CardSccan Business Card Reader

"CardScan is worth considering if you want to organize your life electronically and get more out of your PC."

Walter Mossberg
The Wall Street Journal

"CardScan Executive Version 5 is a simple, surefire productivity tool."

Bruce Brown
PC Magazine

"I was most impressed with how well it then moved the data into other programs and devices."

Stephen C. Miller
The New York Times

Scroll down or click on one of the following topics for more reviews of CardScan:

General

Accuracy

Connectivity

Benefits

Ease of Use

GENERAL
Mark Kellner Washington Times February 14, 2000	"CardScan Executive turns drudgery into something akin to sheer delight. ... Taking care if business cards may seem like a mundane task. But with the CardScan system, which I have used for a while and expect to keep on using, it's not the drudgery it once was. If riding herd on your contact list is a priority (and all the experts on time management say it should be one), then this system is as indispensable as having a fresh supply of your own cards for your next meeting."
Alan Goldstein Dallas Morning News December 23, 1999	"One of the most tedious parts of returning from a trade show or conference is taking a stack of newly acquired business cards and entering the data line by line into a computer. CardScan eliminates much of the hassle."
James Coates Chicago Tribune December 5, 1999	"Holiday shoppers have all kinds of reasons to consider the latest rendition of CardScan, a brick-size business card scanner and some very slick software that makes a relative cakewalk out of entering stacks of business cards into one's computer database. ... Corex's special business card reading software does much better than other character-recognition programs in figuring out the small type and graphics that make scanning cards a real chore. ... A new split area-code module is of particular merit."
Steve Barth Portable Computing November 1999	"There are high-end scanners for corporate document management, but Mr. Sole Proprietor will get a lot more mileage out of a business card scanner. Corex's latest CardScan will suck up business cards, recognize the text and file the right database fields with a good level of accuracy."
John Dickinson, Home Office Computing November 1999	"USB is a fine technology; I'm happy products like the CardScan are appearing on the scene."
John Fried Philadelphia Inquirer June 24, 1999	"Feed a business card to CardScan, and it gently sucks the card into its innards. ... I tested CardScan with a dozen business cards. Some were in pristine shape, others a little dog-eared. A couple of them had notes scrawled on them. ... the scanner and its software read and translated the cards with a high degree of intelligence."
Jay Small Indianapolis Star June 21, 1999	"Until recently, it was easier to wade through a disorganized pile of cards to find an address than to stop whatever else I was doing and enter all that data into my contact manager. Now I use a program called CardScan. You can use CardScan one of two ways -- either with a miniature card-size scanner ... or with any flatbed desktop scanner that is TWAIN-compliant. ... It’s surprisingly accurate, given that many business card designs -- with their tiny text and unusual typeface choices aren’t exactly ideal for optical character recognition. If you already have a scanner, the software is a good buy, too."
Bill Howard PC Magazine June 8, 1999	"There are two specialty scanners I dearly love: the sheet-fed Visioneer PaperPort Strobe and the business card-reading Corex CardScan."
Gordon Bass PC/Computing June 1999	"Why type? Stop flipping through a stack of business cards for contact information; get organized with the Corex CardScan Executive."
Promotional Products Business May 1999	"CardScan enables you to download business cards very quickly and efficiently into your database. ... It places all of the information on the card in its respective place in your database. Amazing!"
David Rensin Pen Computing Magazine April 1999	"Every profession has its Holy Grail. For a product reviewer, it’s finding a product that you just can’t live without. CardScan is just such a product. ... The most impressive features of CardScan are its phenomenal accuracy and blazing speed. ... If you get a lot of business cards but don’t have the time or patience to enter them all into your PIM, then get a CardScan. This is probably the most useful product I have ever reviewed."
Gordon Ung Maximum PC March 1999	"If contact information is important to your business, the Corex (CardScan) scanner is worth the investment. The Executive chews through business cards faster than a wood chipper."
Paula Rooney Computer Retail Week December 14, 1998	"Ideal gifts for professionals: CardScan Executive, a business card management system that enables professionals to scan business cards into PCs, handheld computers and personal information managers."
Rob Kay & Jeff Bloom Pacific Business News December 14, 1998	"CardScan has got to be one of the coolest business tools we’ve ever seen. It allows you to take all those business cards that are probably cluttering up your drawer or wallet and easily scan the data into a database on your desktop computer. ... The software is full-featured, well-designed and easy to use."
Michael Caton PC Week Online December 1998	"This (CardScan) is one of those very useful tools that just about any business user will appreciate. ... The key to this product working so well is that it keeps a graphical representation of the card with the data."
Jason Byrne Government Computer News December 1998	"CardScan can rescue you from business-card shuffle. ... No need to procrastinate any longer. ... Corex programmers have fine-tuned the program’s intelligence to place the right information in the right field. Because there is no such thing as a standard business card layout, this is a very difficult assignment."
Sm@rt Reseller November 2, 1998	"The staff at Smart Reseller has nearly worn out a CardScan unit, processing stack after stack of cards."
Eric Lundquist PC Week September 28, 1998	"My vote for a new rev of a product that performs as promised goes to Corex Technologies' CardScan. I’ve been using it to catch up on the stacks of business cards that always follow me back from trade shows. This scanner is much faster and much more accurate than any typist. Cheers for a product that is worth the upgrade price."
San Jose Mercury News December 17, 1998	"One of the most popular pieces of hardware in my cubicle. ... Corex Technologies’ CardScan is a handy little device that takes paper business cards, scans them and turns them into searchable data files."
John Dodge Boston Globe November 5, 1998	"There's a wide variety of inexpensive scanners, printers and fax machines. One of my favorites is CardScan, which scans business cards into a digital Rolodex."
HGTV Alex Bennett March 1998	"CardScan reads all the information in some magic technologic way. It puts all the information in the proper places. ... An amazing and very useful product. ... I’m not giving this one back."

ACCURACY
Rich Dalton Newsday February 3, 2000	"If your idea of a Rolodex is a wad of business cards wrapped in a rubber band, it's time to turn your expensive PC into a cheap address book. ... And best of all, you don't have to type in the business cards. CardScan, a small scanner designed to read business cards, will do it for you. ... CardScan software is incredibly accurate in matching the fields."
Earl Selby PC Paper December 1999	"The big enchilada for us in keeping hundreds of cards under prefect control ... A gem called CardScan. It scans any card you feed into its little desktop unit. ... Rat-a-tat-tat-that's how fast you can scan cards. And that's it. CardScan's AccuCard technology, loaded into your PC from a CD-ROM, is magical in reading cards and segregating names, etc. into database fields."
Doug Mohney Interesting Times July 5, 1999	"I’ve got a CardScan sitting on my desk, a gizmo that reads business cards at a pretty fast clip. I’ve fed nearly 500 cards into it and the results are pretty impressive when you stop to consider all the artistic license people take in design these days."
Bob Schwabach ON Computers Syndicated Column April 6, 1999	"Typing them (business cards) into your database is a nuisance, but you might want to get in touch with these people someday. An easy way out is to run the cards through the new CardScan from Corex Technologies. ... I tried CardScan on a variety of business cards and it was surprisingly accurate. ... This gadget works."
Barry Bayer Law Office Technology April 1999	"CardScan software does two things: It converts graphics into text and determines which group of text properly fits into which database field. We were amazed to see how well it did with both functions. ... More impressive was the ability of CardScan to put words into the correct fields. ... At $300 for scanner and software, CardScan is an excellent value. ... CardScan is excellent at what it does."
Lisa Greim Everitt Denver Rocky Mountain News December 14, 1998	"Readers praise the improved accuracy of this $299 device, which allows the overworked person on your list to eliminate the stack of business cards on his or her desk. ... Clutter be gone!"
Lynn Greiner Computing Canada December 14, 1998	"The best little device in town (CardScan); Incredible accuracy makes this impressive little business card scanner the best on the market. ... The software is nothing short of miraculous. ... To make a long story short, CardScan is an impressive product."
Henry Norr San Francisco Chronicle December 10, 1998	"Another gizmo that almost any professional should appreciate is Corex’s CardScan Executive, a device that scans business cards and generates a convenient database. The latest software release, version 4, makes it better than ever. Recognition accuracy ... is remarkably good."
Lance Ulanoff Windows Magazine December 1998	"A business card scanner may be just the ticket to help you tame the unruly collection of cards lurking in and around your desk. ... CardScan’s OCR accuracy is exceptional."
Cheryl Currid Houston Chronicle October 16, 1998	"For business travelers, the $299 6-inch-by-7-inch CardScan Executive packs easily to let you scan and store business card information while on the road. ... Just for fun, we challenged the software by feeding in several cards upside down. We also used cards with difficult to read logos. Despite our tricks, the software read most of the text perfectly."
James Coates The Chicago Tribune December 1996	"It does amazingly well in keeping the promise on the box, which is to allow a user to feed a stack of business cards quickly through a scanner and then accurately render the information into computer-readable text."

CONNECTIVITY
Joel Dreyfuss Fortune Magazine February 21, 2000	"Corex has upgraded the look of the small, black device (CardScan), giving it a more contemporary styling. But the real value is CardScan's software, which has improved. It now recognizes foreign languages and phone numbers and smartly moves the data into the right spot in your Palm, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Organizer, Act, GoldMine or LotusNotes address book. ... It beats sitting at your PC and inputting that stack of cards from your last business trip."
Holly Aguirre Home Office Computing June 1999	"The CardScan Executive from Corex can help you put that drawerful of contacts right where they belong: in your favorite personal information manager. ... Better yet, CardScan interacts with several PIMs, including Symantec’s ACT!, Microsoft Outlook, and Lotus Notes, and an array of mobile tools such as Windows CE and Palm devices."
Richard Shim Computer Shopper February 1999.	"We found CardScan Executive to be as convenient on the mobile platform as it is on a desktop."
Jim Louderback ZDTV and PC Week January 13, 1999	"CardScan did a darn good job; nice and fast. It got pretty much everything right. … There’s a big difference between all these business cards in your drawer and most of them in here accurately, in your computer. ... The other nice thing is you can transfer all this information into all the popular contact managers like Act or Notes, even down to the PalmPilot or Windows CE machines. You can actually get all this information where you need it, which is on the road or in your notebook."
Mobile Technology Sourcebook 1999	"If you have a drawer full of business cards you’ve been meaning to organize, look no further for a swift solution. ... The CardScan Executive’s OCR engine scans data into your PC, handheld, or PIM."
Pen Computing Buyer’s Guide Summer/ Fall 1998	"CardScan has excellent export capabilities by supporting no less than 100 different types of PIMs and fax software."
Yardena Arar PC World October 1998	"Savvy business card collectors don’t type in all those names and numbers into their contact manager -- they use a card scanner to do the job. The latest release of CardScan software makes this job easier than ever. The Intellisync feature alone is worth CardScan 4.0’s $79 street price."
Andy Pargh USA Today October 27, 1998	"CardScan Executive; Just insert a business card and watch the data magically appear on your PC, PalmPilot, Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook database."
Joel Dreyfuss Fortune October 26, 1998	"It was a pleasure to see CardScan flawlessly zap names and addresses into my Ecco file. Now I have one less reason to dread business trips."
Toronto Life October 1998	"Our favorite accessory for the PalmPilot and Palm III is the Corex CardScan, a nifty little gadget that reads business cards and slots the name, title, company name and address into the correct fields, then dumps it into your PalmPilot for easy retrieval. You can toss those business cards littering your briefcase into the blue box for good."
Stephen C. Miller November 14, 1998 New York Times	"Business cards are the bane of my existence. ... I tested Corex Technologies’ CardScan. The company was one of the first into the market and is one of the leaders. ... The software has reached a point where it whips through a variety of business cards without breathing hard. ... It zips them through fast ... and processes them all at once ... While the ability to accurately read, translate and properly categorize business cards is the core of the product, I was most impressed with how well it then moved the data into other programs and devices. ... The CardScan software is quite good as a stand alone contact manager. ... Two pleasant things developed during this evaluation, I found the card of a missing friend and my desk drawer is now half empty."
N’Gai Croal Newsweek August 17, 1998	"CardScan 300 has a more recognizable interface -- it’s modeled after an actual Rolodex. What’s more, if you click on the phone-number category for a card that you’ve scanned, it will dial the number for you. ... What’s best about the CardScan 300 is that it works more smoothly with the popular PalmPilot organizer."

BENEFITS
American Lawyer Magazine February 2000	"Graduate your job-hunt networking beyond the rubber band files. CardScan Executive loads the static data from a bizcard into a dynamic, searchable resource, synchronizes with your PDA or digital cell phone-all without keyboarding."
Maria Medina Imaging & Document Solutions February 2000	"Think of CardScan Executive as a way to unlock the information trapped on all those business cards you have laying around. With CardScan, you can even share that knowledge with your desktop applications, your personal digital assistant and your mobile phone. ... The system's accuracy was impressive. ... At $299, CardScan is a no-brainer investment that will keep all your contact information up-to-date and in sync."
Bruce Brown PC Magazine January 18, 2000	"CardScan Executive Version 5 is a simple, surefire productivity tool."
Stephen Miller New York Times December 23, 1999	"CardScan Executive solves the problem of getting business cards out of your wallet and into your database. Connected to your personal computer or laptop, it can read a surprising number of idiosyncratic business cards and gets the information correct."
Tracey Capen PC World December 1999	"Clean, simple and quick, CardScan turns paper-based business cards into an on-screen digital card file. ... A must for anyone who collects boatloads of business cards and wants to actually use them for something."
Mark Kellner Washington Times December 13, 1999	"CardScan is a great tool for staying organized. Check this one out."
Gregory Taggert Bloomberg Personal Finance December 1999	"If time is a problem, here's a gadget you need. It's one of those one-purpose marvels you find in in-flight magazines that elicit, "Yeah, like a hole in the head." Well, get out your head drill. CardScan takes all those business cards cluttering your desk and transfers the important information into your favorite contact manager. ... If you've ever strained your eyes entering contact information into your Palm handheld, this one's for you."
Ken Dulaney Gartner Group/Executive Edge September 1999	"Buying one is fairly easy to justify if you collect a lot of business cards, especially when you consider the time and effort spent on manually re-keying card information. And it can be shared among any number of harried executives."
Debbie Barrett Technology in Government September 1999	"My favorite time-saver is CardScan from Corex technologies. It’s so simple. You simply slide a business card into a mini-scanner and the image is converted into an electronic Rolodex. Export to ACT or Microsoft Outlook is immediate and dynamic."
Robert Becnel PC Journal July 1999	"The scanner is a small footprint. ... Ideal to pack into a suitcase or travel bag for use on the road. ... The scanning process is a few seconds and the accuracy is remarkable and reliable."
Shane McLaughlin INC. June 15, 1999	"Andrew Beebe and Tim Roberts kept some of their most important data in the unlikeliest of places: a cardboard box. ... So the partners jumped when they heard about CardScan. The benefits have been enormous. The device has allowed Beebe to add 500 contacts to his PalmPilot in three months. But he’s most thrilled about not being chained to his desk, keying in minutiae."
Rebecca Day Robb Report May 1999	"Behold the business card. By itself, the simple business card isn’t a threat to your sanity, but come home with a stack of them after a road trip and you could be facing organizational chaos. ... With the Corex CardScan business card scanner, you can store all the text information from a standard business card into a virtual Rolodex."
Laptop Buyer’s Guide and Handbook May 1999	If we assume that CE sand Pilot owners finish their business trips with pockets full of business cars, and that the information on those cards has to get into those CEs and Pilots the CardScan Executive is worth every cent. ... The software does a highly credible job of placing the data into the appropriate fields. ... If you’ve got a drawer full of business cards awaiting attention, the CardScan Executive is just what you need."
David Trowbridge Computer Technology Review April 1999	"I found the CardScan Executive a useful tool. ... I have no doubt it is far more useful and cost effective when used in a network situation with many people. ... One thing I’m sure of, without CardScan functionality ... I’ll continue piling up business cards next to the keyboard rather than in my Palm III where they belong."
Working at Home February 1999	"Got enough business cards in your wallet to wallpaper your den? Organize them quickly and economically with this revolutionary item (CardScan)."
Jared Miniman WinCELair January 22, 1999	"There is no doubt about it -- CardScan v4.0 can easily revolutionize how you track contact information. With amazing flexibility yet simplicity when desired, CardScan makes the scanning of even the most complex business cards a breeze. ... Perhaps the most practical benefit is that it is, quite simply, a major time saver. No more flipping through dozens of sloppy paper cards. Just search for what you want using CardScan's QuickSearch! ... You definitely would be hard pressed to find a more accurate, more sophisticated, more sensible business card scanner than the amazing CardScan Executive. I give Corex Technologies' CardScan Executive 5 out of 6 WinCELair Review Orbs for the above reasons."
Mobile Technology Sourcebook 1999	"If you have a drawer full of business cards you’ve been meaning to organize, look no further for a swift solution. ... The CardScan Executive’s OCR engine scans data into your PC, handheld, or PIM."
Terry Brock Atlanta Business Chronicle December 7, 1998	"I am impressed with a little device called CardScan. ... The biggest benefits in time savings came from using many cards and batch-processing them. ... This tool helps you get vital information for important people faster and easier."
John M. Moran The Hartford Courant December 5, 1998	"Here's the solution to every traveling businessperson's nightmare. ... This special-purpose device (CardScan Executive) actually does the job it advertises and does it well."
David Carnoy Success December 1998	"It’s time to stop collecting all those business cards and then manually entering their information into your contact-management software. Say no to data entry, and try Corex’s CardScan Executive. This popular business card scanner is now faster and more accurate and it synchronizes directly with most contact managers as well as PalmPilots and Windows CE devices."
Financial Times November 18, 1998	"For those of us on a more modest budget, my latest toy is CardScan from Corex Technologies -- a nifty little scanner. ... For anyone who collects dozens of business cards, CardScan is a great time-saver. ... It is amazingly good at deciphering the varying typefaces and designs. As one who has accumulated piles of cards -- I am delighted with my newest toy."
Bruce Brown PC Magazine November 17, 1998	"CardScan’s application provides many useful features for organizing and using contact information. ... Scanning accuracy is its most notable strength, but CardScan Executive offers much more: its own communication links, editing software, and extensive capabilities to synchronize with other products."
Palm Zone November 3, 1998	"The folks at Corex seem to have packed in tons of new technology into their new CardScan Executive package. ... This tool would suit anyone who has to deal with tons of business cards and have no time on their hands to patiently key in all the contact information."
Jim Powell Windows Magazine November 1998	"My suggestion: Put CardScan 4 to work. ... CardScan's improved interface and amazing accuracy quickly turns business cards into useful information. ... This pain-free scanning solution earns a spot on our WinList."
Susan Gregory Thomas U.S. News and World Report October 19, 1998	"You want to store the names from your Rolodex on your desktop and palmtop, but who’s got time to type in all those business cards? Pop them, one by one, into the Corex CardScan Executive, a $300 paperback-book size scanner. It formats business cards for electronic organizers like ACT!, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Organizer, and PalmPilots and Windows CE devices."
Walter Mossberg The Wall Street Journal September 10, 1998	"I find the product dramatically improved and finally useful. ... The scanner directly inserts the card data into its included organizer software, which is full-featured and well designed…CardScan is worth considering if you want to organize your life electronically and get more out of your PC."
Steve Dotto Dotto’s Data Café Season 6, Show 6.2	"I hate entering all the text from business cards, and I’m a slow typist. Watch this (CardScan demo) and see if you don’t ask Santa for one of these under the tree, provided of course, you can wait that long."

EASE OF USE
Maximum PC March 2000	"Nothing has made Gordon Mah Ung more effusive in the past month than CardScan Executive, and when Gordon goes ga-ga for something we pay attention. ... In just a few minutes, CardScan 500 scans 100 business cards, then recognizes and sorts your contact information. If the optical character recognition fails-which it rarely does-you can simply refer to the optical image of the business card."
Mark Kellner Washington Times February 14, 2000	"The new CardScan scanner seems a bit more accurate than its predecessors, and sports a USB connection to boot. This could be a great plus when doing field work or at a trade show; hook up the scanner to a notebook PC and you can build a contact list on the fly."
Terry Moriarty Intelligent Enterprise June 22, 1999	"I scanned eight business cards into the system, and the data on each card was placed differently. ... Everything was random, from one card to the next. The system couldn’t have cared less. It processed the scanned business cards and translated the data with near perfection into its card file. ... CardScan is easy to use and faster than manually entering business cards into your PIM. What more could you ask of a productivity booster?"
Steve Barth Sales & Field Force Automation April 1999	"The CardScan Executive from Corex might be just the business card organizer you need. ... A comprehensive user’s manual details all of the system’s functions, but you’ll find its basic functions intuitive and easy to learn. ... I converted an entire box full of business cards into what is now a valuable database of more than a thousand contacts."
Kash Sablok Voice Entertainment December 26, 1998	"Not only is CardScan easy to use, easy to setup and easy to navigate in, it looks cool too. ... CardScan Executive shines. ... With CardScan’s convenience and speed, it is hard to imagine a desk without one."
Laptop Buyer’s Guide and Handbook October 1998	"Don’t let that stack of business cards on your desk intimidate you. Let Corex Technologies’ CardScan capture the data lurking in there. The intelligent software knows where to put each data field, separating names from addresses from phone numbers and so on."
Simson Garfinkel Boston Globe October 1, 1998	"The scanning process is smooth and simple. And unlike other scanning applications that I've used, you can do all of your scanning at once, then leave your computer alone while it does the optical recognition in the background."