Update: here is the best portable scanner for genealogy research.

Today I’m updating my recommendation for a portable scanner for genealogy research from my perspective as an archivist.

Try This Portable Scanner for Genealogy

Portable scanners for genealogy research are common, but the one I recommend is the Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner, Time marches on in the tech world, so this is the latest model, which supersedes my previous recommendation a few years ago of the Canon LiDE220 Document Scanner.

Why do I like this one over all the others? Mostly because of these five things:

  1. Highly portable at 3.5 pounds
  2. Large 8×10 scanning bed
  3. 4800 x 4800 ppi (pixels per inch), higher than handheld scanners
  4. Auto-upload to cloud services, such as Evernote and Dropbox
  5. Reasonable cost (half of flatbed FlipPal)
  6. No hidden commission costs

If you’ve read my earlier post on scanners, you know that I’m not impressed with small scanners like FlipPal that require images to be knit together digitally after scanning. I also avoid scanners that require you to drag the scanner over the document or photo, or feed it through the scanner. That’s very bad for the originals.

So if you have one chance at some originals – let’s say a relative you’re visiting who will keep the original photos or docs – then the  Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner is a great portable scanner for capturing those photos and documents.

And for help scanning and organizing your family photos, try my genealogy guide, Cataloging Digital Family Photographs and Records. Once your new scanner arrives, this guide will help scan, caption, and organize your digital family photos once and for all.

Cataloging Family PhotographsPortable Scanners for Genealogy