Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld OCR Scanner Portable with USB Cable

I have been using the C-Pen 20 scanner since 2007. I teach university classes and engage in research, and this scanning "pen" is a great convenience. It is light, fast, and easy to use. It speeds up note-taking incredibly. With a small light in the tip of the pen, I just run the pen across type that I want to record and the text is automatically scanned into my word processing document. It is very accurate, but not quite 100%, so I need to watch and correct some of the text. It only works on standard typefaces, so italics, underlining and hand-written notes tend to confuse the scanner. Still, using the scanner is far faster than typing notes by hand. A button on top of the scanner serves as a hard return or a mouse click, and several functions can be programmed onto an optional menu / pad. The C-Pen plugs into a computer's USB slot, and does not require a separate power source. It comes with its own software, and updates are available from the C-Pen web site.

As a final comment and recommendation, I will say that the C-Pen did not come with a carrying case. Since the C-Pen is all-plastic, I bought a large eye-glass case which is just the right size for the C-Pen and its cable. Now I put the C-pen in my computer case or brief case without worrying about it being damaged.

If you do a lot of note-taking or transferring information between documents then you owe it to yourself to give this a try.

This scanner might be one of the most useful things I have ever bought. It isn't 100% reliable, but when you think about it, the trick it is performing is pretty complicated.

The product support, on the other hand, is basically unexcusable. It can lead to some fairly serious frustrations (don't buy this if you use Mac!), but when they changed the software or I changed my machine, I always managed to get it working... in the end.

You have to learn how to create the best conditions for the pen to work. It is never going to like old books. It prefers white pages with black type. It won't work in a sunny or well-lit place. Learn how to position the scanner on the right bit of text and what speed and angle to use. This is not rocket science, it just takes a tiny bit of patience. There are some horrendous reviews of this product, and I wonder how many were written very soon after buying it...

If you do these things, it will scan most text pretty well. You need to keep an eye out for typos, but I reckon it is still a lot faster than typing.

Be careful with it, though. I had mine for two years, and some rather rough treatment (it went everywhere with me) resulted in the USB connection breaking inside the pen. I am going to buy a new one now and keep it more carefully.

Buy Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld OCR Scanner Portable with USB Cable Now

The seller delivered the product promptly. Setup was easy. Performed as advertised. Seller readily responded to questions. One suggestion ... get some type of hard case to store/transport the scanner ... it's a delicate instrument.

Read Best Reviews of Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld OCR Scanner Portable with USB Cable Here

This product is exactly what I need for dissertation research. It is easy to use and works well. I recommend it.

Want Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld OCR Scanner Portable with USB Cable Discount?

I help out with paying bills for a non-profit organization. I don't get paid or anything, so it's kind of nice to not have to spend more time than I need to doing that. As it's important to me to enter details in the records, I tend to enter a lot of data in a transaction, and then there's just the mass of data that has to get handled when processing credit card bills and the like. Though I've had trouble scanning MIRC and the more squared off fonts, the OCR is pretty good. It can get tricky with the tiny fonts that appear on some bill summaries, but one can often compensate by learning how fast to scan. The button on the scanner that acts like a tab is incredibly useful: scan, click to next field, scan, etc., without having to keyboard. I find the software features a bit lacking. It seems too tedious to switch modes that do things like filter out $ signs and comma's from monetary amounts when the application doesn't accept those characters in a numeric field. The feature works, but sadly, I find it easier to manually delete than to switch back and forth between text scanning and filtered number scanning when processing a lot of transactions where you have to go back and forth between scanning modes. Scanning whitespace can terminate the OCR and I find that annoying. Even with the difficulties, if the one I have breaks, I'll be getting another. It saves a heck of a lot of time.

Save 26% Off