The imageFormula DR-C225 ($449) is exactly the sort of highly capable document scanner Canon is known for. It delivers fast speed for the price, scans to searchable PDF format almost as quickly as to image format, offers impressively accurate optical character recognition (OCR), and comes with world-class programs for document management, for OCR, and for creating and working with PDF files. It's a little weak on business card scanning, but even so, it delivers enough to make it our new Editors' Choice for moderately priced desktop document scanners for personal or micro-office use.

The DR-C225 ($435.64 at Amazon) is closely matched for speed with the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 ($971.21 at Amazon) that it replaces as our preferred pick. The rated scan speed for both is 25 pages per minute (ppm) and 50 images per minute (ipm)—with one image on each side of the page. More important, both essentially hit their rated speeds on our tests, and both also scan nearly as quickly to searchable PDF files as to image PDF format, adding very little extra time for the OCR step.

In areas where the two differ, each has advantages over the other. The Fujitsu iX500 did a better job in our tests with business cards, for example. Also, the iX500 is the only one of the two that offers Wi-Fi as a connection choice or can scan to an iOS or Android device.

The DR-C225's advantages include more accurate text recognition and a more capable set of bundled programs, with Nuance PaperPort 14 (for document management) and Nuance OmniPage 18 (for OCR) in particular delivering more capability than the equivalent programs that come with the Fujitsu iX500. Although the DR-C225's lack of Wi-Fi means you can't connect directly to a mobile device to send it a scan, you can send one just as easily, if not more easily, with the Attach to Email option in Canon's scan utility.

Setup and Software

One welcome touch is that the DR-C225 takes up less space on your desktop than most scanners designed for personal use. Like the Canon imageFormula DR-C125 that it replaces in Canon's line, it measures only 8.7 by 11.8 by 6.1 inches (HWD), and it doesn't need extra room for the output tray.

Paper normally follows a U-shaped path, starting in the 30-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) in back, moving under the scanner, and continuing up to the output tray, which is parallel to the scanner front. For heavier-weight paper or business cards, you flip a small lever on the side of the scanner so that the paper will follow a nearly straight path, going under the scanner and then forward through a slot near the bottom of the output tray.

Setup is standard fare for a USB-connected scanner. Additional software besides PaperPort and OmniPage includes: Presto! BizCard 6 for business cards; Twain, WIA, and ISIS drivers, which between them will let you scan from almost any program with a scan command; and Nuance eCopy PDF Pro Office 6, which comes with PDF Converter Assistant and PDF Create Assistant, to give you a full suite of PDF utilities. There's also a version of Canon's CaptureOnTouch scan utility included, which is even easier to use than other versions I've tested.

The main screen in CaptureOnTouch lets you scan by choosing one of three predefined profiles, including Scan to Folder, for example. Alternatively, you can choose a type of document to scan, a destination to send it to, and then the Scan button.

By default, the Document types are Business Card, Text, and Full Auto. The choices for destination include each of the application programs the scanner comes with, plus Email, Print, Microsoft SharePoint, and several websites: OneDrive, SugarSync, Dropbox, and Google Drive. These choices may well handle all your scanning needs. If not, you can edit any of the definitions—to change the resolution for scanning, for example—and add more document types, destinations, and profiles as needed.

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Scan Speed and Document Management

The DR-C225's 600 pixel-per-inch (ppi) optical resolution is typical for document scanners, and more than you usually need for scanning text. For my tests, I used the default 200ppi and black-and-white mode.

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I clocked the scanner at 24.2ppm for simplex (one-sided) scans and 48.4ipm for duplex (two-sided) scans. That makes it tied, within the error range of the test, with both the Canon DR-C125 and the Fujitsu iX500.

More importantly, the scanner doesn't take much longer for scanning directly to a searchable PDF file, which is generally the most useful format for document management. With the added text recognition step, it took a total of 1 minute 9 seconds. Here again, that's effectively a tie with the Fujitsu iX500, at 1:05, although it is just a tad slower than the Canon DR-C125, at 1 minute flat.

Being able to recognize text without slowing down significantly can easily make up for the speed advantage of a faster scanner that adds time for recognizing the text. The much-more-expensive Kodak i3200 Scanner ($3,262.00 at Amazon) , for example, with a 50ppm and 100ipm rating, managed 74ppm on our tests scanning to an image PDF file. However it basically tied the DR-C225 for scanning to a searchable PDF file, at only 1:06.

OCR Performance

The DR-C225 did extraordinarily well on OCR accuracy. The combination of scanner and OmniPage read our Times New Roman and Arial test pages at sizes as small as 6 points without a mistake. It also did as well or better with several fonts that we include in our tests, but don't usually report on because most scanners do so poorly with them that there's little difference from one scanner to the next. The DR-C225 managed to read three of the five additional fonts, including two highly stylized fonts with thick strokes, at 6 points without a mistake and another at 5 points without a mistake. This is the highest level of accuracy we've seen on any scanner.

The only test the DR-C225 didn't shine on was for business cards. The scanner did an excellent job feeding stacks of cards, but the best that can be said for the combination of the DR-C255 and BizCard is that it will save you time over entering information by hand. I saw at least one mistake on every card, and three or more on just over half of them.

If scanning and managing business cards is a key task, or you need the ability to scan to a mobile device using Wi-Fi, the Fujitsu iX500 will be the best fit for your needs. But in most offices, the lack of Wi-Fi won't matter, and the Canon imageFormula DR-C225's higher level of OCR accuracy plus the more capable OCR and document management software will trump any shortcomings for business cards. That gives the DR-C225 a slim, but real, advantage overall and makes it our new Editors' Choice low-to-moderate price personal or small-office desktop document scanner.

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