Best Pen Scanner

Pen-size scanners come in two versions: classic pen scanners and scanners that look more like a wand than a pen. Although both types are about the size of a pen, they work very differently from each other. Pen scanners work much like a highlighter, letting you scan by sweeping across each line of text, one line at a time. Wand scanners (for lack of a better name), let you scan an entire page in one sweep, scanning down the entire page from top to bottom.

If you want to capture just a few words or a couple of lines of text, much as you might use a highlighter, pen scanners are probably your preferred choice. If you want to scan an entire page at once, you'll probably find a wand scanner more useful, both because it's much easier to learn how to use, and because it can scan a full page much faster than a pen scanner can.

Some pen-sized scanners have internal memory, so you can scan without a computer and then transfer the information to your computer later. Others scan directly to a computer, which means they need to be connected while scanning. The first choice enhances portability and convenience, since you can take the scanner with you without having to lug your computer around too. But if a scan doesn't come out well, you won't know about it till you transfer it to your computer later.

The second choice has exactly the opposite benefits and shortcomings: you'll know about any scan problems immediately, but you have to bring your computer with you. Neither is an ideal solution, but they are mutually exclusive. In any case, here are the best pen-size scanners for you to choose from.