Near the lower end of Epson's packed stable of business-ready document scanners is the DS-530 II Color Duplex Document Scanner ($399), a replacement for 2016's DS-530. The hardware is about the same-including the limited connectivity options-but the optical character recognition (OCR) accuracy is much improved, as are the bundled utilities. The DS-530 II is a capable little scanner, but our current entry-level Editors' Choice pick, the Brother ADS-2700W, is more robust in several ways, and will be a better buy for most shoppers.
Petite & Basic
Measuring 6.9 by 11.6 by 6.6 inches (HWD) with its trays closed and weighing about 8 pounds, the DS-530 II is small and robust. As with most models in this category, the top cover opens to turn into an input tray, and the output tray slides out from the front, adding several inches to the scanner's height and depth.
These numbers are about average for an entry-level sheetfed document scanner. A few other lower-end Epson models use the same chassis, including the RapidReceipt RR-600W, and Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX1600 and Brother’s ADS-2700W are of similar size.
A single-pass 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) sends one-and two-sided pages to the DS-530 II. All its close competitors come with 50-sheet ADFs, except the iX1600, which has a 100-sheet feeder. Supported paper sizes run from 2 by 2 inches to 8.5 by 240 inches (24 feet). IDs and card-size documents use the same ADF.
The DS-530 II's onboard controls comprise a handful of buttons (Start, Pause, Cancel, and the like), augmented by a few status LEDs. You can start a scan job with these controls or from the bundled software interface, which we'll get to in a moment. The only way to connect to the DS-530 II is with USB 3.0; it has no networking capability or mobile connectivity.
The daily duty cycle is 4,000 scans. The Epson RR-600W's daily duty cycle is also 4,000 scans, while the ADS-2700W's is a mere 3,000 scans. Fujitsu's iX1600 is rated at 6,000 scans per day.
One Connection at a Time
USB 3.0 is plenty fast, but its restrictions limit the scanner's use to a single workstation. However, you can use the bundled software to set up profiles for scanning to network drives and cloud drives that multiple other computers can access.
The software includes Epson Scan 2, a robust scanner interface; Epson Document Capture Pro; and TWAIN and ISIS drivers for scanning into third party apps. Epson Scan 2 includes Full-Auto, Home, and Professional modes, so novice users can scan easily and more expert ones can tweak quality and other settings as needed. Document Capture Pro, a document management and archiving program, lets you create workflow profiles that control file resolution, file type, file destination, and more. Unfortunately, there's no included software for managing contact data scanned from business cards.
Entry-Level Speed, State-of-the-Art Accuracy
Epson rates the DS-530 II at 35 one-sided pages per minute (ppm) or 70 two sided images per minute (or ipm, where each page side is considered an image). I tested it over USB 3.0 from our Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Pro.
The DS-530 II scanned our one-sided 25-page test document at the rate of 37.3ppm and our two-sided pages at 69.8ipm. Compared to the other models discussed here, the DS-530 II’s scores are a bit on the low side.
For the next test, I clocked the DS-530 II as it scanned and converted our two-sided 25-sheet test document to searchable PDF. It scanned the entire document, converted it to text format, and saved it as a searchable PDF in 48 seconds. Here again, this is a few seconds slower than some of the other machines discussed here.
Of course, accuracy matters as much as speed. OCR technology has matured to the extent that most scanners can convert scanned text to searchable text with few errors, but the DS-510 II does notably well, scanning our standard Arial font page error-free down to 4 points and our standard Times New Roman page error-free down to 5 points. You're unlikely to ever need to scan text that small.