WizCom QuickLink Pen Handheld Scanner

So you know where I am coming from I am a research scientist who wanted a tool for collecting information from journals and books without photocopying and the need for retyping and I now seem to have one.

Scanner pens seem a great idea on paper but choosing and getting one is not so easy. The technology has been around a few years but try as I might I could not find one anywhere here in Sydney (pop 4 million) to physically examine and trial. Apparently they have got a bad reputation with distributors as none of the 10 major shops I contacted stocked them or even had them on their books. So I went on line and lo and behold there were at least 4 distinct products and lots of hyperbole from the companies producing and a very mixed reaction from the reviewers.

Pressing on I did my best to read between the lines (a bit like reading chicken entrails as they used to do in Ancient Rome). But in the end it appeared that the basic choice was between the Wizcom system and the C Pen system in that these were most frequently encountered and seemed to have a number of convincing reviews. I was tending toward the Wizcom system but when I contacted the local Sydney distributor where I might see the product I found that they had dropped Wizcom a year ago and the Wizcom had not bothered to update their web site. I contacted Wizcom and received a basically have a 'Have and Nice Day' reply - in which none of my questions about viewing an actual pen etc. were addressed. So the ** rating for Wizcom reflects poor service by a company that did not seem to provide good support.

The second outcome was that I decided to take the plunge and try the C Pen sight unseen (a Swedish built competitor). The marketing entrails were better this time though. The interstate distributors told me by phone they used to stock Wizcom but had dumped it as old technology. And they had the basic C Pen 600 on special so I jumped.

To finish up I have some general observations:
* I am pretty happy with the pen I have and see the concept as quite sound and the technology maturing rapidly.
* The two current pen designs ARE different in their scanning system - the Wizcom uses a roller, the C Pen an optical scanning system.
* I dont know how Wizcom performs per se but I expect they and their competitors are playing leapfrog. So I strongly suggest before buying from Amazon you physically have a look at the models available.
* The comments by other reviewers about slowness are still valid e.g. in respect to character interpretation time which slows the scan process but its not that bad. And the OCR software seemed pretty accurate on standard typing so I have a feeling that with a few major upgrades as processor power increases the product concept will become very impressive.
* I'm happy with the CPen system given my initial skepticism and hence have given the concept ****. But I will probably upgrade when they get a more powerful model when it becomes available.
* There are a range of useful ancillary functions like address keeper, word translator etc. Transfer is easy by cable or infrared. Transfer direct to your PC of personal organiser if you have it in front of you is easy too. From what I can see Wizcom is similar except I couldnt see a translator.
* I have tried a Palm Pilot personal organiser recently and definitely prefer the pen - it feels like a tool rather than a demanding master and is conceptually simpler to use.


Very impressive!   March 28, 2002
R. A. Ferreyra (Murray, KY United States)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful

I'm a PhD student. I have a lot of reading to do and need to take a lot of notes from scientific literature. I've had this scanner for all of 30 minutes and I'm already in love with it. I found the interface to be very intuitive and easy to use, and the pen hooked up to my desktop (running Windows 98 2cnd edition) without any trouble at all. Note: I first shut down the Microsoft ActiveSync I use to synchronize with my Pocket PC, and also told the QuickLink software that comes with the scanner to NOT run automatically on startup.

I thought the Quicklink Desktop software was very easy to use. I would have liked the ability to copy to the clipboard from the notes page on the desktop, but it's no big deal - you can save notes to ASCII text or a Microsoft Word document.

The "scan to PC" feature is very useful for when I sit down to read at my desk; it can copy stuff directly to Word or to a reference management program like Procite. Scanning quality is pretty good after only a couple of minutes of practice, about 1-2 errors per line. However, it feels like I can probably improve with some more practice.

Finally, the pen comes in an extremely convenient plastic case that can happily coexist with other stuff in a backpack. Highly recommended!


Has potential, but wait for the next version or two...   March 19, 2003
Patrick Niemeyer (St. Louis, MO USA)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I have to give them an A for effort, but this product is not ready for prime time. With a little practice you can get very good recognition, but it is *so* slow as to be unusable. I know, you're thinking "this is really cool, who cares if it's a bit slow - I just want to take a few notes here and there..." - that's what I thought, but *NO* don't do it... it's so painful to scan more than one line that a paragraph is just not worth it. I forced myself to use it for one book... I was really motivated and I did scan nearly everything I wanted at maybe 98% accuracy... but I wouldn't do it again... just too painful.

The user interface, while interesting, is also too limited... you either have to create a new "file" for every scanning session (hard to manage) or painfully scroll to the bottom of your text each time you turn it on (as one would do frequently when using it a lot).

I really think this will be a killer tool when it can scan with continuous recognition... and maybe multiple lines at a time so that you don't have to be as precise... (the OCR could sort it out).

I'm selling mine on ebay anc checking again in a year or two.

Pat Niemeyer


Exactly What I Needed   July 5, 2004
J. D. Shaffer (Shimane, Japan)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I just received my QuickLink pen and right out of the box I am getting about 99-100% accuracy. The QuickLink is 100% what I was expecting and I'm perfectly happy with this little gadget.

I bought this pen as an aid to writing research papers. It allows me to scan in the bits and pieces of reference articles and books which saves me a lot of time in re-reading and manual data-entry later on.

As I said before, I am currently getting 99-100% accuracy with this pen and I cannot understand why others are having so much trouble. However, there are a few points to keep in mind when using this pen:

(1) This is not for scanning entire pages of text. You will become very impatient and tired.

(2) Scanning one line of text takes about 3-4 seconds, plus another 3-4 seconds for text "processing"

(3) For best results keep the pen tip at a 90-degree angle to the page.

(4) Move the pen as smoothly as possible to avoid any jerking motion.

(5) Keep the text directly under the white guidelines printed on the pen's tip. When I went slightly above these lines, the text came out very badly.

(6) Try to avoid stylish or funny fonts. I found that this pen works GREAT on standard fonts such as Times New Roman. However, if you scan stylish 'e' and 's' characters, it often reads them as 'c' and '5'.

This pen can and will work great for you, if you take the time to use it correctly and patiently, which is why I suggest it's not for taking page after page of notes. It's perfect for taking highlights of bits and bobs.

And as a side note, it works perfectly with my Palm OS PDA. No extra software is needed to beam notes from my QuickLink to my Sony Clie and in no time I can be editing the text on a larger screen.

Hope this is useful to some of you out there!

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