The Epson WorkForce DS-560 wireless document scanner is a medium duty scanner suited for many organisations and home offices. With scan speeds of up to 26 pages per minute, it can handle scanning of moderately sized document sets with ease.
Some of the key benefits of the WorkForce DS-560 include:
- Speed – up to 26 ppm scan times
- Powerful duty cycle – Scan up to 3,000 pages per day
- WiFi Connectivity – wireless support for connecting to smartphones, tablets, etc…
- Optional network adapter – connect to the network via Ethernet
- One-touch scanning – assign up to 30 jobs to specific workflows
- Cloud support – scan straight to the cloud with support for SharePoint, Evernote and Google Drive
- Includes OCR software – enables editing of scanned documents
- Improved paper feed technology – capable of scanning folded sheets, thick business cards and single sheets
- Automatic document feeder – can handle up to 50 pages
- Compatible with office software – supports TWAIN and ISIS
- Compact design – saves on required desk space
| Epson Workforce DS-560 | |
| Scanner Type | Sheet Feed, one pass duplex A4 colour scanner |
| Optical Resolution | 600 x 600 dpi |
| Output Resolution | 75 to 1200 dpi |
| Effective Pixels | 5,100 x 21,600 pixels |
| Colour Scan Mode (Output Bit Depth) | 48-bit internal / 24-bit external |
| Greyscale Scan Mode (Output Bit Depth) | 16-bit internal / 8-bit external |
| Monochrome | 1-bit |
| Photoelectric Device | 1 line CMOS Contact Image Sensor |
| Light Source | Three Colour RGB LED |
| Maximum Effective Scan Area | |
| Document Size | Plastic card (in portrait scanning only), |
| A4, A5, A6, B5, Business card, Letter, | |
| Legal and Custom sizes (can set for up to 5 different paper types), | |
| A3 size supported by digital stitching | |
| Max. size: 216 x 914.4 mm | |
| Min. size: 53.5 x 73.7 mm | |
| Input Tray Capacity | 50 sheets (Based on 75g/m 2 paper) |
| Paper Weight | 50-209 g/m 2 |
| Scanning Speed | |
| A4/Letter Size | 26ppm/52ipm : 200dpi – Black & White, Colour, Grey |
| 26ppm/52ipm : 300dpi – Black & White, Colour, Grey | |
| 18ppm/36ipm : 400dpi – Black & White, Grey | |
| 5ppm/10ipm : 400dpi Colour | |
| 18ppm/36ipm : 600dpi Black & White, Grey | |
| 5ppm/10ipm : 600 dpi Colour | |
| Other Features | |
| USB2.0 High-Speed | Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional/ XP (Home Edition/ Professional/ Professional X64)/ Windows Vista® |
| Mac OS® X 10.3.9 or later (Please Note: ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus 6 is not compatible with Mac 10.7 & 10.8) | |
| Power Consumption | Operating: 18W |
| Ready mode: 7W | |
| Sleep mode: 1.6W | |
| Power Off: 0.4W | |
| Dimensions (W X D X H) | 297mm x 152mm x 154mm |
| Included In Box | Epson WorkForce DS-560, Setup Sheet, Warranty / Registration Card, USB Cable, Software CD-ROM, AC Adapter & Cable |
| Bundled Software | Epson® Scan |
| EMC Captiva ISIS (Windows only, via web download) | |
| ABBYY® FineReader® OCR | |
| Document Capture Pro | |
| NewSoft™ Presto!® BizCard OCR (Windows on CD, Mac via web download) | |
| TWAIN and ISIS drivers |
Installation
The Epson WorkForce DS-560 is a fairly compact unit measuring only 30cm wide and around 15cm deep. This was virtually identical to the WorkForce DS-860 we recently reviewed. However, unlike the DS-860, this model supports Apple’s OSX so for this review we connected the WorkForce DS-560 to an Apple iMac.
The setup process was straightforward, plug the cables, power the unit on and install the scanner under OSX.
Performance
The WorkForce DS-860 was extremely fast at 65ppm, this unit is rated at 26ppm but still made short work of our documents. To assess the scan quality we compared the scan results against what we saw with our Epson WorkForce DS-860 and Samsung CLX-6260.
The test page we used on our scanners:
First up was scanning the sample page on the Epson WorkForce DS-560 at 200dpi and then again at 300dpi:
Next up was scanning the sample page on the Epson WorkForce DS-860 at 200dpi and then again at 300dpi:
Finally, the Samsung CLX-6260 was used to scan at 200dpi and 300dpi:
The Epson WorkForce DS-560 scans were pretty impressive in comparison to the DS-860 and Samsung CLX-6260FD.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for an affordable duplex scanner with an automatic document feeder and cloud capabilities, the Epson WorkForce DS-560 is definitely one to consider. The one-touch scanning and suitability to a range of document types make it a very easy device to use. Similarly, the bundled software, support for Apple OSX and speed of scans make short work of any office scanning needs.
The Epson WorkForce DS-560 is a very compact scanner with great features. It is perfect for a wide range of office and home office environments. We felt that this was a scanner deserving of our highly recommended badge.
