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I am a dedicated and proud user of linux, predominately Ubuntu, and, for a long time I’ve wanted to rid myself of the last remaining occurrence of Windows in my home. Only PaperPort was preventing me from achieving my goal.
I have searched the internet for a few years, but have been unable to find a substitute for this, until now.
I am a dedicated user of the paperless office.
So what is this all about, I hear you ask?
Well, the title is somewhat self-explanatory. It's an office (home or small business) without paper. (Well, almost.)
Let me explain. Whether you are a home user or a small business user, this is applicable to you.
Almost every day the letter box, and consequently the home or business, is littered with letters or bills or statements. What do you do with them? I suppose most home users dump them in the bin; business users will need to store most of them in increasing numbers of filing cabinets I guess.
This is where the paperless office comes into its own.
There is a windows application called PaperPort; this has changed ownership in recent years, but the application still remains the “Rolls Royce” of the paperless office. The whole package has many, many features, more than I can recall, but I tend to use only a couple of these. The cost of this s/w is reasonable (for a Windows setup), but not an option (at the current time) for Linux users.
In simplistic terms, the application contains a built-in file manager and scanner application.
On running PaperPort, you use the file manager application to select the folder where you want all your “scans” saved (the office of no paper). It is simple to create new folders and move things around. Just remember to file everything in sensibly-named folders and filenames.
Each time you scan in a document, it will be saved in the “selected” folder as a compressed pdf file type. If a document is multi-page, it will be saved as a compressed multi-page pdf.
Once the documents have been scanned (and backed up to another HDD), they can be “binned”, although I would recommend that they are shredded with a cross-cut shredder. Everything that is paper-based can be treated in the same way. All bills, bank statements, receipts, etc., are stored in an appropriate folder, thus allowing it to be found easily in the future. Should a hard copy be required, a document can be dropped onto the printer icon and it will be printed. Fantastic! Think of the space you can save!
I have recently found PaperPort's Linux equivalent. It's not something that has just been created, it's been there quite a while, but doesn't seem to have been documented or even considered for this purpose.
I will now try my best to explain the workings of this Windows replacement. BTW, I am now ecstatic, as I can now make my last Windows PC redundant.
Installation
There are two applications that you will need to install to replace the functionality of PaperPort: gscan2pdf and pdfsam.
Both are available in most repositories. Now, let me make it quite clear that I am no expert in either of these applications, and I am still learning the finer points of both of them, but I will try to explain the elements that I know work, and which provide me with the end result I need: “The paperless office”. It matters not whether your scanner is a stand-alone or all-in-one; gscan2pdf should be able to detect it. I accept that there will be some issues here, especially the the newest printers/scanners, but I will state that I purchased an Epson PX810 over 12 months ago, when it was quite new to the market, and Ubuntu detected it straight away, even though I use it over my local network with Wi-Fi. I also have a HP OfficeJet 4500, connected with USB, and have no issues with that either.
Now, let’s get down to action.
Scan and save
Let me now summarise the use of each of the applications mentioned above.
gscan2pdf provides the functionality needed to scan your documents and save them to disk.
Pdfsam (pdf split and merge) provides the functionality to merge multiple single pdf scans into a single 'stacked' pdf document, and, if required, it can unstack them back to single pdf's.
Ensure that your scanner is connected to the Laptop or PC or to your Network, and switched on at the mains. Select and run the application gscan2pdf, and, once it opens, click the “scan” icon; the application will now search for any connected scanners and place them in a selection list. The next window that opens allows you to select the appropriate scanner if you have more than one connected.
There are 4 tabs: Page Options: here you can select to scan single pages or multiple pages. Obviously, multiple pages can be handled only with an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder). I have found that “Clean up images” and “OCR scanned pages” are best left un-ticked for the purposes of this tutorial. Scan Mode: here you can choose between 'colour', 'line art', and 'grey'. The scan resolution can also be changed here. I find that for normal “paperless office” uses, 150 is a good choice. Advanced: here you can alter the 'compression', 'factor', and 'scan source'. I tend to set Compression at JPEG, factor at 10, and Scan Source at either 'Flatbed' or 'ADF' - as appropriate. I use ADF mostly, as you can scan many pages with ease. NOTE: ADF will be an option only if the scanner supports this. Geometry: I leave measurement as default, and paper size as A4 (I am in the UK).
Now, assuming you have placed the docs to scan in either the flatbed or the ADF, click 'Scan'.
The scanned pages will now appear as thumbnails in the 'main' gscan2pdf window.
If you have scanned multiple documents, you have the option to select one or more in the left pane. You can now click the 'save' icon (looks like an HDD with green arrow). The save window will now appear. You have the following options: Page Range, select either All or Selected as appropriate. Image Type, for normal Paperless Office uses, select PDF. Date, click this and choose the appropriate date. If you are scanning, say, bank statements, select the date of the statement as this will be used for the filename. Other data can be added as required.
For Compression, I normally select Automatic. Click Save.
You will now be offered a file manager window to select the target destination.
Browse to where you wish to save the scan.
To make the next “save” somewhat easier, you can choose to click the + sign (to save as a shortcut for next time), before you click the Save button.
That's it, your scans will have been saved to your HDD.
Merge and/or Split
If you subsequently need to merge (stack) multiple single scans together, or extract (split) a page from a merged set, then you need to open pdfsam.
This is quite simple to use: select the Merge/Extract option in the left-hand window, then click the ADD button, and select the PDFs you want to merge into one. In the selection window that returns listing all the PDFs that you previously selected, you get the option of re-ordering them, then you can choose the target location and filename, and then click RUN.
Conversely, if you wish to split a page from a merged/stacked set, select the split option in the left window, then click the ADD button, and select the PDF you want to extract from. The normal split option would be Burst; then you can choose the target location and filename, and then click RUN.
I hope you have found this useful, because I now use this at weekly intervals, to reduce the “paper” collecting in my office.
Many thanks to the author(s) of both the applications described above.