Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac)
The UMAX Astra 2100U is the smart, push button scanner for home and office. With a touch of a button you can scan, copy or send images and documents to popular applications such as e-mail, document management and image editing software. With the USB interface, setup is simple. Just plug in the scanner, install the software and you're up and running in minutes. Scanning has never been easier!
The Astra 2100U makes scanning easy. With the touch of a button, you can scan or copy images or text documents and export them to popular applications. And with the USB interface, you get quick, painless Windows or Mac setup. Hardware setup was easy and straightforward following the included quick-start guide; software setup was lengthy but automated and essentially problem-free. We connected the USB cable from our PC to the scanner and the AC adapter cable from the scanner to the outlet, dropped in the CD-ROM, and followed the Umax setup wizard. To test the Astra 2100, we started an imaging application and used its Acquire Image command to scan a magazine photo. The Umax VistaScan driver software started automatically and, after a short delay while the lamp warmed up, showed us a preview scan. (VistaScan consistently waited for the scanner's lamp to warm up even after the lamp was already warm.) VistaScan has Beginner and Advanced buttons at the top of its window; the Beginner screen includes icons for color photos, printed material, text, line art, and Web images. We selected the working area on our preview scan and clicked the Color Photo icon for a final scan. After performing the final scan, VistaScan automatically exported the image to our graphics application, where it appeared with an unsightly moiré pattern. We returned to VistaScan and, after finding a No Descreen option, changed the option to Magazine and repeated the scan. The new scan took 121 seconds and, although it had no moiré patterns, the image was a bit softer than we expected. To test the Astra 2100's optical-character recognition (OCR) ability, we scanned a single page that contained two columns of text plus some line art. The scan took about 55 seconds, including OCR translation. Caere's OCR software ignored the line art and created a two-page document with a single column of text, which it then exported to Microsoft Word. The two-page format was unexpected, but the interpreted text was correct, and the OCR software did a decent (though not perfect) job of recognizing fonts and font styles. Finally, we explored the well-chosen bundled applications, which are especially fun and helpful for managing digital photo albums. Overall, the Astra 2100U is a nice scanner with a good software suite for a reasonable price. Pros:
- PC and Mac compatible
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Lengthy software setup
- Slim printed documentation
Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac) Accessories
Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac) Reviews
It will randomly stop working and start working again. (My computer died right after the 16 month warrenty died). It does not work on XP, and while it did work on OSX, it would randomly decide to stop working here and there. This scanner is not made for dependibility. Oh, and by the way the buttons have never worked.
Now I finally have software that allows it to work on XP (dled off the net), but now the scanner has stopped working, which brings us to my next point. Lastly, my scanner (which is no doubt what you are reading this for ^_^) has broken several times within the past 6 months, the most recent time being today, which why I felt the need to give it a review for the sake of future possible buyers. As it turned out, my mother bought me an iMac during the 2 year period that Apple's iMac design had a serious fault in it. However, this year I realized that out of the four machines just mentioned, the only one that still works is my old computer. Next the digital camera, which actually was very good and lasted until just last year) died.
I thought this would make my work as an artist so much easier. This was also due to a fault in the design, which many users experienced; however, I considered myself lucky since mine lasted 5 years longer than the usual life span and managed to take well over 2000 pictures with it. I don't know specifically what it was, but I do know that many many people had failed hard drive after failed hard drive, which was the same case as mine. I do not recommend this scanner at all. Seven years ago my mother bought me an iMac because my old computer too out of date for the computer applications I needed to use for school.
First off, the software for this scanner is horrible. Being a huge fan of iMacs, I was estatic with joy, and to make things better I received a free digital camera and a scanner with the computer.
If like me you dont use a scanner often,and cant justify spending alot on one ,this is the way to go. A little nervous on how it would perform ,however I was pleasantly surprised. I purchased the Astra 2100U ,mostly because the price point for a 32 bit scanner was hard to beat. When I frist recieved the scanner I noticed some smugges on the under side of the glass, UMAX support replied quickly to my concerns about this and supplied directions for opening up the case and cleaning the glass top and bottom. FYI ,I have a P3 750 256M.B.SDRAM O/S WinMe , Iam using ver3.53U of the vistascan software, those having probs and are running WinMe or WinXP can download ver3.55 , I have'nt had any probe so Iam sticking with the originial ver off the installation CD. I also was concerned because I accidently had the scanner light on all night ,they said if the bulb was to burn out they would replace it. I ended up removing all of the software bundled with this product except the VistScan software and the Adobe PhotoShop Home Edition 3.0. I like the ease of use on the copy utility, and use it often.
I bought one of these about 3 years ago and it has given good service, running on Windows 98.I now have windows XP and as other reviews have said, the software provided with the product does not work at all with XP. I have loaded updated software from the Umax site, which was free and works fine with XP. However, the critisism in some of the reviews above is not up to date. In fact it appears identical in use with the software initially provided.I still think this is a good scanner, although it is a bit dated and bulky by today's standards.RA
I still don't know where to contact you.so I'm trying this and hope you read this and give me some information. I guess there's no use in having this scanner when it won't work with this cd. Initially my scanner worked quite fine and I was pleased with it.however, every time I signed out of it, it gave me an error message. I had removed the software on my computer and went to re=load it all.when i did my scanner Umax cd.it froze my computer up.I had no where to go for help. The place I bought my computer said " you must have a UMAX" and so you'll have to put in your "start up" cd. They said to contact You for help and you could give me an on-line down load to get my scanner to work again (since the cd is no good). HELP
What is worse is that the XP drivers that they sell you don't work at all. UMAX is trying to rip you off by selling you driver software that won't install and they do not provide any useful support once you paid the money. UMAX customer support has always been pretty much non-existent but their scanners had a good following so one could always find a solution to their screwy driver problems if one looked around on the web. Don't get sucked in. I have used UMAX scanners since 1996 (the 1220S and 2100U) and had fairly good luck with them until recently. With the advent of Windows XP however, you might as well throw your UMAX gear away. Their parallel port scanners are not supported at all and the SCSI and USB scanners are supported only if you buy the new drivers at a cost of [money amount].
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