CanoScan LiDE 20: It’s Small, It’s Cute, It’s Slow

As I searched through the clutter on my desk, trying to find an important document that I just knew was in one of the piles, I suddenly realized how I could solve my paper clutter problem—with a scanner. Instead of keeping all of my forms and documents in paper files all over my house and office, I could just save them electronically on my hard drive (and keep a backup CD tucked safely away). This seemed like a wise course of action, so began my search for a scanner.

After performing a good amount of research, I finally settled on the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20. I chose this scanner primarily for its small size, aptitude for scanning documents, ability to scan pictures with reasonably good quality, and the included software bundle. Although I was ready to take a sledgehammer to the thing during the first few days of using it, I have grown to love this scanner—it really is a great choice for my needs.

Basic Specs

Ok, I know that the first thing anyone would want to know is the basic information about this flatbed scanner. Here are the basics:
• Maximum Resolution (Optical) 600 dpi
• Maximum Resolution (Hardware) 600 x 1200 dpi
• Maximum Resolution (Interpolated) 9600 x 9600 dpi
• 48 Bit Depth
• USB Interface: 2.0 Full Speed (1.1 equivalent)
• Document Size: 8.5 x 11.7 max
• Light Source: Three Color RGB LEDs
• Scanning Element: CIS (Contact Image Sensor)
• 1 Year Limited Warranty

What’s in the Box

After buying the scanner at Circuit City, I opened up the box and carefully dumped the contents onto my desk. We have all had the experience of looking in a box and getting intimidated by all of the little pieces—well nobody will have that problem with this Canon scanner.

In the box is the scanner, the USB cable, a stand (more on its use later), an installation CD, a fourteen page “Quick Start Guide,” and a four page advertisement for Canon printers and digital cameras—that’s it.

What I find most important is what is not included in the box: first, there is no power cord (the printer gets its power from the computer via the USB cable); second, there is no instruction manual (it is only on the CD). As a guy who likes having a hard copy of manuals, the omission of an instruction book was a little troubling—but then I realized that the elimination of such clutter is exactly why I bought this scanner.

Installation

Installation was definitely my worst experience with the scanner. I put the CD into my notebook running Windows XP Home Edition, followed instructions, and received the message saying that the scanner was installed. I was pretty impressed until I tried to scan something and it failed (my computer refused to recognize the scanner). I went to Canon’s website and read articles on troubleshooting—the articles were pretty much completely useless. I tried emailing Canon’s technical support team and received back an automated response designed to answer my question based upon the key words in the email that I sent to them—that was a total waste.

After spending an hour or two downloading newer drivers from Canon’s website, I finally got unit up and running. I went on a few forums looking for the problems others faced when installing the scanner, but I found very few helpful posts. I know a couple other people with this scanner, and they have had no problems with installation—so my experience might be an anomaly.

Software is included for installing this scanner on a Macintosh, but I have not attempted this.

Scanning Speed

This is by no means a fast scanner (in part due to its USB 1.1 connectivity), but the speed does not bother me. According to Canon, the scanning speed is 16 msec/line (600 dpi) for color and 5.3 msec/line (600 dpi) for grayscale or black and white. Translating that to basic English, I scan documents at high quality and it only takes about 15-20 seconds. When I scan photographs at decent quality it takes a little more time㬚-40 seconds. If you are looking for sheer speed in a scanner, this one is probably not for you (for instance, if I just wanted a scanner to turn a couple thousand pictures into jpeg files, then there is no way I would have bought this scanner).

Scanning Quality

I have been extremely pleased with the quality of the scanning on this unit. Granted the majority of the scanning I do is documents or items for presentations (I do a lot of graphs, charts, and maps). Everything I have wanted this scanner to do, it has done well. I have worked with scanning pictures, just to test the quality—it was good. I scanned a few 4 x 6 photographs and blew them up to 8 x 10 prints—the quality was excellent. My expectations for scanning photographs were pretty low (otherwise I definitely would have chosen either the LiDE 30 or 50 for their higher resolution). The LiDE 20 definitely exceeded my expectations for scanning quality.


Included Software

Besides the drivers and installation software, the scanner comes with a CD containing an impressive bundle of software:

• CanoScan Toolbox (a scanning utility program)

This program works well for scanning photos and documents. You can simply choose what type item you are scanning (i.e. photograph, magazine article, chart, page of text, etc.) or you can adjust with the settings manually. There is a high level of manual controls for those of us who like such power.

This program also works with the three automatic buttons on the front of the scanner (scan, copy, email).

• ArcSoft PhotoStudio (an image edition program)

This is a nice program for performing basic edition functions on photographs. This program works well for everything from taking out read eye to putting a holiday border around a favorite picture.

• ArcSoft Photobase (a photo album program)

Photobase is used for organizing pictures and making slideshows.

• ScanSoft OmniPage (OCR program)

This is my favorite of the installed software. With this program, a document can be scanned, and the computer will identify the text. The scanned text can either be automatically saved as a text or RTF document or it can be put on the clipboard and pasted to another program. For instance, if I am working on a paper and need a large quote from a book, I can simply scan the page, and paste the paragraph straight into Microsoft Word where it can be edited or reformatted in my paper however I like. Now that I have this program, I have no clue how I lived all my life without it.

OmniPage is not without its flaws—it has a tendency to misidentify words or letters (this usually only happens when a strange or “creative” font it used), so proof-reading is important.

• Adobe Acrobat Reader (a PDF file reader program)

This is nothing more than the free download.

• Scanning Guide (an instruction manual).
Nope, there is no hard copy of the manual—you will have to study the electronic copy if you need it.

Aesthetics

Ok, honestly, I let the sheer sleek beauty of this product influence my decision to buy it (and I am usually exceptionally practical in all my product choices). The gray and blue exterior of this scanner gives it a sleek, professional look (matching my notebook exactly). Even better than the color, the unit is much smaller than comparable scanners (its dimensions are: 10” x 15” x 1.3”). That’s right—it is only 1.3 inches thick and it weighs just 3.3 pounds. With those measurements, it fits snugly into my notebook bag along with my computer. This really is a perfect choice for those looking for a scanner to travel with because it has no AC adapter. The scanner gets its power from the computer through the USB cable. On the go, all that is needed is the unit and the USB cord.

The scanner also comes with a very useful stand which stands the scanner up horizontally. The directions explain how the scanner can be used while standing up horizontally in the stand, but that really seems too difficult so I take it off the stand when I want to scan. I do like the stand for storage because it keeps the scanner’s footprint very small on my desk.

Final Thoughts

I bought this scanner several months back, and I have been very pleased with my purchase. I was a little concerned that the resolution would not be high enough, but it has more than met my needs. This is a terrific scanner for those wanting a scanner with petite size, the capability of scanning documents at high quality, the ability to scan pictures with reasonably good quality, and a powerful included software bundle—all at a reasonable price.