VF3240 A3 Scanner - Fastest 4-Second Scan (200dpi, A3 Color), 2400 DPI High Resolution, Frameless Auto-Scan for CAD & Business

EDIT: Since I bought and use this scanner, I'm now getting questions. People ask questions that are not really related to the SCANNER but more to the SOFTWARE that you use. Things such as file formats, OCR, etc. If you are on a Macintosh you use either the native Image Capture App, or a 3rd party one that I don't know about. (VueScan does not support the Viisan). This scanner is tabloid size so that's the size it takes up on your desk. It's NOT any noisier or quieter than any other scanner I've used, but I will say the "overview" pre-scan is a bit noisier than the actual scanning which is fairly quiet. There's negative commentary about LINES or missing pixels; these are not inherent to the scanner itself (design flaw) but to the specific unit YOU received. Got lines? Return it for an exchange. Mine's fine. I've attached four scans here. All done with Mac Image Capture. First is a brochure with "descreening" box ticked. Second is old deteriorating paper art from 1977; those grooves are the paper not the scanner. Third is an old photo from 1949, original. Fourth is the same photo after a few clicks in Photoshop. I will say that every photo I've ever scanned--on this scanner or with my now gone Epson Perfection V500 Photo--has been "dark" and needed work in Photoshop. That's without exception. This Viisan scanner is on par with my old Epson, good enough for most work. If you are a photo retouching professional, and need something this big, you probably would spring for an Epson at 4x the cost. Now onto the original review: There's a limited market for tabloid or "B" sized scanners; mostly graphic designers with perhaps scrapbookers. Most scanners of this sized are significantly more costly, such as the Epson 12000XL which is well over $3,000; this unit is under $500, thus a fraction of the price of the competition. Well, it stands up quite well. I tested it against my V500 Photo, and results were exceedingly close, and I cannot say one was better than the other. It's fast in scanning, easy to connect by USB. Would be nice if there were an Ethernet port instead as I seem to be maxing out my USB ports in number or power. (USB hubs don't work well.) I only used it with the Macintosh Image Capture application, and it's fine. I was hoping that Viisan would have made their Viiscan software for the Macintosh (majority of graphic designers use Macs of course) but they have not--a strategic error since it appears as if the Viiscan offers features that the Image Capture does not. I have not tried any 3rd party software. Overall exceeded my expectations. If you need tabloid size scanning and don't have thousand$ to spend you will not be disappointed.

I am very satisfied with my Viisan 3240 large-format scanner. I have been using it with ABBYY FineReader 12.1.14 for Macintosh, on a 2015 MacBook Air / 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD running macOS Monterey 12.5 Beta. As advertised, this device is about twice as fast at scanning its entire 11 x 17 / A3-sized area, in 4 seconds, as my other one (a CanoScan LiDE 700F) is at scanning its 8.5 x 11 / A4-sized area (which is 30% shorter), both at 200 dpi. 300 dpi scanning is quite fast too — I assume 6 seconds to scan the whole area. As some other users have noted in their reviews, the Viisan VF3240 is a bit noisy, a little more so than my CanoScan. But the noise does not bother me much and it is sort of what I expect, from the scanning mechanism moving rapidly beneath the glass of the whole 17" / 42 cm length of an A3 page. Scans of pages that take up less than the entire area are correspondingly faster. The brightness of the scanner’s lamp seems good, and so far it does not appear to result in dark, blurred text near the central spine of book pages. I have not run into any problems in the short time I have owned this scanner, which I received on May 31st, 2022, so I cannot comment on any technical support issues. I have been using it to scan mostly text and not graphics, and currently have no real need to be concerned about color issues, so I cannot comment on those or other matters related to scanning photos or art. I also have only used the device with FineReader, not any bundled software or other applications. At least in FineReader, one can start a scan from the software side, without needing to press any physical buttons on the device, which seems to be an inconvenience of at least one other large-format scanner I was considering before opting for this one. At the time of purchase I had not seen the Viisan VF3240 ($450) up close, and I was considering whether to buy the VF3120 ($370) instead. But the doubled speed of the VF3240 definitely makes it worth the higher price. Overall, the VF3240 is a very impressive, fast, easy-to-use device, capable of handling large page sizes. It works well with FineReader for macOS, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a similar setup.

I had written a review 3 years ago which basically found the hardware for this scanner to be good but the control software (running under Windows 11) terrible. Well, guess what - there is now a new software available on the VIISAN website (version 2.0.21 for Win11 x64 as of the moment of writing this) and all the problems with B&W 1-bit scanning at high resolution seem to have been solved. So I can now finally use this A3 scanner the way I had intended when I purchased it. Glad I did not toss the scanner because at one point in the past, I came close to that.... So, 4 stars now (5 if it had been less noisy). Thanks VIISAN, for listening to user feedback. I can now recommend this scanner as a purchase. My old review below The scanner itself (the hardware) appears okay, it produces crisp scans also for larger sizes. However, the scanner is pretty noisy especially at lower resolutions (thus faster scans). At those speeds it screams like a worn-out gearbox. But if the rest (see below) would be OK I can live with that. And that brings me to the next point - the accompanying software. This is a disaster, plain and simple. The scanner originally came with software version 1.0.9.7 which is very buggy. Often a scan comes out as a black page, for whatever reason. Rescanning fixed this, but results in lost time nevertheless. Then I got the problem that after a scan, the program unexpectedly closes and the output file result is nowhere to be found. Software version 1.0.19.0 is wat is now available from the ViiSan website, so I installed this. The earlier problems are gone, but now I have a problem with the 1200 DPI scan mode. I use this mode in 1-bit monochrome mode, but when I scan with those settings, the output file is in full color anyway. This makes the output file so large that it cannot be digested by third party image editors. I need the scanner for the 1200 DPI monochrome mode, so this problem basically makes the scanner useless for me. I tried to switch back to the old software version, but this is not available on the ViiSan website an more. I emailed them to report the bug, and to request the old software version. But - you guessed it - there is ZERO response from these guys. Their pledge for customer support is a farce. And the 2400 DPI scan mode does not work at all, the ViiSan software protests the size of the output file and refuses to scan. Funny, considering my PC has 64 GB RAM, a 20 core processor and a 15 TB hard drive.... To add insult to injury; I can't return the scanner any more, the purchase was done too far back in the past. My advice to you: Do NOT buy this scanner!

Amazon's ad for this scanner and its little sister (the 3120) claims a "frameless and narrow body design". The notion of a "frameless" design is that the scanning surface goes all the way to the edge of the scanner, or at least very close to it, so that you can scan the page of a book without squashing the book flat. I've attached a picture showing the concept. It's the very reason I purchased this particular scanner, because I was looking for that exact feature. If I wanted to squash the book, I already have other flatbed scanners I could do it with. And indeed, the glass surface scanning area of the 3240 APPEARS to extend to 0.3 inches of the edge of the scanner, which would be adequate inner margin (though only barely so) for the sample book I'm using. But look at an actual scanned page (image also attached) from the book! In fact, about about 1.35 inches of the inner edge of the page is chopped off, not just 0.3 inches. The user manual has an figure (attached) showing this. The "invalid scan area" in that figure is the 1.35 inches I just mentioned. So yes, I COULD have detected the lie prior to buying the device, if I had obtained the user manual and thoroughly read it before buying. But who does that? I certainly wish I had done so in this case. Instead, I unfortunately believed the claims in the ad. The upshot of all this is that if you've purchased this supposed "frameless and narrow body design" scanner on the notion that you were going to be scanning BOOKS with it, you are going to be disillusioned. Unless your books have inner margins that are on the order of 1.5 inches, you are not going to be scanning them with this scanner.

Sweet scan for the big sheets.

I'm an archivist who digitizes lots of interesting old historic documents. I couldn't find any reviews on the product from those in archives/professional digitization. My review is long, but I'm hoping that I can help other professionals avoid a few headaches. The TLDR: It's exciting that there's some new low-cost oversize scanners on the market, but unfortunately this machine isn't quite up to my personal standards for digitizing documents in a professional setting. The Long Version: I scan a lot of old documents, books, booklets, photos, etc, and I decided to give the Viisan VF320 a test drive. I'm working with a Mac, which means that the only way to get the scanner to function is with the bare bones built-in Image Capture Mac software. Using this software, you are only able to select pre-set DPI levels (300, 600, etc up to around 2400), which is annoying, but not quite a deal-breaker. The color accuracy of the Viisan isn't great. It seems to run really high in magenta, and some tan documents have turned out pink for me. The color gets a little better when you select the "Color Matching" setting in Image Capture. There may be some way to calibrate the machine, but I didn't see any instructions on how to do this with a Mac. The auto-populating of the filenames (when scanning a collection with multiple parts) is also pretty bad in Image Capture--lots of renaming after finishing a collection. My biggest beef with the Viisan scanner: If the item you're scanning isn't completely flat against the glass (such as a book with a tight binding, where part of the page may be partially lifted off the glass by just a few millimeters, or a fragile document that has been folded and you don't want to put too much weight on the creases), the scanner creates a blurry image of that area. For me, this has meant a lot of re-scanning to mitigate this issue, or settling for blurry scans (which I'm not willing to accept). I did an A-B test on a few items that were showing that issue, and the Viisan was consistently blurry whereas my Epson scanned the "problem areas" with zero blurriness. This issue wound up being the deal breaker for me, and I will probably be returning the machine. The Viisan scans quickly, definitely faster than the large flatbed Epsons using the same DPI setting. If you're working with documents that you can lay completely flat on the glass, you'll get a usable scan, although you might need to mess around with the colors in editing afterwards. The Viisan's physical footprint is considerably smaller and better-looking that of an oversize Epson--other reviewers complaining about the machine's size have probably never used a large flatbed before. I was actually looking forward to having this machine at my desk! All of problems aside, the fact that Viisan created this scanner is step in the right direction, and I'm appreciative to them. Other reviews show that artists and amateurs really seem to love the machine for scanning their large documents. I want to encourage Viisan to continue producing these items. Epson (the industry standard) appears to be killing off most of their flatbed scanners, so Viisan has a huge opportunity to step in and fill a huge void in the marketplace. To Viisan: Please consider Mac-friendly software, the image-blurriness-when-items-aren't-completely-flat-on-the-glass issue, and work on the color calibration. I would be more than happy to try the next version of this scanner--maybe even two of them! : )

I have been using the VF3240 scanner for over two years now. I love it and am so glad I chose it. The detail it captures is impressive. I have worked for over thirty years in the printing industry and as a graphic and fine artist. The large-scale scanning bed is perfect for my 12" x 16" highly-detailed pencil drawings. I sell 1:1 prints of my art work and need the scanner to pick up every nuance of the drawings, and the VF3240 does just that! Recently the USB cable plugged in the back of the scanner was struck, bent sideways, and pulled away from its circuit board, so it no longer could communicate with my PC. I didn't know how to get it repaired so I sent an email to VIISAN requesting help or advise. I heard back from them the very next day, and even though my scanner was no longer covered under warranty, they offered to replace it with a fully refurbished unit. I am so greatful for their offer. I'm glad to know there are manufacturers that take pride in their product and care about their customers. If you are in the marked for a large-bed scanner the VIISAN VF3240 is the one to get! I give them 5 stars!!

I ordered this, as I needed a scanner that supports A3 sizes, as much of my work is on A3 sized paper, and it is very difficult to find a decently priced scanner that scans larger than A4. Typically I photograph my art, but I have never been happy with the result, as pencil tends be very reflective, and it can be difficult to get around that. Just as a Note, I use Windows 11, I see a lot of people talking about Mac support, but I did not see anyone talking about Windows, so just FYI, the software issues are not just on the Mac side. I am also using the driver and software from their website, so if they are at all organized as a company, this should be the latest version of the software, however there does not seem to be a history of software versions like you might expect, their user manual does have versioned updates, so they appear to only have ever uploaded this version, or only want you to use this version. Their bundled scanning software is the only way to get the full advertised resolution. However, their software only seems to scan the image overly bright, setting the brightness lower in the software seems to be a post process, so lowering the scan brightness you see the white areas clipped but darker. My Test scan is a sketch I did in one of my Moleskine sketchbook, which has a more creme colored paper, so the scan should never clip to white the way it does, the paper simply is not bright enough for that. I suspect, in order to get the full 2400dpi they are using a lower bit depth, a lossy compression method, or some other method that results in lower overall quality. Scanning at lower resolutions in their software does not solve the image quality however. Using the WIA support in the latest version of Photoshop works exactly the way you expect, the image quality is good, but you are limited to 600dpi, so it appears that their software is the limiting factor, either they are trying to get around some kind of limitation, or they are intentionally gating you to force you to use their software, and there is no reasonable argument to force someone to use their software vs just using the far more convenient WIA directly into your Application of choice.

Having difficulty installing the software