The fi-6230 from Fujitsu differs from most other document scanners in that it's really two scanners in one. There's a sheet-fed scanner at the back to handle unbound documents, with a flatbed in front to handle things like books and magazines. The end result is quite large, but it's stylish-looking and practical, with a bundle of software included to both drive the scanner and enhance the results.

For day-to-day use most documents can be loaded into the 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). This has an ultrasonic sensor to detect mis-feeds and uses so-called “reversing rolling” technology to enable it to cope with a wide variety of materials. We tried everything from tissue-thin photocopies through to plastic credit cards and it handled them all. You can even scan very long documents (up to around three metres, if needed), although you're unlikely to have to do so often.

Most of the time it will be A4, the sheet-fed scanner imaging both sides of the document at once to give a throughput of up to 80 images per minute. However, that's only at 200dpi and high resolution scans will take longer, the maximum resolution being 600dpi. Colour is detected automatically, as is the size of the document being scanned, making it easy to handle mixed batches. De-skewing of scanned images is also implemented as standard.

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The flatbed scanner is equally easy to use and acts as a catch tray for the ADF when not in use.

Controls are minimal, just an on/off switch plus buttons to start and stop a scan and run a pre-set host application. A USB 2.0 port is provided for direct PC attachment using the cable included, with most buyers expected to use the fi-6230 with an existing document management system, for which Windows TWAIN and ISIS drivers are supplied. Otherwise you get a basic standalone tool called ScandAll Pro which, although not the best or easiest we've ever used, covers most of the bases as far as scanning is concerned.

A copy of Kofax VRS Professional is also included, adding extra image enhancement tools, together with Adobe Acrobat 8 (Standard Edition) to create PDF documents from scans. Added to which you get a trial copy of EMC QuickScan Pro which has built-in optical character recognition (OCR) plus its own de-speckling, de-skewing and other enhancement tools. A full licence for the EMC software will cost around £300 (plus VAT).

The Fujitsu fi-6230 is well constructed and, although a lot more expensive than the average home scanner, compares well on price against other professional high-volume products. It's also a little bulky, but for those looking to save space an almost identical fi-6130 is available (£589 + VAT) without the flatbed at the front.

No, it's not a bird or a plane; it's two scanners in one, the fi-6230 incorporating both sheet-fed and flatbed scanners in one unit. A 50-page automatic feeder is built-in to handle high-volume work with TWAIN and ISIS drivers for use with document management systems. A bundle of standalone document capture and enhancement applications is also included to round off this well made and flexible professional document scanner.