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I've heard of one. There's a company called Visioneer that does them. Despite the fact that the CEO of the 12 person company I used to work at used to be their CEO, I know very little about them. On reflection, they do sound very handy.

they're written in either VB or some extremely Windows-oriented GUI builder so they're no-go on Mac, Unix, Linux, etc.

I've also noticed that hardware developers are shooting themselves in the foot by not providing drivers and software for different platforms, or at least software with equivalent features as their Windows counterparts, especially if their hardware uses USB. One example is Visioneer. They make a great paper archiving setup, and had a Mac version up until OS X, when they dropped support for the platform. Another example is Canon. I noticed that although the software they provide for their LiDE 50 scanners look similar on both platforms, there are slight differences that matter. The Mac version of their Toolbox lacks the option of manually handling the numbering of files when you use the "Save" function in the toolbox. And their ScanGear software lacks the "Text Enhanced" feature that the Windows version has, which is important for compression. Not having these options set up prevents their scanners from being efficiently used for paper archiving on the Mac in comparison to the Windows version.

I've been trying to find out how to do this myself for ages!!! I used to archive handwritten documents and sketches using a Visioneer PaperPort Vx sheet-feed scanner on a Windows 95 laptop years ago. I could manage to save at least a file cabinet drawer worth of pages onto a single CD-R. The setup worked great, and was even portable so I could travel with it! It scanned pages pretty quickly.

The kind of medium I was scanning could cause problems. Sheets of pad paper, paper bound notebooks, and even hard-bound notebooks that I took apart would usually have remaining bits of binding glue that would cause a paper jam. I would have to pull the page from the other end of the scanner to help it avoid jamming. Since then I've switched to using spiral-bound unruled notebooks with covers solid enough to keep the corners of the pages from curling due to wear and tear. The spiral binding insured that I didn't have to deal with binding glue jams. Crisp flat pages also prevented jams due to curled corners.

I scanned them in at 300 dpi in black and white using the text enhanced mode so that the contrast was adjusted automatically for better compression. Without this, the blank areas of a scanned page would be percieved as having some shade, and the scanned image would have some pixel dithering to represent the shade. This would cause difficulty for the compression algorithm and result in a large file size. With the text enhanced mode, the blank areas were percieved as being absolutely white, which would maximise the efficiency of the compression algorithm. This would result in much smaller file sizes. At first, I used the PaperPort software's ".MAX" proprietary file format, but I ended up converting them to LZW-compressed TIFFs so that I could open the documents on computers not equipped with PaperPort software.

If the papers you need to scan are crisp uncurled pages without residual binding glue like that you find on pads, scanning will be a breeze. You can use a scanner with an automatic document feeder, because you won't have to worry about paper jams. Otherwise, you will have to scan each page manually. The Visioneer Strobe XP 450 PDF looks like a good one for this. If they do have curls or glue but are all of a uniform size, a flatbed would be your best bet, because you wouldn't have to worry about jams and would have to only manually set the cropping size just once. If the papers vary in size a great deal (say if you were scanning in a bunch of receipts of different lengths and widths) a sheet-feed scanner would be better because they crop the pages automatically, although you would have to worry about jams. At least the Visioneer ones do. There is another sheet-feed scanner for the Mac called the TravelScan 464M, but I don't have any experience with it, so I don't know if it automatically crops.

I eventually decided that I would like to try scanning in greyscale, because although black and white was fine for printed text, I felt that it wasn't clear enough for handwriting and sketches. I knew that the file sizes would be larger, so I decided I would need to burn them onto DVD. I bought the first laptop to burn DVDs immediately when it first came out, which was the PowerBook with SuperDrive. To my disappointment, I found that Visioneer dropped support for the Mac when OS X was introduced, so I couldn't use their scanners. I got a legacy Visioneer Strobe Pro scanner on eBay, ordered the Mac OS 9 installation disk from Visioneer, and I tried installing the PaperPort software for System 9, wit

I've been trying to find out how to do this myself for ages!!! I used to archive handwritten documents and sketches using a Visioneer PaperPort Vx sheet-feed scanner on a Windows 95 laptop years ago. I could manage to save at least a file cabinet drawer worth of pages onto a single CD-R. The setup worked great, and was even portable so I could travel with it! It scanned pages pretty quickly.

The kind of medium I was scanning could cause problems. Sheets of pad paper, paper bound notebooks, and even hard-bound notebooks that I took apart would usually have remaining bits of binding glue that would cause a paper jam. I would have to pull the page from the other end of the scanner to help it avoid jamming. Since then I've switched to using spiral-bound unruled notebooks with covers solid enough to keep the corners of the pages from curling due to wear and tear. The spiral binding insured that I didn't have to deal with binding glue jams. Crisp flat pages also prevented jams due to curled corners.

I scanned them in at 300 dpi in black and white using the text enhanced mode so that the contrast was adjusted automatically for better compression. Without this, the blank areas of a scanned page would be percieved as having some shade, and the scanned image would have some pixel dithering to represent the shade. This would cause difficulty for the compression algorithm and result in a large file size. With the text enhanced mode, the blank areas were percieved as being absolutely white, which would maximise the efficiency of the compression algorithm. This would result in much smaller file sizes. At first, I used the PaperPort software's ".MAX" proprietary file format, but I ended up converting them to LZW-compressed TIFFs so that I could open the documents on computers not equipped with PaperPort software.

If the papers you need to scan are crisp uncurled pages without residual binding glue like that you find on pads, scanning will be a breeze. You can use a scanner with an automatic document feeder, because you won't have to worry about paper jams. Otherwise, you will have to scan each page manually. The Visioneer Strobe XP 450 PDF looks like a good one for this. If they do have curls or glue but are all of a uniform size, a flatbed would be your best bet, because you wouldn't have to worry about jams and would have to only manually set the cropping size just once. If the papers vary in size a great deal (say if you were scanning in a bunch of receipts of different lengths and widths) a sheet-feed scanner would be better because they crop the pages automatically, although you would have to worry about jams. At least the Visioneer ones do. There is another sheet-feed scanner for the Mac called the TravelScan 464M, but I don't have any experience with it, so I don't know if it automatically crops.

I eventually decided that I would like to try scanning in greyscale, because although black and white was fine for printed text, I felt that it wasn't clear enough for handwriting and sketches. I knew that the file sizes would be larger, so I decided I would need to burn them onto DVD. I bought the first laptop to burn DVDs immediately when it first came out, which was the PowerBook with SuperDrive. To my disappointment, I found that Visioneer dropped support for the Mac when OS X was introduced, so I couldn't use their scanners. I got a legacy Visioneer Strobe Pro scanner on eBay, ordered the Mac OS 9 installation disk from Visioneer, and I tried installing the PaperPort software for System 9, wit

I've been trying to find out how to do this myself for ages!!! I used to archive handwritten documents and sketches using a Visioneer PaperPort Vx sheet-feed scanner on a Windows 95 laptop years ago. I could manage to save at least a file cabinet drawer worth of pages onto a single CD-R. The setup worked great, and was even portable so I could travel with it! It scanned pages pretty quickly.

The kind of medium I was scanning could cause problems. Sheets of pad paper, paper bound notebooks, and even hard-bound notebooks that I took apart would usually have remaining bits of binding glue that would cause a paper jam. I would have to pull the page from the other end of the scanner to help it avoid jamming. Since then I've switched to using spiral-bound unruled notebooks with covers solid enough to keep the corners of the pages from curling due to wear and tear. The spiral binding insured that I didn't have to deal with binding glue jams. Crisp flat pages also prevented jams due to curled corners.

I scanned them in at 300 dpi in black and white using the text enhanced mode so that the contrast was adjusted automatically for better compression. Without this, the blank areas of a scanned page would be percieved as having some shade, and the scanned image would have some pixel dithering to represent the shade. This would cause difficulty for the compression algorithm and result in a large file size. With the text enhanced mode, the blank areas were percieved as being absolutely white, which would maximise the efficiency of the compression algorithm. This would result in much smaller file sizes. At first, I used the PaperPort software's ".MAX" proprietary file format, but I ended up converting them to LZW-compressed TIFFs so that I could open the documents on computers not equipped with PaperPort software.

If the papers you need to scan are crisp uncurled pages without residual binding glue like that you find on pads, scanning will be a breeze. You can use a scanner with an automatic document feeder, because you won't have to worry about paper jams. Otherwise, you will have to scan each page manually. The Visioneer Strobe XP 450 PDF looks like a good one for this. If they do have curls or glue but are all of a uniform size, a flatbed would be your best bet, because you wouldn't have to worry about jams and would have to only manually set the cropping size just once. If the papers vary in size a great deal (say if you were scanning in a bunch of receipts of different lengths and widths) a sheet-feed scanner would be better because they crop the pages automatically, although you would have to worry about jams. At least the Visioneer ones do. There is another sheet-feed scanner for the Mac called the TravelScan 464M, but I don't have any experience with it, so I don't know if it automatically crops.

I eventually decided that I would like to try scanning in greyscale, because although black and white was fine for printed text, I felt that it wasn't clear enough for handwriting and sketches. I knew that the file sizes would be larger, so I decided I would need to burn them onto DVD. I bought the first laptop to burn DVDs immediately when it first came out, which was the PowerBook with SuperDrive. To my disappointment, I found that Visioneer dropped support for the Mac when OS X was introduced, so I couldn't use their scanners. I got a legacy Visioneer Strobe Pro scanner on eBay, ordered the Mac OS 9 installation disk from Visioneer, and I tried installing the PaperPort software for System 9, wit

I've been trying to find out how to do this myself for ages!!! I used to archive handwritten documents and sketches using a Visioneer PaperPort Vx sheet-feed scanner on a Windows 95 laptop years ago. I could manage to save at least a file cabinet drawer worth of pages onto a single CD-R. The setup worked great, and was even portable so I could travel with it! It scanned pages pretty quickly.

The kind of medium I was scanning could cause problems. Sheets of pad paper, paper bound notebooks, and even hard-bound notebooks that I took apart would usually have remaining bits of binding glue that would cause a paper jam. I would have to pull the page from the other end of the scanner to help it avoid jamming. Since then I've switched to using spiral-bound unruled notebooks with covers solid enough to keep the corners of the pages from curling due to wear and tear. The spiral binding insured that I didn't have to deal with binding glue jams. Crisp flat pages also prevented jams due to curled corners.

I scanned them in at 300 dpi in black and white using the text enhanced mode so that the contrast was adjusted automatically for better compression. Without this, the blank areas of a scanned page would be percieved as having some shade, and the scanned image would have some pixel dithering to represent the shade. This would cause difficulty for the compression algorithm and result in a large file size. With the text enhanced mode, the blank areas were percieved as being absolutely white, which would maximise the efficiency of the compression algorithm. This would result in much smaller file sizes. At first, I used the PaperPort software's ".MAX" proprietary file format, but I ended up converting them to LZW-compressed TIFFs so that I could open the documents on computers not equipped with PaperPort software.

If the papers you need to scan are crisp uncurled pages without residual binding glue like that you find on pads, scanning will be a breeze. You can use a scanner with an automatic document feeder, because you won't have to worry about paper jams. Otherwise, you will have to scan each page manually. The Visioneer Strobe XP 450 PDF looks like a good one for this. If they do have curls or glue but are all of a uniform size, a flatbed would be your best bet, because you wouldn't have to worry about jams and would have to only manually set the cropping size just once. If the papers vary in size a great deal (say if you were scanning in a bunch of receipts of different lengths and widths) a sheet-feed scanner would be better because they crop the pages automatically, although you would have to worry about jams. At least the Visioneer ones do. There is another sheet-feed scanner for the Mac called the TravelScan 464M, but I don't have any experience with it, so I don't know if it automatically crops.

I eventually decided that I would like to try scanning in greyscale, because although black and white was fine for printed text, I felt that it wasn't clear enough for handwriting and sketches. I knew that the file sizes would be larger, so I decided I would need to burn them onto DVD. I bought the first laptop to burn DVDs immediately when it first came out, which was the PowerBook with SuperDrive. To my disappointment, I found that Visioneer dropped support for the Mac when OS X was introduced, so I couldn't use their scanners. I got a legacy Visioneer Strobe Pro scanner on eBay, ordered the Mac OS 9 installation disk from Visioneer, and I tried installing the PaperPort software for System 9, wit

I can't wait to see if Visioneer sues Compaq for this. How funny is it that even when the PC makers try to be different, their name for the process of being different is already the name of another company! Apparently the Compaq R&D guy who stumbled across a site with photos of Apple prototypes should have gone that extra mile and tried www.visioneer.com before naming their Apple-copying effort.

~Philly