Aura - Book & Document Scanner

Had a book that was falling apart which was quite pricey and would take almost a month to ship a replacement. Decided to buy this to preserve the book, and many others. its done an excellent job. Its quick once you get the hang of it and with all the image editing options the scan came out looking better than the original book !

1- long conetion time to win 10 - it can take about 5 min. 2-long scaning time in auto mode, much longer than described. 3-Adjustment after scaning - program crashes after few hundrid pages an you need to start over.

El scanner funciona muy bien, rápido y el OCR es muy preciso. Trabaja perfectamente bien, lo mismo con documentos, libros de pasta blanda y libros de pasta dura. Hace la corrección geométrica muy bien y me ha permitido también digitalizar algunos dibujos en formatos mas grandes. Funciona además como una lámpara de escritorio bastante elegante.

Great for scanning thick books without damaging them. Takes a little use to get used to it.

Recently, I decided to reduce my storage space of old documents I held but whose information with which I did not want to part. On Amazon, I saw scanner options that were quite different from my old, slow, large-format scanner. I came across two scanners that impressed me with their speed and quality: the ScanSnap iX1300 and this project, the CZUR Aura Pro. Each of these scanners was priced around the same -- in the $250 range. I saw value in each type of scanner. The ScanSnap iX1300 provided me with the ability to feed stacks of documents to quickly make them into a single PDF (usually what I wanted). The CZUR Aura Pro offered me the ability to scan larger-format items to make them into a single PDF, when the ScanSnap iX1300 couldn't handle their size. First, I bought the ScanSnap iX1300, and it was only a few days later that I committed to also buying the CZUR Aura Pro -- mainly because I had a lot of notebooks I wanted to scan and the Aura Pro offered that ability in a fast-paced way -- plus, I was also interested in scanning books. In the end, I've spent about $500 in scanners for my project, and although some may gasp at that investment, the cost savings should work out because of the reduced physical storage costs I will inherit (and the virtual storage costs will be trivial if anything with all of the new digitized documents). In addition, I will inherit the sleek technology to aid my habit shift toward parting with paper and digitizing and backing up paper I would be otherwise inclined to keep. As for the CZUR Aura Pro, most of the other reviews already hit on its merits, and they are what sold me on it. Plus, some YouTube videos on it really drove home the point of how remarkable this device is. I have rated it 5 stars, though it does have some minor flaws but ones that I do not feel are worth suggesting this is an inferior purchase or product. There is room for improvement in nearly every product, and in my mind, this is solidly in the 5-star zone of products. As for the design, it is astounding. I love that they thought of making it a light as well as a scanner, encouraging a use case that is always available. For me, I do not have the desk space for it to be always out, so its folding design means I will be able to store it easily. It is also lightweight, so that is an added benefit over having something super heavy. Although I don’t use it, I thought it was really a nice touch to have the screen atop the scanner. Most of my scanning its seated and occasionally looking at my computer, which is why I don’t use the screen on the scanner as much. The snap-on light is super convenient, and toggling between light modes is effortless. As for the function, it is also astounding. My favorite feature, by far, is Auto Scan. In Flat Single Page mode, I can rip through scanning of spiral-bound notebooks in no time. The intelligence of the Auto Scan is what really surprises me, because although it seems to go at a pace of about every two seconds, it only does this when it detects no movement, so if you’re still turning a page or adjusting it, it doesn’t suddenly scan your hands and ruin your workflow. When you’re ready, you back your hands away and you’ll see red scan lines quickly flash, so you know your document has been scanned and you can proceed to turn the next page. The pace is fantastic. Seriously, removing the need to click or push the foot pedal really picks up scanning time, making it a breeze! Another amazing feature is auto-rotation that the scanner does. I can throw down a document at any angle, and when it scans, it is automatically aligned. Although sometimes it gets the orientation wrong, about 99% of the time it gets it right (and when it gets it wrong, you don’t blame it because the item is understandably confusing). To fix any rotation issues, using the Rotate feature usually does the trick -- or else scan again. Most of my scanning is done in Auto Enhance, and when I scan most documents that have no or minimal color (blue ink, for example), it tends to scan as black and white. I can, of course, adjust this to Color to capture richer color if I want. I have to use Crop on some of my larger documents or those that the scanner adds in the background (the mat), but that happens infrequently. The software has a small learning curve that can be overcome with a little practice scanning an item at the beginning, as you nail down your workflow. For me, I click the + sign to select the primary destination of my scanned images, then the > button to Scan, then put the item on the mat, check off the Auto Scan box then hit the Scan button, and then I just watch for the red lines on my item before I turn the page. When I’m done, I exit out of scan, click the orange checkbox icon to select all of the scanned images, then select Searchable PDF to export all of the scanned images as a single searchable PDF to an external drive that syncs to online backup. Then, I throw out the item I just scanned! (Depending on how large your Searchable PDF is, it may take a few minutes for the software to export the file, but exporting as a regular PDF is faster (and it still seems to make any text it detects as copy-and-pasteable. Exporting can run in the background, so I don't have to wait for the first PDF to export before I move on -- I can just start scanning the next item!) Here are some minor issues I have with the CZUR Aura Pro. Let me stress these are not deal-breakers, and I would highly recommend this scanner and I am extraordinarily pleased with it. - Sometimes, my computer (Macbook Air, M2) has trouble finding the device. To date, when this happens, I try a number of things. a. Disconnect the scanner from my computer and try again. b. Disconnect the USB cable from the scanner and try again. c. Disconnect the power cable from the scanner and try again. d. Do any number of these things several times. e. Try connecting to my computer rather than a hub or vice versa. - The USB cable is relatively short for my use, which is a fixed laptop in a small room outside which is the scanner. a. When I added a USB-A extension cable, the first time the scanner would not display on my Mac. I bought a higher-end USB-A extension cable, and the first time it didn’t work. When I added a USB-C adapter to it, my Mac recognized it. b. To date, I think USB-A and USB-C connections will work, it just may take several tries and some patience for the device to be recognized. - Facing Pages mode is a little tricky. This mode is for scanning books and having the software split the scanned image into two separate images to make separate pages. a. Admittedly, I haven’t worked with this much yet. b. When I first tried it, the scanner kept rotating my scanned images, often around 45 degrees. c. Others reported this as a relatively recent issue (as of December 2024), which suggests to me a software issue that might get fixed in a future software update. d. I am not certain, but my rotation issue may have been the result of ambient daylight on the mat, causing to confuse the scanner. I will have to play with this to see. (Now, I try to shield my scanner's mat from light leaking onto it by putting a simple box on my desk to block window light from pouring onto the mat.) - The mat ships in a scroll, so it takes days before it will lie flat — if ever! a. The curve created by the scroll means the far edges will rise up off the desk slightly, possibly confusing the scanner or showing your desk in your images. b. One edge might calm down with time. The inner part of the scroll makes that edge really curved, so it may take more time. I have had my scanner several days and it hasn’t relaxed yet — and when I store it, I might be going back to square-one with the issue. c. This issue is surmountable. Generally, it doesn’t interfere with scanning — it just would be nice if the mat would stay flat. - The software is designed well, though the workflow could be perfected. a. When I have a single page I want scanned and exported to PDF, I can do this with the Aura Pro. However, this is much faster to do with my ScanSnap iX1300. b. So, I use my Aura Pro on items that ScanSnap iX1300 can’t handle — either in terms of size or texture. c. After I scan an item with the Aura Pro and I want to adjust the scanned image, I have to check off the image, then apply the adjustment (Rotate, Crop, etc.). Then, I have to remember to uncheck the scanned image. If I don’t do this and move on to another image to tweak, I might end up inadvertently applying the new adjustments to the prior image — even undoing my work on the first scanned image. I just have to be careful — there is something not intuitive here. - The multiple Confirm buttons in the software are annoying. a. Although they are likely a safety issue, there seem to me too many times I have to click a Confirm button. I think these should be reduced, or one should have the ability to request not being reminded. b. All in all, the fewer clicks I need to make, the better! In the end, though, these are trivial issues. The Aura Pro is, by far, an ingenious scanner, and I am so happy I made this purchase. You should, too!