If it weren't for its Wi-Fi support, the Epson WorkForce DS-560 Wireless Color Document Scanner ($449.99) would be best described as a capable, but unexceptional, desktop document scanner. Suitable for personal use or for a small office or workgroup, it delivers fast speed, duplex (two-sided) scanning, and a 50-sheet automatic feeder (ADF). What makes it stand out, however, is Wi-Fi, which lets you both use the DS-560 ($517.99 at Amazon) as a network scanner and use it to scan files to mobile devices.

The DS-560 isn't the only document scanner in its price range with Wi-Fi, but it is one of the first. Our top pick for personal or micro-office desktop document scanner, for example—the Canon imageFormula DR-C225 ($435.64 at Amazon) —can't connect wirelessly. One of the few that can is another favorite, Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 ($971.21 at Amazon) . If you need a network scanner, however, the DS-560 does the job a lot better than the Fujitsu model.

The Fujitsu iX500 can be set to scan over a network to only one computer at a time. If you want to scan to another PC, you have to connect to the scanner by USB cable and reconfigure the setting. In contrast, the DS-560's Wi-Fi works the way you would expect Wi-Fi to work, making it far more useful. Connect the DS-560 to your network's Wi-Fi access point, install the scan software on as many network PCs as you like, and you can scan to any PC by choosing the Scan command in the program running on that PC. Similarly, you can install Epson's DocumentScan app on your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, and scan to your mobile device using the Scan command in the app.

If you don't have a network, or prefer to connect the DS-560 to a single PC via a USB cable, you can still scan to other PCs or mobile devices that offer Wi-Fi. Epson says that the scanner's access point mode will let you connect up to four devices directly to the DS-560 at the same time. To turn the mode on, you set a slide switch on the scanner. If you're connected by USB cable also, however, you'll have to move the switch back and forth depending on how you want to connect for any given scan. Unfortunately, the switch is on the back, where it's harder to get to than it should be.

Setup and Software

At 6.1 by 11.7 by 6 inches (HWD) with the trays closed, and weighing just 5 pounds 8 ounces, the DS-560 is an appropriate size and weight to sit on a desk without taking up much space. The top cover opens to turn into an input tray, raising the height to about 10 inches. Opening the output tray takes up only about six more inches in front of the scanner.

I tested the DS-560 with both Wi-Fi and USB connections, using USB for the timing tests to ensure more consistent results. Wi-Fi setup is more convoluted than it should be, but you only have to go through it once, so that's not a serious issue. Setup for a USB connection is standard.

Epson lists the OS requirements on its website as Windows XP through Windows 8.1 or Mac OS 10.5.8 through 10.9.x. However, Epson insisted that I install all current updates, so the requirements should be read as needing fully updated versions of one of these operating systems. For my tests, I installed the software on a Windows Vista PC.

See How We Test Scanners

For most tests, I used Epson's Document Capture Pro, a scan utility that goes well beyond basic scanning. As with most scan utilities, it lets you scan to an assortment of file formats (JPG, BMP, image PDF, searchable PDF, TIFF, Multi-TIFF, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX) and send the scans to a variety of destinations (including a printer, an FTP site, email, a file, Sharepoint, and several cloud sites—OneNote Evernote, GoogleDrive, and SugarSync).

The scanner also comes with NewSoft Presto BizCard 5 for business cards, Abbyy FineReader 9.0 Sprint for optical character recognition (OCR), and both Twain and WIA drivers, with ISIS drivers available for downloading from Epson's website. At least one of these drivers will work with virtually any Windows program that includes a scan command.

Scan Speed

At 600 pixels per inch (ppi), the optical resolution is both typical for document scanners and more than you need for most scanning. For my tests, I used 300ppi. Scanning to image PDF format with Document Capture Pro, the DS-560 came in at roughly its rated 26 page per minute (ppm) speed in simplex (one-sided) mode, at 26.9ppm. It was only a little slower in duplex mode, at 23.1ppm and 46.2 images per minute (ipm). Unfortunately, as with most scanners, the DS-560 takes much longer to scan to searchable PDF (sPDF) format. For our 25-sheet, 50-page test document, the time jumped from 1 minute 5 seconds for image PDF to 1:46 for sPDF.

Although taking significantly more time for text recognition is common, some scanners add little or no extra time for the extra step. The Canon DR-C225, for example, took 1:02 saving to image PDF format and 1:09 for sPDF, adding only 7 seconds. The Fujitsu iX500, which essentially tied the Canon scanner for saving to PDF format, took only 4 seconds longer saving to sPDF. Note, however, that the DS-560 adds less time for the OCR step then much of the competition.

Other Test Results

The DS-560 did well on OCR accuracy. Scanning at 300 ppi, it read our Times New Roman test page at sizes as small as 8 points and our Arial test page at sizes as small as 6 points without a mistake.

Somewhat disappointingly, however, the combination of scanner and BizCard didn't handle business cards well, with at least one mistake on every card in our test and three or more mistakes on about 25 percent of them. Using the scanner will save you time compared with typing the information in, but not a lot if you also take time to correct all the errors. As long as business card scanning isn't a key application you need a scanner to do, however, this won't be a serious drawback.

If you don't need to connect by Wi-Fi—either to a network or to mobile devices—consider the Canon DR-C225 or the Epson WorkForce DS-510 ($849.99 at Amazon) , which is essentially the same scanner as the Epson WorkForce DS-560 Wireless Color Document Scanner, but without Wi-Fi. If you need a scanner with Wi-Fi, however—to let you scan to any PC on your network and to mobile devices as well—the DS-560 is not only a strong candidate for a micro-office, but likely to be the scanner you want.

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Further Reading

• How We Test Scanners
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• Get Organized: Choose the Right Scanner for Going Paperless