Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld Scanner For Scanning and OCR - USB Connected

I received this as a Christmas gift from my wife. It works very well and I use it a lot to take notes from books. I scan the lines I need, format it as an outline and then save it to a Word file. Amazingly accurate and quick enough to keep up all of the time.Out of the box, it seemed very light and almost cheap feeling. That said, I've had no functionality problems with it. I keep it stored in a separate pouch and never had any problems. I like the fact that the USB cord is detachable from the pen, so it stores easily.The drivers are little hard to find, but digging through the limited documentation, I eventually found the link. I run Linux on most of my computers and there NO linux drivers so, I have to use it with my only WIndows laptop. I tried several times to load it into Wine without success. However, this is an inconvenience which most people won't have since most people use Windows or OS.The OCR is very accurate and you can set the single button to do a variety of things such as "Tab" or "Space". I have mine set on "Return" so every time I click it, it adds a new line to my text.It's become very handy and it does its job so well, that two of my friends each bought one, after watching me use it.

The install was not straightforward. The software was clunky and not intuitive. The box says that it scans barcodes, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work. One bright spot is that the pen does indeed scan text and numbers very well; however, mine broke within the first 15 minutes of using it. Because I couldn't imagine that it would simply stop working so soon, I spent the next half hour trying to figure out how to "reset" it. This is how I learned that there is zero support for the product. I did all the plugging and unplugging and restarting my computer I could stand until I finally believed that, no, it simply stopped working. I'm not sure why that surprised me so much-- it feels very flimsy.Even if you got one that works, you'd probably be disappointed by how miserably short the cord is.

Just received it an hour ago. Had no trouble at all downloading the software and setting it up in Windows 8.1. Downloaded and printed the manual. The whole process didn't take even half an hour. Clicked the C-Pen software, opened a new Word document and it took right off successfully scanning in material from a fairly small book; the text was highlighted too. A couple of things: 1) you need to move the pen fairly quickly over the text for it to work properly. If you get gibberish, you're probably going to slowly. 2) I couldn't get it to work going backwards over the next line. So I just lifted the pen up, set it down in front of the next line and kept going. Worked fine. I've been using computers a LONG time and have tried hand scanners from the beginning. Considering how much better this performs than anything I've used before, it's great as far as I'm concerned. Not perfect, but just fine for my needs. No complaints.

I bought the Iris Pen 6 in 2010. I had occasion to need to use it (hadn't used it for years) due to tendinitis. It is basically worthless and 50% of the characters are scrambled. I got the C-Pen 3.0. This works amazingly well. You will need to touch up a few characters here and there but 95%-98% accurate. I don't believe the light (more or less) matters with it. With the Iris it did and it had to be "cablibrated" each time - C-Pen does not. Here are a few tips in using C-Pen:1) Drag pen somewhat slowly and steadily. You will discover the right speed. When the light on the tip is on it is scanning. Keep paper tight and flat.2) Discover the right angle for scanning - I found somewhere less than 90 degrees - maybe a 75 degree angle to the paper.3) If the light goes out in the middle of the line (scan aborted midway) I found it easier to delete that line and start over but you can restart the scan where it left off and fiddle and edit whatever is wrong4) There is a button on the scanner - not sure what it is for (might be in directions). For me if pressed it ejected me out of my application (the app I was trying to enter scanned text) when I completed the line or lifted the pen or something. I just don't press it and works fine.5) When downloading the software it said at first it would take 8 hours or something - ignore that (I had Windows 7) - eventually took only a few minutes.

Maybe it takes more practice but despite the setting I have 'only digits', it sometimes shows different.The most trouble I am having is reading error. Sometimes it wont read anything, sometimes it reads but has different numbers in between or completely different number to what it read.Sometimes I have no trouble, sometimes all trouble.So the overall points will be 60% readable.If you can give me some tips on HOW to get it right, it will be helpful.Thank youAtsuko

The product feels very cheap and flimsy, but I was willing to give it a chance; that is until I went to install it. It claims to come with a USB cable. What it in fact comes with is one that would plug into something like a phone. Luckily my external hard drive had the correct size plug to fit into the scanner and had an actual USB plug on the other end. Another thing not mentioned is that the pen has to be plugged in to scan. This is extremely inconvenient! It leaves you with a foot and a half between you and your computer, which is very difficult if your computer is under your desk like mine. I did give this product another star besides just one because my brief test showed it could in fact turn scanned sentences into text in a text editing program. Overall, this product is disappointing and inconvenient!