Patent ID: 7345795

Claim:
A method for scanning a document comprising a plurality of pages, comprising: scanning a first page in the document at a first scanning speed, the first scanning speed being one of a color speed and a monochromatic speed; determining if the first page is color or monochrome based on a result of the scan of the first page; rescanning the first page at a second scanning speed, the second scanning speed being the other of a color speed and a monochromatic speed, if the first speed is the monochromatic speed and the first page is determined to be color, or if the first speed is the color speed and the first page is determined to be monochrome; and maintaining a count of the number of scanned pages that are color and the number of scanned pages that are monochrome, and at each subsequent page of the document to be scanned, initially scanning that subsequent page at the monochrome scanning speed or the color scanning speed when the majority of the scanned pages are monochrome or color, respectively.