Output quality 8. I love scanners and have several. The one to the left of my desk is sideways and very fast. I use it for archiving anything, faxing, and emailing. My next suggestion is to realize that your first scanner will most likely only be the first of several.
Experts claim that the industry turns over every ninety days.
Take heart, scanners can only improve so much, and they have improved dramatically over the last five years. The better, cheaper, faster, smaller machine may be not too different from what we know today. Considering the real estate means check the space on your desktop. The available real estate will probably limit the types of scanner you should consider. Handhelds are usually the smallest scanners and are great for small areas such as magazine or newspaper articles.