Visioneer’s 7800 Tag That Photo Scanner ($99.99) is an entry-level photo scanner and software bundle designed primarily for family and home-based offices with infrequent and low-volume scanning needs, especially those who mostly scan photos and graphics. A direct competitor with the Editors’ Choice Canon CanoScan LiDE 400 ($89.99), the LiDE 300 ($69.99), and a few other entry-level models, the 7800 stands out with a one-year subscription to Tag That Photo, a face recognition, tagging, and database application for scanning and cataloging your images of people. The 7800 reproduces photos, graphics, and text documents accurately and attractively, as one would expect from a Visioneer scanner, though its top resolution is significantly lower than those of several competing models. Despite some limitations, the Visioneer 7800 is a highly capable flatbed scanner well worth consideration for digitizing your family’s photos, graphics, and short business documents.
Small, Light, and Capable
With its lid closed, the Visioneer 7800 measures 1.8 by 11.2 by 15.8 inches (HWD) and weighs just under 4 pounds, which puts it in the same ballpark as other entry-level color scanners. The Canon LiDE 400 mentioned above is, at 1.7 by 9.9 by 14.5 inches (HWD) and 3.6 pounds, somewhat leaner, as is its less costly sibling, the LiDE 300. Then, too, there are Epson’s five-year-old Perfection V19 and Perfection V39 (another PCMag favorite) color flatbed models; they list for $70 and $100, respectively, and are nearly identical in weight and girth to Canon’s LiDE machines.
The 7800 comes with only a power button and a USB port for connectivity and power. Most scanners nowadays have at least a few onboard buttons that allow you to initiate scans, cancel scans, toggle between monochrome and color scans, and so on, but the 7800 lacks those controls. Fortunately, the bundled Windows-only software provides a versatile set of scan configuration and destination options. We’ll talk about the software and its features in a moment.
It’s important to note that, like most other scanners in this price range, the Visioneer 7800 connects to and communicates with only one device, a single computer connected to the scanner via the USB cable that comes in the box. You don’t get support for wireless or wired networking, mobile connectivity, mobile apps, or remote scanning, though you can send scans to the cloud by having the 7800’s software save them in a folder that syncs with a cloud site. You can get somewhat limited and cumbersome network access by sharing the scanner through the PC it’s attached to, if that computer is running a version of Windows that supports this, but this method is far from ideal.
With its maximum setting of 1,200dpi, the 7800 is a bit short on resolution. The lower-end and less expensive Epson V19 and Canon LiDE 300 both top out at 2,400dpi, while the $100 V39 and LiDE 400 each support scans up to 4,800dpi. For some documents, especially highly detailed photos and graphics, higher resolution is needed for better detail and overall quality.
Photo Tagging and Searching, Free (for a Year)
In addition to Visioneer’s standard scanner drivers, the 7800 comes with TWAIN software that allows Windows users to scan directly into many third-party image editing and desktop publishing applications. You also get a one-year subscription to Tag That Photo (TTP). After the first year, you can choose from two plans, Personal ($64 per year), which gives you one license for the software, and Family ($89 per year), a three-license plan that lets you run it on up to three computers. That’s the only difference justifying the additional $25.
Though TTP is subscription-based software, it is not associated with any cloud site or repository for uploading, organizing, or displaying your photos. Instead, it is installed and runs locally on your Windows desktop or laptop. Only Windows 7, 8, and 10 (with the latest service packs) are supported, and only 64-bit versions; if you want to scan to an older Windows system, a Mac, or a phone or tablet, you’re out of luck. (Our roundup of the best scanners for Macs can help you find an alternative.)
Tag That Photo can manage photos stored on any folder accessed through Windows File Explorer. That includes network drives and folders mirrored to cloud-based services such as OneDrive and Dropbox, as well as USB thumb drives and other external drives.
Like most modern flatbed scanners, the 7800’s software allows you to scan several photos at once. The software identifies them as separate objects and automatically creates an independent file for each one, which you can then tag and archive with Tag That Photo.
Before diving in with Tag That Photo, you might want to look around at other photo management options. If, for example, you don’t mind shelling out $175 or $350 up front, pCloud will give you 500GB or 2TB, respectively, for life. Over a period of 10 years, that cost comes out to $3 per month, and even lower if you keep the account longer. Google offers Google Photos as part of a Google Workplace package that also includes substantial cloud storage and a number of other apps and features for just $6–18 a month depending on the plan you choose.
Low Scanning Speed and High Scanning Quality
How fast these little entry-level photo scanners scan text isn’t all that relevant to people using them occasionally for personal or small-business purposes. Even so, I did time the 7800 as it scanned and saved a few test pages.
Keep in mind that with a flatbed scanner, you can scan only one letter-size page at a time. Any clocking includes the time required to place the sheet on the scanner, scan it, remove it, place the next sheet on the glass, and so on, for each page you scan—hardly empirical scientific testing. Desktop document scanners with automatic document feeders (ADFs) that feed the scanner sheets automatically are much more suited for this type of testing.
In any case, using the method described above, the scanner and I achieved one-sided (simplex) scanning to image PDF format at a rate of 5.5 pages per minute. That’s the same speed as Canon’s LiDE 300 and LiDE 400, which I tested back in December 2018. Epson’s Perfection V19 and Perfection V39 were reviewed here in mid-2015 with a different methodology and test documents, so their speed test results can’t really be compared to those of today’s Visioneer 7800.
As for scan quality—or, more accurately, accuracy—the Visioneer managed quite well. Test photos and graphics were scanned with closely matching colors and tints, good detail, and overall strong vibrancy and bright, well-saturated colors. Occasionally, getting the best, most accurate images entailed making some minimal, uncomplicated adjustments in the interface software’s Preview mode. Sometimes the interface software’s autocorrect feature did the job well enough to avoid adjusting at all.
Though the Visioneer 7800 is not the ideal solution for scanning a lot of text documents, I scanned several text pages, as well as our individual Arial and Times New Roman font test pages. Like most of today’s scanners, this one (and its accompanying software) used optical character recognition (OCR) to convert scanned images of text to searchable and editable text successfully, error-free, down to a font size of 6 points for each font sample. That beat the Canon LiDE 300 and 400 flatbeds, which could only accurately scan Times New Roman down to 10 points. Epson’s Perfection V19 and V39, on the other hand, both tied the 7800 at 6 points for each font.
The 7800 doesn’t ship with software for archiving documents or business cards, so I didn’t run archiving tests other than seeing how Tag That Photo handled photo management.
A Strong Choice for Family Photos
You can perform limited document scanning with the Visioneer 7800, but it’s obviously better suited for photo scanning and archiving. The Tag That Photo software is well developed and handy. The big downside of using it to tag, organize, and search your photos in that first free year is that you’re locked into either a $64 or $89 yearly commitment. Other photo storage services may offer better deals.
The CanoScan LiDE 400 is our Editors’ Choice thanks to a higher maximum resolution and a lower price, but for Windows users who want an easy, uncomplicated scanner and software package that works right out of the box, the Visioneer 7800 with Tag That Photo is a complete, nicely integrated little bundle. Some may find it a suitable option for low-volume business scanning, but given the photo-focused software, we most strongly recommend the Visioneer 7800 Tag That Photo Scanner for scanning and organizing your family snapshots.
