Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 review: A swift and compact desktop document scanner

Canon's imageFORMULA DR-C350 is an A4 desktop document scanner. It's designed for general archiving and day-to-day document capture, with a compact size that makes it ideal for use in a reception or other customer-facing environment. It's not limited to that, though – with useful workflow software and decent specs, it's up to reasonably demanding archival in a busy small office.

This scanner's automatic document feeder can hold up to 100 sheets of paper and scan them at up to 50 pages per minute. As you'd expect, dual CIS image sensors mean it can capture both sides of each page, which makes for a maximum of up to 100 images per minute (ipm). Don't be fooled by its smallish size and comparative affordability: it's engineered for an 8,000 scans per day workload. That's 16 per minute every eight-hour working day. The final specification of note is a 600 dots per inch (dpi) maximum resolution – typical for document scanners.

Canon has moved away from providing multiple scan packages such as Kofax VRS. Instead, you get version five of its own CaptureOnTouch software. That's not such a bad thing; there's a bit of a learning curve, but once mastered, it's easy to create shortcuts for all the scans, settings, and destinations you want. The default warranty of one-year seems a bit stingy, though.

This scanner is chiefly aimed at document capture, but it also supports ID scans with help from the bypass switch on the front panel. Here you'll also find dedicated Scan and Stop buttons, alongside a basic LCD screen. We don't expect many users will find themselves needing to replace the original rollers, which are rated at 250,000 pages, but it's good to know you can buy new kits if you need them. While we're talking about reliability, you can open this scanner's top side by about 50°, giving easy access to any jams. Both the input and output trays feel quite sturdy, too.

Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 review: Setting up

This is a small, light scanner, although it's worth mentioning it requires quite a bit more space when its paper trays are fully extended – we measured height and depth of roughly 290mm and 560mm respectively. The ImageFORMULA DR-C350 connects to a single PC via a supplied USB-C cable. There are no drivers in the box, and we had some issues installing from the lengthy web address given on the Setup Guide sheet. In the end, we downloaded additional drivers from the Canon UK site, which seemed to do the trick. Things are underwhelming at first; load a document, press the scan button, and you'll get a black and white simplex (single-sided) capture, saveable as a searchable PDF.

It pays to spend some time configuring CaptureOnTouch, where you'll begin with a single 'Save to folder' shortcut that does the same as pressing the scanner button. It's easy to add new shortcuts, editing them with the source, output, and quality settings you need. Before long you'll probably have several, which is where the scanner's screen and navigation buttons come in handy – if you know the numbers of the jobs you frequently use, you can select and trigger them without looking at the host PC.

As with many other document scanners, you might need to go digging to get exactly the options you want. For example, the main interface offers only a subset of the supported scan resolutions – you'll need to enable Advanced Settings to get to, say, 150dpi. That's also where you'll find more detailed settings for straightening and blank page detection.

One final feature of note is the DFR (double feed release) button. Hit this to make the scanner continue after it's detected a double feed, saving the hassle of restarting a job when it's not necessary.

Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 review: Scanning

This is quite a rapid scanner, though it didn't match Canon's claimed 50ppm speed in our tests. At 150dpi it could capture 10 single-sided pages in 16 seconds, a rate of 37.5ppm. The difference is probably down to test methodology: we time from the moment we click to start the job, not from the moment the scanner starts moving. The short pause before starting becomes less significant the longer the job: the ImageFORMULA DR-C350 reached a peak of 40ppm over the longest job we timed, a 12-page document.

Happily, there's no measurable difference between the paper transport speed whether duplex or simplex scanning, so on duplex jobs you effectively get two sides for the speed of one. Both our duplex speed tests hit 80ipm, while this scanner even managed 60ipm on our 'torture test', a mismatch of yellowing, tissue-thin magazine pages, and single-sided prints. As we've come to expect from most document scanners, we had no mis-feeds, double-feeds, or skewed images during our tests.

It is worth mentioning that some processing options will add a little time to scan jobs. While de-skewing and automatic orientation happened in real-time, configuring a searchable PDF as the output added a second or so of processing time to the file save process – we'd expect this to vary depending on the host PC's specifications and workload.

We didn't love the quality of this scanner's initial results. Scans were a little too dark at the default setting, leading to loss of detail among darker shades in graphics. Fixing this required a trip into the advanced settings, which needed repeating for each new scan shortcut we made, but it did at least do the job. Other than that, image quality was generally quite strong, with sharp details and faithful colours. Even at 150dpi, captured documents were clearly legible, including important details like graphics, signatures, and reference numbers.

The ImageFORMULA DR-C350 was adept at spotting blank pages, deftly weeding them out of previews – it didn't mistakenly filter out any lightly printed pages, or include any blanks. It also seemed excellent at straightening crooked originals, although the document feed was so reliable that we only saw this happen once, with a flimsy magazine page.

However, it didn't excel at page rotation. Our torture test is deliberately jumbled, with a mix of single and double-sided originals arranged in different orientations. At 150dpi the ImageFORMULA DR-C350 didn't correct the alignment of all the pages. It performed better at 300dpi, but worse again once we lightened the exposure a little to compensate for dark images. At least you can make manual corrections in the preview window before saving.

Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 review: Is it worth it?

There's no shortage of options when it comes to fast desktop scanners, and we're not convinced the ImageFORMULA DR-C350 is necessarily the best. It's definitely fast enough, and its image quality is excellent, but it's a shame you need to get to know it and delve into its software to optimise the settings. We couldn't work out how to combine consistently reliable orientation with the best image quality, which is a shame.

Still, this scanner offers plenty for front-of-house applications, where its ability to handle mixed media and thick ID documents could support a wide variety of workflows. It's compact, too, making it relatively easy to find room on reception desks or even alongside the departmental printer. If you don't mind investing a little time in getting it set up just so, the ImageFORMULA DR-C350 could still prove ideal.

Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 specifications