.e. lots of black space) on Automatic Sizing. I eventually had to create a specific sketchbook size format to force the scanner to only scan the sketchbook. After that, this was not a problem.
For this specific use I had, I think this scanner is the only option. Every other scanner cost way more than this one so the purchase was well worth it. But again this is for a very specific purpose and I can’t testify how well it might work for other uses.
I give one more star to the technical support who walked
me to use it patiently. No matter how stupid my problem was yesterday , he
still explained it to me slowly. Good service, I like it !
This is a good deal for me. Easy to install and simple interface. Although
there are some problems, but technical support help me quickly to solve it.
He also reminded me this scanner is more suitable for scanning documents or
drafts, for photos will recommend to buy a CCD scanner. But for me, the
quality is acceptable.
I bought this to scan old photos and newspapers etc. It was a great purchase. It is fast and makes high quality scans. My laptop doesn’t have a CD ROM drive, and the software I downloaded from the company website did not have the OCR software, so I had to use an old computer to transfer the software to my new one. But…well worth it.
A huge time saver for scanning large drawings. The scan requires some brightness and color correction in photoshop, which takes me about a minute as with most other scanners. but the quality control on the product seems fine- no streaks or flaws in the scan that I kept getting with smaller store-bought scanners. So far I am very satisfied.
I put off purchasing one of these larger scanners for years due to the higher price, but now that I did I wish I had sooner. Its a huge time saver for me.
Mi serviva uno scanner A3 per un utilizzo occasionale ma necessario e tra quelli presenti su Amazon questo mi dava apparentemente il miglior rapporto qualit/prezzo per le mie esigenze. Non mi sono sbagliato. Non ha altissima qualit e alcuni driver MAC sono a 32 bit (li aggiorneranno mai?) ma il prezzo ottimo e se le esigenze non prevedono la produzione di immagini ad alta definizione va benissimo. Funziona con il suo software originale e anche con vuescan ma a 32 bit, per cui se si utilizza questo software si finisce per averne presenti due versioni (32 bit per questo e 64 bit per altri scanner). Meglio quindi utilizzare il software fornito o scaricabile gratuitamente dal loro sito.
Conclusione: sono soddisfatto dell’acquisto.
l’appareil est vraiment parfait car trs rapide, on peut utiliser et scanner dans diffrents formats
je l’ai utilis pour des plans de maison et cela m’a vit l’imprimeur et j’ai pu les envoyer en pdf plusieurs entreprises
un peu cher mais il vaut le coup
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)
Great for large-size scanning, super value, and the BEST tech support eve
I haven’t used it a great deal but I finally decided to try & get it set-up on the computer. I, myself am not great with this stuff … At all but I got with the tech support & that guy was great. He was patient & walked me through step by step. Huge shout out to Nelson. I just assumed my setting up of this thing would include some ranting & raving, cursing at it, as is usually the case with my familiarizing myself with new technologies but with Nelson’s help I was able to avoid all the rage & frustration all together. Thank you
I am using this scanner connected to a Mac Mini and am enjoying it immensely. Initially, after downloading the latest Mac drivers from the Plustek website, about 50% of the time the scan would come up black. Sometimes I had to restart to regain a scanner connection. Then yesterday after a restart, a window popped up wanting me to install Similar Photo something-or-other software. This bit of Windows software, which I consider malware, installed itself onto the Mac and was interfering. Hopefully it has now been all deleted-successful scanning percentage has climbed to about 98%, which is fine for my work.
Now comes bundled with Mac action and works like a charm. And it does the job as good as a $2000 Epson. Pay 50 bucks for the 32 bit version of the VueScan software. It is totally worth it. And, this thing is FAST compared to some expensive scanners from Epson and Canon.
Fast shipping, fast and easy setup! The easily detachable cover is very useful!
Make sure to have monitors that are calibrated when scanning. At first I was using a setup with older monitors but once I tried it on my laptop, I just knew I had to have this scanners babies.
Windows 10, Buyer beware! This scanner is great if you don’t have Windows 10….something in the windows 10 causes it to not recognize the scanner after you first install it. I uninstalled and reinstalled it everyday I owed it which was 4 days, I spent hours on the phone with Plustek, they were fantastic but the technician explained the problem with Windows 10 was something no one could figure out! Wish I had read a review like this one before I bought it. I’m ready to toss my Windows 10 laptop too! I need a Mac! It’s going back to Amazon tomorrow…so sad
I recently purchase this large scaled scanner to scan old oversized scrapbook pages. I installed the Mac apt and made sure I had the latest version by going to the web site. I had a little trouble getting the scans to show up on my desktop so I called the technical support and spoke to Bubbles ! She was great. She was quite polite and patient and got everything worked out in a few minute. I was very impressed with her help. I have only scanned a few pages but everything seem to be of great quality and especially what I was looking for. If you are in need of a large format scanner for general use ,then this should do the trick. If you need a more professional scanner for high detail work, like art work, then maybe another scanner will be need. But be prepared for it to be much more expensive.
Excellent product! I am digitizing all the old family scrapbooks, many which are disintegrating around the photos. (Acid-free paper was not a “thing” ion the 1970s, at least not for regular folks)
I knew the scanner was going to be large, that’s why I purchased it. But when you have been dealing with standard sized paper scanners for as long as I have and then get this- wow!
It also picks up color amazingly. Most scanners I’ve worked with don’t pick up pinks very well. This did great! I still have to do a little tweaking in photoshop, but nowhere near as much.
I was surprised that since this scanner is listed as being for both PC and Mac, that the only included disc is for Windows. On PlusTek’s website, I downloaded the Mac software for the OpticSlim 1180 scanner, which turned out to be a required driver for Mac, bundled with a user application called MacAction. You don’t necessarily have to use MacAction, but you do have to run the installer anyway, in order to get the scanner driver installed, which only happens concurrently with the installation of MacAction. The MacAction user interface felt like running test software that hadn’t been finished, but I found that an alternative called VueScan has a much more detailed, polished, and intuitive layout — however there is a one-time license cost if you decide that you are going to use VueScan. The VueScan support technician helped me figure out that my 6-year-old iMac needs a 32-bit version of the VueScan installer instead of the 64-bit version. It works beautifully, and I’ve since run the first incremental upgrade that came out afterward, and it still works perfectly. I scan a lot of printed items such as magazines, which require a good Descreen option. I found that selecting 600 DPI in VusScan yields gorgeous Descreened results, and of course the scan can be saved afterward in Photoshop or other editing software if I need a final resolution other than 600 DPI. If you decide not to use MacAction, you may be annoyed that it added itself to autostart on your Mac every time that you power on, restart, or logon. To remove that autostart, click on System Preferences (the gear icon on the Dock) and then click on Users & Groups. Click the Login Items tab near the top of the dialogue box, and then you can click to highlight the startup item and click the minus sign to remove it. I think that PlusTek would get a ton of more sales and positive reviews from Mac owners if they could make a licensing arrangement with VueScan and include a Mac installer disc with their scanners.
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’m very happy for buy this scanner. The device is great worth to buy it. I use this scanner scan some tabloid and recipe from newspaper every day , I very satisfy with the scan quality and scan speed. And the scanner is not heavy , usually I erect near my desk. Overall,it’s convenient to scan larger page.
You can’t beat the price for scanning large documents. We have infrequent need to scan large documents, so this really fit the bill.
Be sure to follow the simple installation instructions. Install the drivers before plugging in or you might run into an issue with the OS reporting that too much power used by a USB device. With drivers installed everything works fine.
An excellent scanner for the price. I am an architect and use it to scan mostly black and white drawings I do by hand which I scan and then work over in Photoshop or import into 3D modeling software. This scanner works great in that process.
The 12×17 format lets me create a fairly decent size original (usually I keep it to 11×17 to make sure everything is scanned)- much better for my work flow than an 8×10 format would have been.The software was a pain but my next door IT Tech solved it.
Color is not critical for me – (after reading other reviews of this product I scanned a watercolor original and it came out a bit dark- I upped the resolution to 600 dpi tweaked the brightness up and rescanned as a png and a black line appeared in the image..hmm)
a 400 dpi png color scan worked fine for my purposes -( screen shot image attached 12x 16 original )
I won’t give it a 5 star review because my test with photos didn’t go well. I scanned a photo of a barn (400 dpi .png) and the detail on the shadow side dropped out ( screen shot image attached 4×6 original) – could be a setting fix, I don’t know, but I don’t want to be overly enthusiastic and mislead others who have different needs.
UPDATE 12/2020:
After 2 years of reliable service I have just replaced this with the more advanced/expensive Plustek OpticPro A320L. The reason is that the CCD scanning of the A320L can give better results than the CIS scanning for this model on certain kinds of materials, including some that I find myself needing to scan now. The Amazon listing for the A320L provides a brief explanation. To lean more just google for “CIS vs CCD scanning”.
I want to emphasize that for a very wide range of scanning needs this OpticSlim 1180 has been entirely satisfactory. The criticisms that the scans are “too dark” are a mystery to me. You have complete control over how dark or light the scans are in the software that comes with it and if you want lighter scans it’s a very simple adjustment.
ORIGINAL REVIEW 7/2017:
In terms of function this is a pretty basic scanner. You can get one for one-fifth the price that is comparable in every respect — EXCEPT that its scan area is only half as big. This seems to be the least expensive large-area flatbed scanner out there by a considerable margin, and it will serve very well for most purposes.
In general I’m a bit wary about color fidelity on LED scanners, but it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with this one. I’m uploading two scans of a standard IT-8.7/IS-12641 color calibration target. One was made with basic scanning s/w and the other with VueScan. (No prizes for guessing which is which.) What this tells me is that the OS1180 is entirely adequate for any but the very most demanding of reflective-media scanning tasks. But if you want high-quality scans you have to have high-quality software. And you won’t find it growing on trees or lying in the street. That to say that you need to figure the price of VueScan or some comparable package (if there is any) into the total cost if you want quality scans of high-quality materials.
The scanner comes with a CD containing the manual in PDF form, the driver, a copy of ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint, and miscellaneous scanner utility s/w. There is a new driver (actually two, one for Mac and one for PC) on the Plustek Web site, which is supposed to provide improved color scans. (The scans I’m posting are made with it.) Installation from the CD went pretty smoothly on my Win 10 PC. But with the new driver it took me a lot of tries to get it to install without stirring up Norton Security.
Neither the old driver nor the new has been entirely stable. At random times the scanner stops working properly in any of a variety of ways. It’s necessary to close the driver and re-start the scanner, which usually does the trick. It’s not a major problem but it happens often enough to be pretty annoying.
One of the big uses for a large scanner is to scan books, two pages at a time. The ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint that ships with the scanner is probably the best of the “lite” OCR apps and works well for double-page scanning. Although bundled with the OS1180 it will work with other scanners as well, if you have any.
In theory the scanner has four “built-in” scanning functions, actuated by buttons: scan, e-mail, OCR and PDF. I’ve had no luck with them; they produce some scanner activity followed by a “generic error” pop-up message. It’s probably possible to get them to function if you work hard enough with the software, but I haven’t bothered.
So far am now working on the 6 hour trying to set it up. Cannot tell if I like the scanner because it does not work yet. Tech support was curt and rude and unhelpful.
ADDENDUM: Called tech support back and got a Michael who walked me through everything and made it all work and was very very friendly and helpful. I am not satisfied and will see how the scanner works for me. Will add more late
I bought this to replace my old scanner and absolutely love it. I had a couple questions and tech-support got back to me within 24 hours. Great support great product highly recommend.
First off, this thing is a bit big – well, it has a big footprint – but it is very thin & light, so it’s easy to stash out of the way when not in use. Works great on a Mac (M1-2 & Intel). Reasonably fast, good colour accuracy, does 1200dpi. A magnitude less expensive than anything else comparable.
Need to scan larger documents? Get this scanner and you’re all set.
Started off a little slow. The drive was outdated. Tech support walked me through where to find the updated version. Driver integrates with Photoshop but a little inconsistent. Prefer to use stand alone interface. Good quality scans. Easy control access on scanner.
This Plustek A3 large scale scanner was extremely easy to use. It was really plug and play. After connecting the scanner, a quick download of the drivers, and click of a button, you’ll be scanning.
Ich bin voll zufrieden! Innerhalb von zwei Monaten habe ich 1300 Scans gemacht und alles hat super funktioniert. Einzig am Anfang war mir nicht bewusst, dass ich eine Kalibrierung durchfhren musste (ein mitgeliefertes Programm). Damit hat dann alles gut funktioniert. Ich scanne Dinge in hochqualitts-Klarsichtfolien. Die geringe Fokustiefe war fr mich bis auf einmal kein relevantes Problem bei 600dpi Scannauflsung.
Capable fast large format scanner for a reasonable price, plus it scans directly to PDF with the included software. It also does OCR and can scan directly to Microsoft Word. I bought it to scan old model airplane plans from magazines and it works great. No driver issues or anything, it worked right out of the box after I installed the software. The drivers are available online but you’ll need a DVD drive to install the Abby’s Finereader 12 software.
Scanner d’une grande rapidit et d’une grande qualit. Je l’ai achet pour scanner des albums photos qu’on ne peut plus transporter l’tranger vu leur encombrement et leur poids. Avec quelquefois des retouches avec Photoshop, le rsultat, projet sur un tlviseur est parfait.
Purchase this scanner to digitally score targets at our shooting matches.
It works perfectly. Scenes the target into the computer and the program we have installed reads the bullet holes and scores the target.
Save so much time doing it by hand also eliminates eye strain.
I had a very old Plustek A3 scanner bought about 2000 back in the days of Windows XP. It was good but eventually outdated. Years went by and had the need again. This updated model is far superior – lightning quick and looks good as well.
Works AOK on Windows but, even though it says it is TWAIN compliant, it is not recognizable by sane over USB or the network on Linux.
At first that response made me angry. But after working with the help people I realized that I no longer needed to align work with the edges of the glass. I can put work anywhere on the glass at any angle and the scanner would crop and straighten it for me. That made me feel better and I have scanned a lot of fragile old documents since. I still think though that a good scanner should scan the entire glass, but it mostly does not bother me and I think I should have upgraded a long time ago.
I personally was totally dissatisfied with the barring on scanned photos regardless of many changes in the settings including noise reduction. We can do much better taking a picture of the pictures with a good camera & not get any of the barring. I did not test the scanner on simple document scans for which it is probably ideal, but I do not need a large scanner that doesn’t fit where I usually keep my up-to-legal-size-page scanner but rather takes up my entire desk space for merely scanning documents; it was bought with a big project of scanning old photos from decades of photo albums before digital photography was the norm. Also, a WARNING: if you scan dark paper or pictures, you need to put a piece of white paper (simple printer paper will do) surrounding all 4 edges behind it for the algorithm to properly align the picture.
Their tech support was super (chat assistance came within 15 minutes of signing on to it (& had audible tone so you knew someone had responded) & next tier support communicated by email within a day to get more information & arrange for more thorough support). I appreciate their assistance in using this scanner, for the suggestion of various work-arounds, and for being positive & receptive to customer recommendations for future development (like considering having a white background built into their scanning lid if it works better for scanning dark documents & photos).
I’ve arranged for returning this scanner & will replace it with a smaller one that will fit into my designated scanner space & resume digitizing my photo albums using digital photography.
Needed to scan 12″x12″ scrapbook pages and other documents to store digitally and this is working out great! I use a Mac, so I can enhance to photo quality in Photos. Definitely saving us lots of money compared to paying someone to do this.
Gerade erst eingetroffen.
Meine aktuelle Bewertung:
Einfache Installation – schnelle Einarbeitung durch einfache Handhabung – super schneller Scan – gutes Ergebnis.
So wie ich es im Alltag brauche.
Appreciate not only the larger scan size, but also the ease of use and features that other scanners do not have. Anticipate a great deal of exploration of these.
I am a illustrator so I was looking for an A3 printer on a budget price. It took me a while to figure out how to scan the picture in. I work mainly in watercolours and after a while of tweaking the settings I managed to match the scan to almost near to my original then I tweak it a bit more in photoshop. So the colours are a bit tricky to match the original.
It is great for a budget scanner and it does the job.
Compatibility: I am using this scanner on MacOS 12.0.1 Monterey. So far, it has worked flawlessly. Installation was the standard procedure, not some strange custom installer. The scanner comes with a cable that has a USB-A connector on the host side. Recent MacBooks don’t have USB-A ports. So if you want to use the scanner with a recent MacBook, you will need a USB-A to USB-C adapter or else use a different USB cable.
Image Quality: I have scanned in black-and-white, grayscale, and color modes. All work well. And the different resolutions work well. The scanner correctly figures out the size of the page when it is in auto-size mode. And when you scan in PDF mode, it has no problem with documents that have a mix of page sizes., e.g., pages with foldouts. The file sizes are what one would expect. The black-and-white mode produces very compact files.
Scanning Application: The included software has a reasonable set of features. The user interface looks and feels like a native Apple application, which is good. Some scanner applications make their own strange user interface widgets that are unfamiliar and usually buggy. Refreshingly, this is not the case with the Plustek’s “MacAction 1.0.2.7” software. The OCR works well enough. There’s a setting for the language for OCR. Set that to the language you expect to be OCRing.
Downsides: Scanning a full-size page takes a few seconds. Of course one wants things to be fast, but the scanning is not that slow compared to the time it takes to open the lid, position the document, etc. So the speed is ok, in my opinion. One area for improvement is the OCR. When you finish scanning a bunch of pages with OCR enabled, the application performs the OCR operation. That causes the application to block for a while, which makes the user wait, losing productivity if there are more things to scan. It would be better if the OCR could be done concurrently with the scanning, e.g., OCRing each page as soon as it’s done being scanned. Doing it in the background afterwards is also a possibility, but that has potential downsides because scanned documents sometimes go in a junk pile, and background processing means that a problem might not be detected until later, when the originals have been junked.
Summary: I am completely satisfied with the Plustek OpticSlim 1180. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.
Is the connection No frills in the box just what you need to get going. I wish the USB and electric cord were longer. I also wish the software that comes with a scanner for Mac was a little less wonky. I’m getting the work done, but it’s with a fair amount of trial and error. The results of the scans are excellent let’s get that straight!
After much experimentation, my scan projects went well. The user manual has little in the way of explaining the scan interface screen options (of which there are many). All you tube searches for tutorial inevitably led to product commercials. Nice, but of little use. Still a great value and price point.
I recommend this product. But wish the user manual (pdf download) was more helpful.
Have Cannon USB scanner for normal work. Bought this primarily to scan 18 x 24 inch blue prints, two sets of 30 each in six scans each sheet and then stitching together in PhotoShop. Drawings folded not rolled, so first step is to get them flat. Then greyscale at 300 dpi.
Would have been nice if scanner had been 18 inches instead of A3 17 inches, could have managed in just three scans. But then who outside the US would need it so the price would be higher.
Flawless performance, auto deskew particularly useful.
Cannot think of any cons or improvements: a record purchase. Expect to use it often on books with the split page feature.
I didn’t review this product right away after getting it, as I wanted to use it for a while before reviewing. I can now say that I’m really happy with it. The scans are crystal clear, the scanner is easy to use and it’s fast. My only reservation is that it creates really large files and I then have to reduce the file size in my PDF program. But that is a small inconvenience given the scanner’s many great attributes.
Just installed the drivers, plugged it in, turned it on, pressed the scan button and the image poped up in windows. Couldn’t have been easier.
Figuring out the application was pretty straightforward. I was up and scanning in no time and because it wasn’t attached to a big printer, it was really easy to maneuver. Also really appreciated how easily it stitched together multiple scans into a single PDF, and cropped the pages accurately. Was also surprised how fast a cycle was because the available page area is so large. Super happy with the purchase.
Before this, I had an HP flatbed scanner and a Mustek large format scanner, both of which died eventually (after numerous years I might say). I use this kind of scanner VERY infrequently, mostly for music, but when I need it, I NEED it. Software installed fine, tried it a couple of times with various settings and it functioned just like I expected it to. You can’t beat it for the price!
very happy with the quality, especially for the price. almost half what kinko’s was going to charge for just the scans
Software is a little dated & not super intuitive. For example to name the file & select a different location, you have to go into a button setup each time. There’s a numbering scheme that you cannot disable. It is not network compatible. However, it scans well & is fairly fast. The images are clear. The top cover comes off completely for larger item scanning.
Scans very fast and software lets you pickup where you left off!
Great slimline scanner. Easy setup scans document and drawings perfectly ( actually better than the giant xerox at the office) and sends directly to computer for emailing or filing. I’m a designer and this makes sending plan drawing to my clients and subcontractors fast, convenient and easy! Excellent product!
I just purchased my second Plustek A3 scanner. I bought one about 3 years ago, and it has worked so well that when I needed a second scanner for another work station I decided to spend the extra money for the Plustek A3.
I list hundreds of lots of stamps on eBay each month, and it is great to have the extra space to show larger items and multiple item lots.
The picture quality is excellent, and the interface is easy to use.
The only problem I can see is that it is a little noisy.
If you are scanning regularly, and need a larger scanner, I highly recommend stepping up to this one
Very nice scanner. The color illustrations came out nice, but I was told by customer support that for artwork is best to purchase the one priced at a little bit over $500 because it has a different scanner best suited for Artwork. Customer support is excellent!
The scan quality is excellent–an 11×17 scan at 1200 DPI (the maximum limit) is about 20000×14000 pixels and you can even set the scan quality to lossless PNGs files. I can’t believe I did not get this scanner before, it is seriously a must-have for traditional artists.
Great scans and fairly easy to use. Great for the price as well.
Tech support is easy to find with a brief internet search. The size of the scanner bed is such a plus when scanning oversized documents. Perfect for the jobs we need it for!
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.
Nice scanner for the price and perfect what my needs. Was very easy to set up. It works perfect with my Windows 10 computer.
Great quality scans and one of the few 11×17 scanners
This scanner is fantastic, especially at this price range. Stop stitching together 8 1/2 X 11 scans ! The high resolution settings are great. Scans are fast. Controls are comprehensive. You can fudge your way through it by just pressing buttons and clicking here and there. The quick guide is effective too. Super value for the money. A must for comic book artists drawing at 10 X 15. I cut off 1/2 inch from m by 11 X 17 boards to allow the full page to sit flat. After three months of use, I’m quite satisfied.
This scanner scans very good IF…you import from photoshop. I have scanned my full color 9×12 comic art on this scanner, importing it from photoshop, and I am impressed. It scans very nicely! However, the software that comes with the scanner does not scan as well unless you really work the settings. But for 350 bucks Yes baby
I’ve experienced a few issues while scanning – I scan the same page 5 times, and one if them is skewed. I contacted tech support and they suggested I uninstall and reinstall, which I did. It is a little better, but I am sure a much higher priced machine would not do this. But overall, because I couldn’t afford a $2000 machine, it works for me.
I purchased this scanner for my son to replace an Epson scanner that he had to stitch photos together after scanning because they wouldn’t fit in the same scan. This scanner is not only superior in the scanning area size, the resolution is at least 4 times better than the old scanner. This one is definitely worth the money.
Well designed, ergonomic buttons, scans great, fully functional SW included, gets along well with Windows10, what’s not to like?
Item was delivered on time. It works perfectly and easily for what we wanted it to do – copy old photo albums. The larger format was exactly what we needed to make the job easy and fast.
Took me ages to install. Difficult way of setting up but good value for money. Some scanners are over a grand. Therefore, this is a good purchase made for my studies. The connection is good. Software runs well. Quite noisy which scanners can be! Little tricky finding the appropriate setting for brightness contrast etc but there are tools to help with that.
bought for my son in art industry. he asked for it. so far no complaints. i don’t have any other comments regrding tech support, interface etc. he likes it that’s all i know.
This scanner is great! I’ve been using an HP 8 x 14″ scanner for many years. It still works, but I do a LOT of scanning of 11 x 17 material, & have to split it in 2 pieces, & so I decided to get this one as well. It works G-R-E-A-T!!! It’s cut my scanning time in already, & maybe even by 67%. It even scans bound material almost as well as cut-sheet. Also, Plustek Customer Support is great — I had 2 questions that weren’t getting resolved by email, & so I called the support line, talked to Michael, & found out that the changes I was making to the software configuration weren’t holding simply because I wasn’t pressing the “Apply” button! Thanks again!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, especially if you do LOTS of scanning!
Si bien la interfaz de usuario del programa original es bastante bsica, todo mejora con el uso de VueScan. La acuciosidad del color no es ptima y requiere ciertos ajustes si se desea absoluta fidelidad. Pero lo ms importante para m es el gran tamao de la cama a una fraccin del precio de otros modelos de sta y de otras marcas.
This scanner is great. I had dark scans initially but fixed it in settings thanks to their customer service. Scans fast and the size is really convenient.
When it comes to scanning large format documents and images, this is the best scanner for the price. Scans high quality and at a fraction of the scanning time of competitors. You will not find a better scanner at this price level!
I’m very satisfied with this scanner! I’m really impressed with the quality of the scanned images, as a university student doing illustration this will really help with my course!
This scanner is exactly what I was looking for. I’m a comic artist who scans in inks in order to touch up my work digitally, and this scanner works perfectly for that. On top of that the scanner itself actually operates pretty quietly, the images are extremely high resolution, and the software for the product allows a lot of adjustments to get exactly what you need out of it. All in all I was extremely satisfied with this purchase, and it’s greatly improved the quality of my scans over past devices.
This is a really excellent product for both mono and colour photos also documents. It was easy to install and I contacted the serviced department of this company as there was a problem with the power adapter, it was resolved at once and very nice people to deal with. This is excellent value for money, will use company again, also delivered next day .
This large format 11″x17″ scanner works as advertised and is a great scanner for the price. It replaced a much older large format scanner that I owned and this new one is much faster.
Installation problemlos. Handbuch-Informationen vom Hersteller vorab per E-Mail erhalten (Service positiv). USB-Datenkabel sehr kurz, was vielleicht die bertragung begnstigt. Integrierte Funktion zur Beseitigung bzw. Abschwchung von Bildpunkten bei “Scan” (JPG) sollte bei Bedarf abschaltbar sein (besser wre, wenn sie im Bedarfsfall zugeschaltet werden knnte und ansonsten entfiele), ist bei “PDF” erfreulicherweise nicht wirksam. Die Tiefenschrfe bei gewellten Vorlagen und Buchkopien ist extrem gering – daher Abzug von einem Stern. Die Abdeckung kann sehr leicht abgenommen und wieder befestigt werden. Mitgelieferte OCR-Software ist hilfreich. Eine Kalibrierungstafel wurde leider nicht mitgeliefert, wre aber wnschenswert. Insgesamt positiver “erster Eindruck”.
Easy to install & use. Great results straight away. I would highly recommend..
Some other reviews complained about poor color quality scans, which I can’t attest to since I only scanned pencil drawings. For this use the scanner worked perfectly. The scanner took under 30 seconds for a 600 dpi TIFF scan. The options for the native software were fine for my needs, which mainly was to adjust for clear line drawings without too much bleed-through from other pages.
The one minor annoyance was that the scanner sometimes gave weird margins (i.e. lots of black space) on Automatic Sizing. I eventually had to create a specific sketchbook size format to force the scanner to only scan the sketchbook. After that, this was not a problem.
For this specific use I had, I think this scanner is the only option. Every other scanner cost way more than this one so the purchase was well worth it. But again this is for a very specific purpose and I can’t testify how well it might work for other uses.
me to use it patiently. No matter how stupid my problem was yesterday , he
still explained it to me slowly. Good service, I like it !
This is a good deal for me. Easy to install and simple interface. Although
there are some problems, but technical support help me quickly to solve it.
He also reminded me this scanner is more suitable for scanning documents or
drafts, for photos will recommend to buy a CCD scanner. But for me, the
quality is acceptable.
I bought this to scan old photos and newspapers etc. It was a great purchase. It is fast and makes high quality scans. My laptop doesn’t have a CD ROM drive, and the software I downloaded from the company website did not have the OCR software, so I had to use an old computer to transfer the software to my new one. But…well worth it.
Scanner interressant, an enlevant le couvercle pour scanner des livres par exemple ou document plus longs et larges, dpassant la vitre !
A huge time saver for scanning large drawings. The scan requires some brightness and color correction in photoshop, which takes me about a minute as with most other scanners. but the quality control on the product seems fine- no streaks or flaws in the scan that I kept getting with smaller store-bought scanners. So far I am very satisfied.
I put off purchasing one of these larger scanners for years due to the higher price, but now that I did I wish I had sooner. Its a huge time saver for me.
Conclusione: sono soddisfatto dell’acquisto.
l’appareil est vraiment parfait car trs rapide, on peut utiliser et scanner dans diffrents formats
je l’ai utilis pour des plans de maison et cela m’a vit l’imprimeur et j’ai pu les envoyer en pdf plusieurs entreprises
un peu cher mais il vaut le coup
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)
I haven’t used it a great deal but I finally decided to try & get it set-up on the computer. I, myself am not great with this stuff … At all but I got with the tech support & that guy was great. He was patient & walked me through step by step. Huge shout out to Nelson. I just assumed my setting up of this thing would include some ranting & raving, cursing at it, as is usually the case with my familiarizing myself with new technologies but with Nelson’s help I was able to avoid all the rage & frustration all together. Thank you
I am using this scanner connected to a Mac Mini and am enjoying it immensely. Initially, after downloading the latest Mac drivers from the Plustek website, about 50% of the time the scan would come up black. Sometimes I had to restart to regain a scanner connection. Then yesterday after a restart, a window popped up wanting me to install Similar Photo something-or-other software. This bit of Windows software, which I consider malware, installed itself onto the Mac and was interfering. Hopefully it has now been all deleted-successful scanning percentage has climbed to about 98%, which is fine for my work.
The scanner is very good,it catchers the smallest details for what ever you are scanning.
Make sure to have monitors that are calibrated when scanning. At first I was using a setup with older monitors but once I tried it on my laptop, I just knew I had to have this scanners babies.
This is an excellent scanner for the price very happy with i
I sell books and this makes life easy for images!
Excellent product! I am digitizing all the old family scrapbooks, many which are disintegrating around the photos. (Acid-free paper was not a “thing” ion the 1970s, at least not for regular folks)
It also picks up color amazingly. Most scanners I’ve worked with don’t pick up pinks very well. This did great! I still have to do a little tweaking in photoshop, but nowhere near as much.
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 have used it a few times now and it is working as advertised. The OCR function is working better than Adobe’s OCR software. So far so good…
I’m very happy for buy this scanner. The device is great worth to buy it. I use this scanner scan some tabloid and recipe from newspaper every day , I very satisfy with the scan quality and scan speed. And the scanner is not heavy , usually I erect near my desk. Overall,it’s convenient to scan larger page.
Use it all the time. Large size flatbed scanner that I really am glad to have.
Be sure to follow the simple installation instructions. Install the drivers before plugging in or you might run into an issue with the OS reporting that too much power used by a USB device. With drivers installed everything works fine.
Scanning is fast and simple.
The 12×17 format lets me create a fairly decent size original (usually I keep it to 11×17 to make sure everything is scanned)- much better for my work flow than an 8×10 format would have been.The software was a pain but my next door IT Tech solved it.
Color is not critical for me – (after reading other reviews of this product I scanned a watercolor original and it came out a bit dark- I upped the resolution to 600 dpi tweaked the brightness up and rescanned as a png and a black line appeared in the image..hmm)
a 400 dpi png color scan worked fine for my purposes -( screen shot image attached 12x 16 original )
I won’t give it a 5 star review because my test with photos didn’t go well. I scanned a photo of a barn (400 dpi .png) and the detail on the shadow side dropped out ( screen shot image attached 4×6 original) – could be a setting fix, I don’t know, but I don’t want to be overly enthusiastic and mislead others who have different needs.
After 2 years of reliable service I have just replaced this with the more advanced/expensive Plustek OpticPro A320L. The reason is that the CCD scanning of the A320L can give better results than the CIS scanning for this model on certain kinds of materials, including some that I find myself needing to scan now. The Amazon listing for the A320L provides a brief explanation. To lean more just google for “CIS vs CCD scanning”.
I want to emphasize that for a very wide range of scanning needs this OpticSlim 1180 has been entirely satisfactory. The criticisms that the scans are “too dark” are a mystery to me. You have complete control over how dark or light the scans are in the software that comes with it and if you want lighter scans it’s a very simple adjustment.
ORIGINAL REVIEW 7/2017:
In terms of function this is a pretty basic scanner. You can get one for one-fifth the price that is comparable in every respect — EXCEPT that its scan area is only half as big. This seems to be the least expensive large-area flatbed scanner out there by a considerable margin, and it will serve very well for most purposes.
In general I’m a bit wary about color fidelity on LED scanners, but it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with this one. I’m uploading two scans of a standard IT-8.7/IS-12641 color calibration target. One was made with basic scanning s/w and the other with VueScan. (No prizes for guessing which is which.) What this tells me is that the OS1180 is entirely adequate for any but the very most demanding of reflective-media scanning tasks. But if you want high-quality scans you have to have high-quality software. And you won’t find it growing on trees or lying in the street. That to say that you need to figure the price of VueScan or some comparable package (if there is any) into the total cost if you want quality scans of high-quality materials.
The scanner comes with a CD containing the manual in PDF form, the driver, a copy of ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint, and miscellaneous scanner utility s/w. There is a new driver (actually two, one for Mac and one for PC) on the Plustek Web site, which is supposed to provide improved color scans. (The scans I’m posting are made with it.) Installation from the CD went pretty smoothly on my Win 10 PC. But with the new driver it took me a lot of tries to get it to install without stirring up Norton Security.
Neither the old driver nor the new has been entirely stable. At random times the scanner stops working properly in any of a variety of ways. It’s necessary to close the driver and re-start the scanner, which usually does the trick. It’s not a major problem but it happens often enough to be pretty annoying.
One of the big uses for a large scanner is to scan books, two pages at a time. The ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint that ships with the scanner is probably the best of the “lite” OCR apps and works well for double-page scanning. Although bundled with the OS1180 it will work with other scanners as well, if you have any.
In theory the scanner has four “built-in” scanning functions, actuated by buttons: scan, e-mail, OCR and PDF. I’ve had no luck with them; they produce some scanner activity followed by a “generic error” pop-up message. It’s probably possible to get them to function if you work hard enough with the software, but I haven’t bothered.
ADDENDUM: Called tech support back and got a Michael who walked me through everything and made it all work and was very very friendly and helpful. I am not satisfied and will see how the scanner works for me. Will add more late