Epson DS-C490 scanner, sheet-fed, A4, duplex, 600 dpi, USB

Unlike a flatbed scanner, where every page is laid on the glass one at a time, a sheet-fed scanner pulls the paper through by itself. For digitising documents that is far quicker: invoices, contracts, receipts and forms pass through one after another. The DS-C490 belongs to Epson's compact scanner series and takes up little room on the desk.

Two-sided scanning means the front and back of a sheet are captured at the same time, so pages do not need turning over or feeding a second time. With double-sided contracts, forms and letters this saves time and keeps the pages in the right order in the file.

An optical resolution of 600 × 600 dpi is ample for documents: text, tables, signatures and stamps come out clearly in the file, and text recognition software can read them well. The maximum paper size is A4, which covers ordinary office documents.

The scanner connects to a computer with a USB cable through a Hi-Speed USB interface compatible with the USB 2.0 specification. A wired connection is reliable and needs no network setup, so the scanner is ready to use as soon as the software is installed.

Accountants and office staff who digitise invoices and contracts every day; reception desks and customer service teams that need to scan forms and documents quickly; and any business that wants to leave its paper archive behind. A compact sheet-fed scanner helps keep the archive in order and documents easy to find.