Sometimes the cost of automation is loss of control, though. Conversely, the Canon and Epson scanners in our roundup have single buttons that require several clicks before they can be set up to scan directly to any software. The quality and automation of one-touch OCR varied greatly among these scanners. The Epson Perfection 1200U's OCR, though not a true one-touch operation, was the most accurate for creating an editable file with the entire layout intact. All the scanners we tested use Twain to acquire images from within programs such as PhotoImpact.
All units offer limited interfaces designed for novices, with some advanced controls a click away.
Though the packaging of our current group of scanners refers to each unit's ability to scan to applications such as e-mail, vendors plan on marketing future versions of their scanners as Internet or Web devices. With the current batch of scanners, we found that consumer Web functionality was better implemented than that for e-business. Nonetheless, scanners with customizable buttons can simplify repetitive scanning for Web site creation. Yet business Web sites do make more demands on such automation. After all, the look and effectiveness of your Web page can help close a deal.