Canon ImageFormula DR-C130 review

Canon's ImageFormula document scanner is placed at the affordable end of the firm's range. The DR-C130 is a desktop scanner aimed at light use in small workgroups. It's capable of scanning at up to 30 pages per minute and is supplied with a comprehensive software bundle, but does it live up to the high standards set by the rest of the range?

The DR-C130 has an uninspiring grey colour scheme and is the size of a desktop phone. Its lid flips up to form a 50-page input tray, while another flap pivots down to form the output. We can't fault the basic input, but the output tray must be lowered then folded open to support standard A4 paper there's precious little room to hook a finger under the extension, so opening it fully is something of a fiddle.

Even when extended the tray isn't ideal, with a tapered profile that doesn't entirely support the far end of the output stack. Unusually, it's possible to scan with it closed if you don't mind paper being ejected directly onto or off the desk, which could be an advantage where space is at a premium.

Things are more conventional elsewhere. The scanner is shipped without the main pinch roller installed, so users' first experience will be opening up the firmly latched transport mechanism to install it. It's an easy job, which reveals that the opening is plenty wide enough to clear jams and clean the sensor covers. Although the scanner seems lighter than some others in its class, it all feels properly put together. Canon quotes a 2,000-page daily duty, which is four times what Brother claims for the similar ADS-2100.

Software

We weren't immediately bowled over by the DR-C130 itself, we were delighted to see that it comes with Canon's CaptureOnTouch software, which is the easiest and most intuitive scan management software we've encountered. It's the highlight of a comprehensive bundle, which includes TWAIN and ISIS support along with Presto! BizCard 6 SE to capture and manage business cards, and NewSoft PaperPort 11 for document management.

There's support for collaborative and cloud working via a plugin for Microsoft SharePoint, a free download that integrates with Evernote and native support for Google Docs. Canon even supplies Kofax VRS, which aims to optimise the speed and quality of scan results. One downside of all this software is that the installation takes time, with most components presenting their own licence agreement, but it's only likely to grate if you have to roll out several scanners at a time.

Once installed it's easy to get up and running with the DR-C130. The scanner itself has three small buttons to control power and to start and stop scans. With paper loaded, pressing the Start button calls up CaptureOnTouch and starts a scan with the default, fully automatic settings, which detect whether to scan in colour and whether the originals have content on both sides. It's easy and quick to change the headline settings, although more detailed options involve using the advanced configuration dialogue.

CaptureOnTouch previews pages while the scan is in progress and then allows users to browse through them and perform simple edits and corrections before saving the results. The default destination is to save a searchable PDF file to disk, but other formats include TIFF and JPG images, while other destinations include email recipients, a printer or a cloud service. Depending on the resolution and format there's a short processing delay before the scan is complete, but it's generally just a few seconds.