[kennedy]

Does OS X support network or shared scanners?

Or do I need to buy a scanner for each Mac where I want
to do scanning? (Or an extra Mac with scanner to sit in
the copy room for everyone to use?)

Actually, on that note, does OS X even support USB
scanners? Or any sort of scanner????


Thanks,

Brian

[Chris in Madison]

Hi Brian,

I've not known any scanner to be sharable, personally. But I haven't spent a lot of time investigating it, either.

As for scanners with OSX, I was just looking at that yesterday, and it would appear that there are a few Epson models that are ready for OSX, including a couple of multifunction units, and any of the new Agfa SnapScan e-series models and their newer pro models as well.

You can go to Apple's Made For Mac Hardware Guide and click the "scanners" button and do a search. The ones that are OSX compatible will have a little "X" next to them.

Best regards,
Chris

[kennedy]

Originally posted by Chris in Madison:
<STRONG>As for scanners with OSX, I was just looking at that yesterday, and it would appear that there are a few Epson models that are ready for OSX, including a couple of multifunction units, and any of the new Agfa SnapScan e-series models and their newer pro models as well.

You can go to Apple's Made For Mac Hardware Guide and click the "scanners" button and do a search. The ones that are OSX compatible will have a little "X" next to them.</STRONG>

Thanks. However, its not entirely clear to me that those multi-function devices got their 'X's for scanning compatibility (rather than just printing compatibility). In particular, the Lexmark X83 is a nice device... but I'd sure feel better if I heard from anyone that had actually used it to scan to OS X... rather than just print from OS X.

Anyone???

Thanks,

Brian

P.S. If no answer, I guess I should just go buy one and try it... maybe it'll work. OS X Server has pleasantly surprised me... maybe the X83 and OS X will too.

[krove]

Umax's old SCSI scanners (namely the S-12) had a sharing utility (over AppleTalk) for OS 8/9 - so such devices did exist. Seeing as how scanning under OS X is still relatively weak (only application I've seen is VueScan - found on VersionTracker), it seems your best bet would be to use those great NetInfo skills of yours to set up a dedicated scanner in the copy room hooked into the network:

-Log in (VueScan automatically launches)
-scan
-save to home folder (setup thanks to netinfo/network login)
-logout (fix it to log out after inactivity as users are very forgetful about logging out)

This is probably better than a network scanner for the following reasons:
-still have to get up from desk either way
-you have control over the neworking software (the UMAX software from about 5 years ago for sharing was horrid - doubtful such software could ever be mature enough)
-painless to set up (no client software) as it seems you already have NetInfo squared away

Have fun!

BTW, I was so VERY happy to find your NetInfo threads today http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...6&amp;t=002520 . I had done some thorough searches of the forums when Apple released their Understanding NetInfo PDF doc, but came up with nothing and no responses on the forums but "Get OS X Server!" Now OS X can live up to being a true "Network Operation System" - thanks! When I return back home to Reno in April - I'll be trying out your, as yet, untried every system = client AND server scheme. I'll post results.

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: krove ]