Looking for a scanner-and-printer in one

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ramon F Herrera
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Ramon F Herrera

Is there any device that _really_ integrates a scanner and a printer?

All the ones that I have seen happen to share the cabinet that's all.

An integrated device is one that would allow you (your OCR software) to
look at the page which is about to be printed. After the page is
recognized, a correponding printing is done. No more blind printing on
the wrong page.

Still unclear?: think about a page being upside down, the printing
would be done upside down to match the respective fields.

If such device doesn't exist, perhaps the output tray of a scanner can
be connected to the input of the printer?

TIA,

-Ramon F Herrera
 
Is there any device that _really_ integrates a scanner and a printer?

All the ones that I have seen happen to share the cabinet that's all.

An integrated device is one that would allow you (your OCR software) to
look at the page which is about to be printed. After the page is
recognized, a correponding printing is done. No more blind printing on
the wrong page.

Still unclear?: think about a page being upside down, the printing
would be done upside down to match the respective fields.

If such device doesn't exist, perhaps the output tray of a scanner can
be connected to the input of the printer?


I can't for the life of me figure out what
you're asking for.

Most multifunction peripherals can operate
as standalone copiers. As such, they are
truly integrated and can operate with no
attached computer at all.

I don't know any MFPs with integrated OCR.
If they support OCR at all, it's done within
the scanner driver.

Once OCR is in the data flow, you can't
guarantee that output pages will correspond
exactly to input pages.

A typical MFP operates as a pure dumb copier,
with no knowledge of underlying "content."


rafe b.
http://www.terrapinphoto.com
 
I can't for the life of me figure out what
you're asking for.

We receive hundreds of forms every day. We have to read
them, fill them and return them. The whole thing is really very
repetitive. I envision the day in which the forms will be placed
in a printer-scanner which will

(1) identify every form being processed
(2) do a database lookup to figure out what to write in
the fields
(3) print the answers
(4) mail back the forms

I already wrote the software (well, some parts are being written).
All I need is the device.

-Ramon
 
Ramon F Herrera said:
We receive hundreds of forms every day. We have to read
them, fill them and return them. The whole thing is really very
repetitive. I envision the day in which the forms will be placed
in a printer-scanner which will

(1) identify every form being processed
(2) do a database lookup to figure out what to write in
the fields
(3) print the answers
(4) mail back the forms

I already wrote the software (well, some parts are being written).
All I need is the device.

-Ramon
No need to reinvent the wheel.

There is software that can take a printed form and make it into a editable
data entry form.
It is called OmniForm.
http://www.scansoft.com/omniform/
 
We receive hundreds of forms every day. We have to read
them, fill them and return them. The whole thing is really very
repetitive. I envision the day in which the forms will be placed
in a printer-scanner which will

(1) identify every form being processed
(2) do a database lookup to figure out what to write in
the fields
(3) print the answers
(4) mail back the forms

I already wrote the software (well, some parts are being written).
All I need is the device.

-Ramon


So your asking for the piece of paper that you receive to be scanned
and OCRd, then, after the software has worked out what to put on it,
print on the same piece of paper.

I've never seen a device that can do that. As others have said, once
you've extracted the data from the paper you can simply print a new
form with the existing and new data.

You also then still have the original form for archiving.

Peter
 
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