Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner Review
The competition in the midrange sheet-feed desktop document scanner genre, where the Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner ($549) fits squarely, is fierce.
Designed for small- to medium-size offices and workgroups, or perhaps as a busy personal scanner, the DS-770 costs a little more than the Editors' Choice HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s3 Sheet-Feed Scanner, but it's also a bit faster and somewhat more accurate.
The Epson's excellent mix of features and performance knocks the ScanJet Pro 3000 from its top spot perch in our lineup of midrange non-networkable document scanners.
A Place in the Pack
At 7.9 by 11.7 by 6.7 inches (HWD) with its trays closed and weighing 8.1 pounds, the Epson DS-770 is close in size (and looks a lot like) several of its competitors, as well as its predecessor, the nearly identical WorkForce DS-760 Color Document Scanner.
That makes the DS-770 a little smaller than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000 and less than a pound lighter, but a little bigger and heavier than the HP ScanJet Pro 2000.
The costlier, more robust, and network-ready Brother ImageCenter ADS-3600W, on the other hand, is somewhat taller, longer, and about 2 pounds heavier than the DS-770.
Despite these size differences, with their trays extended and in service, these scanners all have similar footprints.
As for scanning capacity, the DS-770 ($524.99 at Amazon) comes with a 100-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for passing multipage two-sided documents over the scanning sensors, and it has a daily duty cycle of 5,000 scans.
The HP ScanJet Pro 3000 ($479.99 at HP) , on the other hand, as well as the other competing models mentioned here so far, all come with smaller, 50-sheet ADFs.
All of these scanners have lower daily duty cycles than the DS-770.
You can operate the DS-770 via either its somewhat sparse five-button—Power, Double Feed Skip, Slow Mode, Stop, and Start—control panel, or via one of the programs in the software bundle (more on that below).
Neither of the ScanJet models comes with elaborate control panels, either, but both the Brother ADS 2700W and ADS-3600W ($799.99 at Amazon) sport color touch screens that make setting up scan jobs from the face of the scanner easy.
With the other models mentioned here, including the DS-770, much of the configuration of workflow profiles and setting up scans is controlled from the accompanying software.
Comprehensive Software Bundle
As with all of Epson's scanners nowadays, there's no software in the DS-770's box.
Instead, you must download it from the company's support site.
As usual for the many Epson scanners I've reviewed, finding the bundle is easy and it downloaded and installed the scanner on our testbed PC without incident.
In addition to the drivers, the following programs were installed: Epson Scan 2, a basic but robust scanner interface; Epson Document Capture Pro, a combination scanning interface/rudimentary document management program for archiving documents; ABBYY FineReader Sprint, a state-of-the-art optical character recognition (OCR) program for converting scanned text to editable text; and NewSoft Presto! BizCard OCR for scanning and archiving business card data.
A Strong Performer
Epson rates the DS-770 at 45 one-sided (simplex) pages per minute (ppm) and 90 two-sided (duplex) images per minute (or ipm, where each page side constitutes an image).
I tested the DS-770 using Epson Scan 2 over USB 3.0 from our Standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC.
When scanning our one-sided 25-page document, without the lag time (the time between when the last page in the scan job hits the output tray and the document is saved to a useable file format), the DS-770 scored 50ppm and 100ipm, higher than Epson's ratings.
You can't really make use of scans, though, until they're saved to a viable format.
In the next part of our tests, I scanned the same pages and converted the scans to image PDF.
Here, the DS-770 managed 46.2ppm and 85.7ppm.
That's about 13ppm and 20ipm faster than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000, 23ppm and 45ipm faster than the HP 2000, and about 23ppm and 16ipm ahead of the Brother ADS-2700W.
See How We Test Scanners
More impressive than its image PDF scores, though, is that it scanned and processed our test documents to searchable PDF at the same speeds as it did for image PDFs.
It scanned and saved our two-sided 25-page (50 sides) document to searchable PDF in just 35 seconds, or 20 seconds faster than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000, 55 seconds faster than the HP 2000, 15 seconds faster than the Brother ADS-3600W, and 15 seconds faster than the ADS-2700W.
In other words, it beat all the other scanners discussed in this review, including its DS-760 predecessor.
Dead-On Accuracy
It's also important that your scanner and its accompanying software convert scanned text to editable text accurately, so that you're not burning up valuable time correcting its errors.
To that end, the Epson DS-770 scanned and converted our sample font tests with better-than-average accuracy.
It scanned and saved both our Arial and Times New Roman font pages without errors down to 6 points.
(We consider both fonts at 8 points error-free to be average.)
The Brother ADS-3600W, the HP ScanJet Pro 2000, and the HP ScanJet Pro 3000 all came close, with scores of 6 points without mistakes for the Arial font sample and 8 points for Times New Roman.
The Brother ADS-2700W's 5 points without errors for Arial and 4 points error-free for Times New Roman, though, is the one to beat.
In any case, all the scanners here are more than accurate enough for most business-scanning environments.
Pulling Out Ahead
As stiff as the competition is in this group, our top pick doesn't typically outshine its competitors significantly.
Instead, it pulls ahead a little here and a little there, and that's what the Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner has done here.
It turned in exceptional scores on our tests, converted scanned text to editable text accurately, functioned flawlessly, and it comes with a three-year warranty.
The only real knock is that it doesn't support networking.
(If that's a necessity for your office, check out Brother's ADS-2700W and ADS-3600W.) If what you need is a fast, reliable medium-volume USB document scanner in your small to medium-size office, workgroup, or home-based office, the Epson DS-770 is our top pick.
Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner
Pros
Comprehensive software bundle.
Highly accurate OCR.
Fast scanning, processing, and saving to both image and searchable PDF.
The Bottom Line
The Epson WorkForce DS-770 desktop document scanner is fast and highly accurate, helping it stand out from a crowded pack of competitors.
The competition in the midrange sheet-feed desktop document scanner genre, where the Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner ($549) fits squarely, is fierce.
Designed for small- to medium-size offices and workgroups, or perhaps as a busy personal scanner, the DS-770 costs a little more than the Editors' Choice HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s3 Sheet-Feed Scanner, but it's also a bit faster and somewhat more accurate.
The Epson's excellent mix of features and performance knocks the ScanJet Pro 3000 from its top spot perch in our lineup of midrange non-networkable document scanners.
A Place in the Pack
At 7.9 by 11.7 by 6.7 inches (HWD) with its trays closed and weighing 8.1 pounds, the Epson DS-770 is close in size (and looks a lot like) several of its competitors, as well as its predecessor, the nearly identical WorkForce DS-760 Color Document Scanner.
That makes the DS-770 a little smaller than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000 and less than a pound lighter, but a little bigger and heavier than the HP ScanJet Pro 2000.
The costlier, more robust, and network-ready Brother ImageCenter ADS-3600W, on the other hand, is somewhat taller, longer, and about 2 pounds heavier than the DS-770.
Despite these size differences, with their trays extended and in service, these scanners all have similar footprints.
As for scanning capacity, the DS-770 ($524.99 at Amazon) comes with a 100-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for passing multipage two-sided documents over the scanning sensors, and it has a daily duty cycle of 5,000 scans.
The HP ScanJet Pro 3000 ($479.99 at HP) , on the other hand, as well as the other competing models mentioned here so far, all come with smaller, 50-sheet ADFs.
All of these scanners have lower daily duty cycles than the DS-770.
You can operate the DS-770 via either its somewhat sparse five-button—Power, Double Feed Skip, Slow Mode, Stop, and Start—control panel, or via one of the programs in the software bundle (more on that below).
Neither of the ScanJet models comes with elaborate control panels, either, but both the Brother ADS 2700W and ADS-3600W ($799.99 at Amazon) sport color touch screens that make setting up scan jobs from the face of the scanner easy.
With the other models mentioned here, including the DS-770, much of the configuration of workflow profiles and setting up scans is controlled from the accompanying software.
Comprehensive Software Bundle
As with all of Epson's scanners nowadays, there's no software in the DS-770's box.
Instead, you must download it from the company's support site.
As usual for the many Epson scanners I've reviewed, finding the bundle is easy and it downloaded and installed the scanner on our testbed PC without incident.
In addition to the drivers, the following programs were installed: Epson Scan 2, a basic but robust scanner interface; Epson Document Capture Pro, a combination scanning interface/rudimentary document management program for archiving documents; ABBYY FineReader Sprint, a state-of-the-art optical character recognition (OCR) program for converting scanned text to editable text; and NewSoft Presto! BizCard OCR for scanning and archiving business card data.
A Strong Performer
Epson rates the DS-770 at 45 one-sided (simplex) pages per minute (ppm) and 90 two-sided (duplex) images per minute (or ipm, where each page side constitutes an image).
I tested the DS-770 using Epson Scan 2 over USB 3.0 from our Standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC.
When scanning our one-sided 25-page document, without the lag time (the time between when the last page in the scan job hits the output tray and the document is saved to a useable file format), the DS-770 scored 50ppm and 100ipm, higher than Epson's ratings.
You can't really make use of scans, though, until they're saved to a viable format.
In the next part of our tests, I scanned the same pages and converted the scans to image PDF.
Here, the DS-770 managed 46.2ppm and 85.7ppm.
That's about 13ppm and 20ipm faster than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000, 23ppm and 45ipm faster than the HP 2000, and about 23ppm and 16ipm ahead of the Brother ADS-2700W.
See How We Test Scanners
More impressive than its image PDF scores, though, is that it scanned and processed our test documents to searchable PDF at the same speeds as it did for image PDFs.
It scanned and saved our two-sided 25-page (50 sides) document to searchable PDF in just 35 seconds, or 20 seconds faster than the HP ScanJet Pro 3000, 55 seconds faster than the HP 2000, 15 seconds faster than the Brother ADS-3600W, and 15 seconds faster than the ADS-2700W.
In other words, it beat all the other scanners discussed in this review, including its DS-760 predecessor.
Dead-On Accuracy
It's also important that your scanner and its accompanying software convert scanned text to editable text accurately, so that you're not burning up valuable time correcting its errors.
To that end, the Epson DS-770 scanned and converted our sample font tests with better-than-average accuracy.
It scanned and saved both our Arial and Times New Roman font pages without errors down to 6 points.
(We consider both fonts at 8 points error-free to be average.)
The Brother ADS-3600W, the HP ScanJet Pro 2000, and the HP ScanJet Pro 3000 all came close, with scores of 6 points without mistakes for the Arial font sample and 8 points for Times New Roman.
The Brother ADS-2700W's 5 points without errors for Arial and 4 points error-free for Times New Roman, though, is the one to beat.
In any case, all the scanners here are more than accurate enough for most business-scanning environments.
Pulling Out Ahead
As stiff as the competition is in this group, our top pick doesn't typically outshine its competitors significantly.
Instead, it pulls ahead a little here and a little there, and that's what the Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner has done here.
It turned in exceptional scores on our tests, converted scanned text to editable text accurately, functioned flawlessly, and it comes with a three-year warranty.
The only real knock is that it doesn't support networking.
(If that's a necessity for your office, check out Brother's ADS-2700W and ADS-3600W.) If what you need is a fast, reliable medium-volume USB document scanner in your small to medium-size office, workgroup, or home-based office, the Epson DS-770 is our top pick.
Epson WorkForce DS-770 Color Document Scanner
Pros
Comprehensive software bundle.
Highly accurate OCR.
Fast scanning, processing, and saving to both image and searchable PDF.
The Bottom Line
The Epson WorkForce DS-770 desktop document scanner is fast and highly accurate, helping it stand out from a crowded pack of competitors.
