The scanning procedure can be built into the filing process. A brief which is filed with the clerk's office can be time-stamped and then taken to a desktop scanner and scanned in just a few minutes. The brief can then be returned to the attorney for his file, if he wishes to keep it in paper form. The speed of scanning is quite simliar to the speed of photocopying. A large and busy court clerk's office might need a scanner which can handle 50 or 100 pages per minute.
Document imaging is, of course, a second-best approach.
A pleading, motion, or brief, is first created in digital form, in a word processor. Printing the document transforms it from electrons to paper. Document imaging takes that paper document and re-translates it to digital data. Overall, this process is very inefficient compared to filing the native electronic file. It is far preferable to keep the document in its native digital format throughout the process, creating a temporary paper copy only as necessary for reading purposes.