The IRIScan Executive 4 ($169) is a manual-feed portable document scanner designed for capturing small one- and two-page scan jobs on the road. It's similar in many ways to the Editors' Choice Epson WorkForce ES-60W, with a couple notable exceptions: It lacks wireless connectivity and a battery for untethered operation, and doesn't support Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi Direct connectivity. That said, the Executive 4 is highly accurate and comes with a terrific software bundle, making it a solid choice for road warriors who don't need wireless or mobile connectivity.
Small and to the Point
As I always do before discussing a specific portable document scanner, it's important to point out that these little imaging devices come in two very distinct flavors. There are the manual-feed or single-sheet models, like the Executive 4 and the WorkForce ES-60W, or sheet-feed multisheet devices with automatic document feeders (ADFs). The latter (such as the Editors' Choice Epson ES-300W) allow you to load multiple pages and then leave the scanner unattended as it captures one page after another automatically. The Executive 4 and its ilk are designed, as mentioned, for small one- and two-page scan jobs and the ES-300W and its counterparts are more suitable for capturing larger multipage jobs.
With that said, the Executive 4 measures 1.6 by 11.4 by 2.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 1 pound. That's very close in size and only slightly heavier than the ES-60W and the DS-80W, even though they both contain internal batteries. Other Epson models sans batteries and Wi-Fi, including the DS-70 and the ES-50, are smaller still. Another portable with a similar size, girth, and lack of battery and wireless networking is Xerox's Duplex Travel Scanner (also a PCMag favorite).
As for its physical design, the Executive 4 is a straightforward device. The mini USB port for tethering to your PC or laptop is located on the left edge, as shown here.
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Also on the left edge is a Kingston lock for securing the scanner to a desk or countertop. The scanner's control panel consists of one button that lights up when the device is in use and blinks in patterns for specific status scenarios, such as errors. All other aspects of your scans, including defining and selecting workflow profiles, are handled via software.
As for supported media types and weight, the Executive 4 can handle receipts, photos, business cards, plastic/laminated cards (including embossed), sheets as small as 2.2 by 3.5 inches (width and length) and as large as 8.5 inches wide by 32 inches long, paperweights up to 28 pounds and cards and card stock up to 0.8mm thick.
IRIS rates the Executive 4 at a maximum daily duty cycle of 100 scans, which is the same as Xerox's Duplex Travel Scanner, and 200 scans less than most of the Epson scanners mentioned here, except the ES-300W, which is rated at 500 scans per day.
It's in the Software
Like most other IRIScan portables, one of the more impressive aspects of the Executive 4 is the software bundle, which includes Readiris, Cardiris, and IRISCompressor. Readiris is a robust scanner interface and optical character recognition (OCR) application for converting scanned text to editable text. It includes rudimentary document-management functionality, such as custom file naming and the ability to save to numerous file formats, including BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG, Single-Page PDF, Multi-Page PDF, Multi-TIFF, TIFF, RTF, TXT, OCR, XPS, DOC, XLS, DOCS, XLSX, PPTX, and HTML.
Readiris' PDF editing and management abilities are also impressive, and you can export to a few different audio formats and have your scans read to you.
An important component of Readiris is Button Manager. It provides access to nine workflow presets, such as scan to email, image, searchable PDF, cloud site, and so on. From Button Manager, you can use the default presets or modify them to suit your needs. All aspects of your scans, including resolution, one-sided (simplex) or two-sided (duplex) scanning, destination, and so on, are controlled from Button Manager and its workflow profiles.
IRISCompressor makes PDFs small—very small, so that they take up minimal disc or cloud space, and Cardiris is a full-featured business card scanning and archiving utility. With the latter, you can create a database of contacts within the Cardiris software itself, or you can export directly into Microsoft Outlook or Google Contacts.
Basic Speed and Terrific Accuracy
IRIS rates the Executive 4 at 8 pages per minute (ppm). However, as with all manual-feed portables, how fast it scans depends primarily on how quickly you can load each sheet. The Executive 4 easily managed to scan eight pages in 60 seconds. Also, it captured, processed, and saved to image PDF at the rate of 8.2ppm in simplex mode and 15.7 images per minute (or ipm, where each side constitutes an image) in duplex mode.
These speeds are 3.5ppm and 8.1ipm behind the Epson ES-60W and 3.4ppm and 7.4ipm slower than the Epson DS-80W, with similar discrepancies between the Executive 4 and the other Epson portables mentioned here. The Xerox Duplex Travel Scanner, on the other hand, was about 3ppm and 5.7ipm slower than the Executive 4. Keep in mind, though, that due to the human element of feeding the scanner one page at a time, these results are hardly empirical.
More important is how accurately the accompanying software converts the scanned image to editable text. Nowadays, all scanners, portable or otherwise, are highly accurate, averaging error-free conversion on both our Arial and Times New Roman font test pages down to about 6 points—which is what I got from the Executive 4. In other words, most pages are converted to editable text mistake free.
Most of the Epson portables mentioned here also managed 6 points error-free on both the Arial and Times New Roman test pages, except that the ES-60W managed 5 points without mistakes on the Arial font page. The Xerox portable, which we reviewed a couple of years ago, also converted the Arial page at 5 points error-free, which is impressive compared with the scores most other scanners managed at that time.
Finally, I scanned a few stacks of business cards into Cardiris, and, as usual, accuracy depended primarily on the design of the individual cards. Plain white cards with a standard sans or sans-serif typeface typically scanned and populated the database error-free, while fancier cards with color or gradient backgrounds and decorative type required some retyping.
A No-Frills Portable Scanner
The IRIScan Executive 4 is a capable portable scanner with a robust and comprehensive software bundle. It's a respectable option as long as you don't need to operate untethered to a PC. If wireless connectivity and battery power are on your must list, though, you'll want to check out the Editors' Choice Epson ES-60W, which performs as well and comes packed with a more robust set of features.
The IRIScan Executive 4 is a highly accurate manual-feed portable document scanner, but its lack of battery and wireless connectivity limit its road-worthiness.
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Former Contributing Editor
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