PS200: HP Compact Desktop Scanner for Double-Sided Scanning

The HP PS200 scanner has basic functionality, but its software and user experience could use significant improvement. Here's a breakdown of the key issues:

Software and Instructions:
The included booklet and video tutorials provide only the bare minimum instructions. Key features, such as cropping, lack clear explanations. For instance, effective cropping isn’t intuitive—the software relies on two separate buttons instead of allowing you to adjust the crop handles and confirm with a single click. An undo button for cropping would be a significant improvement also.

The minimize/maximize button placement is unusual, located in the top-left corner of the window instead of the standard top-right, which can be confusing for users accustomed to conventional software design.

Workflow Issues:
The software lacks a straightforward way to start a new scan. If you don’t close the program entirely, new scans will be added to the previous job, requiring either manual deletion of each page or a full restart of the software to clear the queue.

Document Handling:
Loading paper from the top is a challenge. Documents tend to seat slightly crooked, resulting in scans that are not perfectly straight. While wiping the rollers with a damp cloth did help somewhat, the alignment remains imperfect.

There is no tray to catch the document as it ejects, which can lead to papers falling out or scattering if you’re not prepared.

Loading documents from the bottom (front or back) presents challenges. The scanner pulls the document through twice, which is inefficient and unexplained in the instructions. Additionally, the divots meant to guide the document are not deep enough to provide proper alignment, making it difficult to ensure a straight feed.

Overall, the HP PS200 scanner’s hardware has potential, but the lack of clear instructions, software limitations, and document handling quirks significantly detract from the user experience. Improvements in software functionality, better documentation, and minor design adjustments could make this a much more user-friendly product.

The images advertising the scanner, show that you can scan ID cards. The scanner itself also indicates that you can scan ID cards. Where there are markers for different paper sizes (A4, A5, A6) there are also markers for ID cards.

I have contacted support, they advised that actually it cannot scan ID cards. I think the advertising is misleading, and could be clearer. No issues with scanning documents so far.

I follow the trouble shooting doctor, which sends me to page to get the download, but the page is not working. So I search on my own and download again from the sales page. Still cannot save my scan, again the DR says the software is not completely loaded. YIKES