This is fast becoming Optical Character Recognition (OCR) week. On Monday I called Kinkos and they wanted to charge roughly $600 to OCR convert a roughly 300 page manuscript into DOC or PDF format. This got me thinking that I could buy a scanner and some OCR software and do the job myself. First, the printer.

Bought the Brother MFC-240C all-in-one scanner, fax, printer at Wal-Mart for $100. There were more expensive scanner only options as well as less expensive printers. What I liked about the MFC-240C was that it had a document sheet feeder so multiple pages could be fed to the scanner at one time. This way we could feed a chapter at a time through the scanner. Here’s what the first target document looks like:

To give you an idea how old some of these documents are: they were originally printed in dot matrix on a Commodore 64 printer. Older than the gray in my stubbly chin. Through the years the old 5 1/4″ and then later 3 1/2″ disks that went with the manuscripts have been lost or damaged. Thankfully, the print versions still remain, but the text is fading and the pages are starting to yellow.

Next, clear off a spot in the corner of my glass desk.

As you might expect, I found the built-in OCR software that came with the Brother MFC-240C to be worthless, producing only garbage characters from the tested pages. Software with an SE after it for Special Edition is begging to be sent to the recycle bin. Rarely does any cheap printer come with decent software, so it’s at least partly my fault for not being willing to spend more.

I’ve had good experience with other Brother printers in the past and I checked that the replacement ink cartridges weren’t too spendy. The red, yellow and blue cartridges all run about $12 and the black is around $25. They always get you on the most used ink, don’t they?

As mentioned, this mostly is going to be used as a scanner with sheet feeder, not a printer and we’re very happy with the results so far. I’ve recruited my teenage sons to help me with the process and they give Omnipage and the Brother scanner a thumbs up.

The machine comes with software for both Mac and Windows XP. If you want Vista drivers you need to visit the Brother website where they are freely available. The Mac drivers installed without a hitch. My main Windows XP would not install the included software, erroring out with the message that I was trying to install the wrong printer name. I called Brother support (free call) and they sent the issue to a higher up. Still waiting on another answer.

We tried installing on another Windows machine, my son’s laptop, and all worked right away. The issue appears to be something with USB drivers on my main developer machine. I won’t blame Brother for this one, but will blame the gods of plug and pray.

One last thing. This printer didn’t come with a USB cord. This reminds me of when I bought a Westinghouse LCD monitor and it didn’t come with the cord. We had a couple extra USB cords laying around so this didn’t end up being a big deal, still they should bump the price a couple bucks and include the necessary cord. The box is clearly marked that it doesn’t include a USB cord but I still think it’s stupid selling without all the necessary cords.

Overall, good price, does what I need to do with only a few annoying things. Grade: B-

• Ink jet printer safe from prying Secret Service eyes, Laser jet not
• The printer prints again!
• B4: Cord organization
• Wal-mart PR guy goes bye-bye
• Helping a friend with eBay and Internet Explorer problems
• Epson breaks out a TV, Printer combo at the CES