The instructions were a little lacking for basic set up, though a speedy response from their support chat got that taken care of (& they promised to forward my suggestions to the appropriate team to give a little more detail than "ensure the icon appears in the system tray" which mine did but there was no mention to double click on it & verify settings or how to get the scanner running, anything like that, no mention in bold, very visible print that the scanner goes to sleep after a set amount of time (brilliant but doesn't help if the user is unaware & thinks it's defective).

I personally was totally dissatisfied with the barring on scanned photos regardless of many changes in the settings including noise reduction. We can do much better taking a picture of the pictures with a good camera & not get any of the barring. I did not test the scanner on simple document scans for which it is probably ideal, but I do not need a large scanner that doesn't fit where I usually keep my up-to-legal-size-page scanner but rather takes up my entire desk space for merely scanning documents; it was bought with a big project of scanning old photos from decades of photo albums before digital photography was the norm. Also, a WARNING: if you scan dark paper or pictures, you need to put a piece of white paper (simple printer paper will do) surrounding all 4 edges behind it for the algorithm to properly align the picture.

Their tech support was super (chat assistance came within 15 minutes of signing on to it (& had audible tone so you knew someone had responded) & next tier support communicated by email within a day to get more information & arrange for more thorough support). I appreciate their assistance in using this scanner, for the suggestion of various work-arounds, and for being positive & receptive to customer recommendations for future development (like considering having a white background built into their scanning lid if it works better for scanning dark documents & photos).

I've arranged for returning this scanner & will replace it with a smaller one that will fit into my designated scanner space & resume digitizing my photo albums using digital photography.

I scan a lot of magazines and old photos for archiving - I am also a digital artist so I know a thing or two about image quality. The scanner is great and large enough to scan a spread of a magazine quickly. However, the software is crazy difficult to get setup. I'm pretty advanced in computer usage and software installation, I had to uninstall and reinstall it a few times from the online download, then resorted to the CD ROM. Windows thinks that a virus is trying to infect a particular folder. Anyways, download VueScan, it will sync / recognize this scanner instantly and has a more straightforward software interface. AND my scans came out sharper and truer to the original color with VueScan. The application does cost money but it is well worth it in my opinion.

In summary, the scanner is great for black and white AND color if you use it with a different software. Do not settle for the application that is provided by the manufacturer.

It worked out of the box. I am pleased with my purchase.

The scanner worked as described.

Installation of software only took a few minutes. I have an Acer intel core 15 with windows 10. Abbyy Finereader 12 Spint made a quick access folder on my desktop so I just click it open to start the software. The scanner is lightweight but takes a lot of desk space and needs to be by both an outlet and your computer. Once the power is on it's a lift flap to put item to be scanned on the flatbed. You can remove the hinges if needed and they go back in easily.

The software feels ancient with limited options such as only 300 dpi or 600dpi. There's not a lot of adjustment except brightness. There is either black and white, grey, or color.

You get the choice of previewing before scanning which is nice and you can place multiple pages into one scan (but you have to place them each on the flatbed individually). You can scan to make a pdf, an image pdf, an image file (mine makes jpegs), word, etc.

I'm using this for my scrapbooks which are 12 by 12. I'm making digital files in a pdf format and have made some into jpegs. You lose some of the quality but they look decent. The files start getting pretty large so I'll probably need a hard drive for back up and storage.

I've uploaded some of the massive jpegs to Shutterfly. I'll update on how the prints look considering this is def like taking a picture of a picture the uploading and then printing so we shall see how that looks.

Overall I'm happy with the quality and ease of use. It does sound similar to a fax machine at times when it's scanning. Def not a silent machine. I love the size and capability and everyone in my family is already begging to use it. I'm happy with the price point as well since I priced out a company to scan my scrapbooks and it was 2.99$ a page plus other fees. Ten years of scrapbooks would cost a small fortune so this has saved me a ton. Plus I prefer to have the control even though it's a time investment.

I'll update with any issues or concerns as I continue to use the Plustwj OpticAlim 1180 scanner. Questions welcomed.