I have been employed (yes -- money involved and everything!) to scan several thousand pages into PDF files. To accomplish this, the employer has lent me her Fujitsu FI-5120C scanner. This is a pretty impressive machine, up to 25 pages per minute through the ADF.

I downloaded the appropriate TWAIN driver and installed it, and then (to once again demonstrate my ignorance) found out that the TWAIN driver isn't where the UI to do the scanning is... I have to have software that talks to the TWAIN driver.

The good news is... the scanner talks to my computer. I was able to scan a page from Microsoft Word into *.doc format, so hardware, connectivity, and TWAIN driver are all in order.

What I need is software, that is, the application to scan from. Adobe Acrobat would be the obvious choice since I am aiming for PDF output. But I am not thrilled about the idea of buying Acrobat 9 for $299, and waiting 10 days for it to arrive.

What are my options? Preferably I want software I can download rather than wait for shipping, and I hope not to have to spend hundreds of dollars. The software must be capable of scanning multiple pages into a single document file, and this scanner does support duplexing.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

tanstaafl.