4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent hardware; difficult software

2026-02-26    -ctramp

I have used the DR-M160 for several weeks now and overall am very satisfied with my purchase. The scanner is compact and efficient, and its feeder is heartrendingly competent. After years of tears with a very expensive Hewlett-Packard flatbed scanner which regularly failed, this Canon machine is a dream come true. I've thrown my toughest pitches at it and it connects solidly each time. Even those endless toilet paper receipts that retail stores pump out feed flawlessly. That is, unless you don't quite get them tucked in properly to the feeder; then you get a polite memo asking if you really wouldn't mind pushing the paper in a little farther.If you're looking at this machine, I assume you have fairly heavy scanning demands. It's not a flatbed, which can be handy if you have oversize or bound documents, and it's much more expensive than an occasional user could likely justify. However, for my needs (archiving an attic full of files), it is perfect. Another caution, though -- it taxes your CPU/GPU. If you have an older computer, you will not likely get anywhere near the advertised throughput, as your processor(s) will choke on the volume of bits flowing in. Still, it will chew through it in time, and if you're like me you'll use this as a good excuse to buy a new computer.The software takes quite a bit of getting used to, and I fault Canon for dropping the ball here. This is where the Fujitsu ScanSnap might make some happier. There is zero useful documentation (IMHO) with the Canon and if you are like me, you'll struggle to figure out what the various software pieces do, how they fit together and why you need to use them. I'm sure brighter souls can figure this out, but after painstakingly following the directions (including commentary from other reviewers) for installing the included Kofax VRS software, I still don't know if it's working or not and what exactly I need it for. I figured out the Canon Capture on Touch software (sort of) and it does what I need. CapturePerfect v. 3.1, I admire you, but I know I can't live up to your expectations.So, if you're in the market for a document scanner that can riffle through your documents at light speed and tuck them away neatly in the file folders of your choosing, this one's for you. It looks great on your desk, too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding product

2025-12-23    -Customer 97644

First I had the Epson GT-S80 which was a mistake, since it scanned rapidly, but would not permit another scan until the PC finished the OCR, which was slow. It also named files with sequential numbers based on the highest number in the scan directory so that when you moved files around, files would wind up with the same name. The Epson was really a poorly thought out machine.Then I got the Canon DR-M160. It was almost perfect. The scans were as fast as the Epson, but there was *NO* lag for OCR. The searchable PDFs appeared instantly on my computer. I don't know how they do it. File names appropriately included date and time so that there could be no duplicate names. And unlike the frequently jamming Epson, the Canon never seemed to jam (unless I missed some stapled pages, of course). Blank pages were automatically removed and turned pages automatically rotated (also unlike the Epson). The only improvement I could think of would be a number pad to permit more than just 9 programs. I use the programs to deposit the scans into directories, and it would be nice to be able to have a lot more than 9 for immediate organization of documents.After a couple of years of moderate use, however, the Canon now generates a duplicate page error with every scanned page, and will not scan anything. I'll keep looking into possible solutions, but I may have to conclude that the machine is not as robust as I had hoped.Minus 1 star for failure after two years of moderate use.UPDATE: The failure above has simply disappeared. I presume it was a software conflict issue that resolved when the offending software was stopped or when Windows updated last night, but I don't know what it was, and in two years of use it never happened before. With the assumption that the problem was unrelated to Canon, I revise my rating to 5 out of 5 stars. The only improvement I can imagine would be a keypad for entering more programs and thus enabling more detailed instant organization of documents into a folder hierarchy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent hardware; difficult software

2026-02-07    -ctramp

I have used the DR-M160 for several weeks now and overall am very satisfied with my purchase. The scanner is compact and efficient, and its feeder is heartrendingly competent. After years of tears with a very expensive Hewlett-Packard flatbed scanner which regularly failed, this Canon machine is a dream come true. I've thrown my toughest pitches at it and it connects solidly each time. Even those endless toilet paper receipts that retail stores pump out feed flawlessly. That is, unless you don't quite get them tucked in properly to the feeder; then you get a polite memo asking if you really wouldn't mind pushing the paper in a little farther.If you're looking at this machine, I assume you have fairly heavy scanning demands. It's not a flatbed, which can be handy if you have oversize or bound documents, and it's much more expensive than an occasional user could likely justify. However, for my needs (archiving an attic full of files), it is perfect. Another caution, though -- it taxes your CPU/GPU. If you have an older computer, you will not likely get anywhere near the advertised throughput, as your processor(s) will choke on the volume of bits flowing in. Still, it will chew through it in time, and if you're like me you'll use this as a good excuse to buy a new computer.The software takes quite a bit of getting used to, and I fault Canon for dropping the ball here. This is where the Fujitsu ScanSnap might make some happier. There is zero useful documentation (IMHO) with the Canon and if you are like me, you'll struggle to figure out what the various software pieces do, how they fit together and why you need to use them. I'm sure brighter souls can figure this out, but after painstakingly following the directions (including commentary from other reviewers) for installing the included Kofax VRS software, I still don't know if it's working or not and what exactly I need it for. I figured out the Canon Capture on Touch software (sort of) and it does what I need. CapturePerfect v. 3.1, I admire you, but I know I can't live up to your expectations.So, if you're in the market for a document scanner that can riffle through your documents at light speed and tuck them away neatly in the file folders of your choosing, this one's for you. It looks great on your desk, too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding product

2026-01-18    -Customer 97644

First I had the Epson GT-S80 which was a mistake, since it scanned rapidly, but would not permit another scan until the PC finished the OCR, which was slow. It also named files with sequential numbers based on the highest number in the scan directory so that when you moved files around, files would wind up with the same name. The Epson was really a poorly thought out machine.Then I got the Canon DR-M160. It was almost perfect. The scans were as fast as the Epson, but there was *NO* lag for OCR. The searchable PDFs appeared instantly on my computer. I don't know how they do it. File names appropriately included date and time so that there could be no duplicate names. And unlike the frequently jamming Epson, the Canon never seemed to jam (unless I missed some stapled pages, of course). Blank pages were automatically removed and turned pages automatically rotated (also unlike the Epson). The only improvement I could think of would be a number pad to permit more than just 9 programs. I use the programs to deposit the scans into directories, and it would be nice to be able to have a lot more than 9 for immediate organization of documents.After a couple of years of moderate use, however, the Canon now generates a duplicate page error with every scanned page, and will not scan anything. I'll keep looking into possible solutions, but I may have to conclude that the machine is not as robust as I had hoped.Minus 1 star for failure after two years of moderate use.UPDATE: The failure above has simply disappeared. I presume it was a software conflict issue that resolved when the offending software was stopped or when Windows updated last night, but I don't know what it was, and in two years of use it never happened before. With the assumption that the problem was unrelated to Canon, I revise my rating to 5 out of 5 stars. The only improvement I can imagine would be a keypad for entering more programs and thus enabling more detailed instant organization of documents into a folder hierarchy.

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast Scanner, has some design flaws

2026-01-03    -C. Lubbers

PROS:This scanner is blazing fast. At 300 dpi is creates a very high quality image in an amazingly short time.CONS:It has 2 major problems.1. One is that the outbound tray isn't smooth. It has groves that allow it to slide in and fold up. The problem with that is when paper is being discharged from the machine it fairly regularly get caught up in the groves, sometimes jamming the scanner.2. The paper sitting in the inbound tray bumps up a little as the next page feeds in. This only becomes a problem when you get to the second to the last page, as that feeds in it bumps the last page making the scanner think that it is done with all the pages. So you end up having to scan again and append that to the first scan. The only solution is in the settings you can have it not stop scanning until you push the stop button on the front of the machine. While this fixes the problem it is a pain to have to do that every time if you scan frequently.FINAL THOUGHTS:It is a good scanner no doubt but for the amount of money it costs it should really be designed a little better. Also I can't speak to the software that comes with it, we use a third party DMS so we don't use any of the software that comes with it except the TWAIN drivers which seem to work well as our 3rd party software doesn't have any issues communicating with the scanner like we've had with other scanners (snapScan I'm looking at you)EDIT: I've been using this scanner pretty heavily for about 7 months. I need to retract one of my cons. Number 1 about the outbound tray. It turns or that it is just REALLY sensitive about being completely extended. It if it just 1 millimeter off it tends to jam up. If it is extended all the way it doesn't jam at all. Number 2 is still a real problem though.

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast Scanner, has some design flaws

2026-01-10    -C. Lubbers

PROS:This scanner is blazing fast. At 300 dpi is creates a very high quality image in an amazingly short time.CONS:It has 2 major problems.1. One is that the outbound tray isn't smooth. It has groves that allow it to slide in and fold up. The problem with that is when paper is being discharged from the machine it fairly regularly get caught up in the groves, sometimes jamming the scanner.2. The paper sitting in the inbound tray bumps up a little as the next page feeds in. This only becomes a problem when you get to the second to the last page, as that feeds in it bumps the last page making the scanner think that it is done with all the pages. So you end up having to scan again and append that to the first scan. The only solution is in the settings you can have it not stop scanning until you push the stop button on the front of the machine. While this fixes the problem it is a pain to have to do that every time if you scan frequently.FINAL THOUGHTS:It is a good scanner no doubt but for the amount of money it costs it should really be designed a little better. Also I can't speak to the software that comes with it, we use a third party DMS so we don't use any of the software that comes with it except the TWAIN drivers which seem to work well as our 3rd party software doesn't have any issues communicating with the scanner like we've had with other scanners (snapScan I'm looking at you)EDIT: I've been using this scanner pretty heavily for about 7 months. I need to retract one of my cons. Number 1 about the outbound tray. It turns or that it is just REALLY sensitive about being completely extended. It if it just 1 millimeter off it tends to jam up. If it is extended all the way it doesn't jam at all. Number 2 is still a real problem though.