[SMacTech]

I want to purchase a scanner and use it with OS X. What is your opinion of the best one to buy?

[MickS]

Wait.

Scanner support in OS X is worse than printer support. If you buy a scanner to work with OS X now you are going to be limited in the ones that you can use. Wait for a few more months and you should have more choice.

Epson are releasing development versions of their drivers but as yet they don't have full support under OS X. I have an Epson Photo scanner and it produces excellent results. At present though I'm stuck with a reboot to OS 9 to be able to use it.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by MickS:
<STRONG>Wait.

Scanner support in OS X is worse than printer support. </STRONG>

I am aware of the lack of decent driver support for scanners in X. However, I cannot wait any longer and will not boot into OS9. There must be some or one scanner that is supported now in OS X. I will purchase one ASAP, if it works it X. I don't need all the bells and whistles a pro graphics designer might, just one that can scan my old photos.

[Ron Goodman]

There have been quite a few scanners supported for OS X by Vuescan for nearly a year. Take a look at www.hamrick.com. If you want a slide/film scanner, Vuescan handles most of them.

[Krypton]

My Epson Perfection 1250 works great in OS X - the developer build of the software (although limited to just scanning) works great, has never crashed on me and has all the features of the OS 9 version - when they're finished they'll release the rest of the software such as OCR etc.

But even better than that, with Graphic Converter 4.4 I scan my images right into the program by setting up the Twain plug in - so my OS X setup is pretty much complete now

[KidRed]

Originally posted by MickS:
<STRONG>Wait.

Scanner support in OS X is worse than printer support. If you buy a scanner to work with OS X now you are going to be limited in the ones that you can use. Wait for a few more months and you should have more choice.

Epson are releasing development versions of their drivers but as yet they don't have full support under OS X. I have an Epson Photo scanner and it produces excellent results. At present though I'm stuck with a reboot to OS 9 to be able to use it.</STRONG>

Wrong. I'm using my Epson 1200u with TWAIN support in PS 7 in X. You just need to know what to do. X supports scanners, it's the lack of drivers that the problem, that's no longer a problem for a lot of scanners.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by Krypton:
<STRONG>My Epson Perfection 1250 works great in OS X </STRONG>

Thanks Krypton, that's what I wanted to know, one that works with native X drivers. Ron, thanks for the info on VueScan, good thing to know.

~steve

[Ken_F2]

Wrong. I'm using my Epson 1200u with TWAIN support in PS 7 in X. You just need to know what to do. X supports scanners, it's the lack of drivers that the problem, that's no longer a problem for a lot of scanners.

Using another vendor's drivers to scan in one or two applications...and not taking full advantage of the scanner, its functionality, or its features, is not what I would call a perfect solution.

[Krypton]

Originally posted by Ken_F2:
<STRONG>

Using another vendor's drivers to scan in one or two applications...and not taking full advantage of the scanner, its functionality, or its features, is not what I would call a perfect solution.</STRONG>

Well, SMacTech wanted a scanner he could use in OS X today - the epson drivers aren't perfect, but they are a lot better than nothing at all

Even so, the only parts of the software I miss slightly (coming soon) are the ability to use the scanner's external buttons and the OCR software - and I can't remember using them on a regular basis (or even more than once )

[AJ]

Get a Canon N1240U. Excellent results, works, and vary good drivers (though I think they have been removed). Oh, it is quite cheap too.

USB powered, so one less cable.

AJ

[residentEvil]

yeah, i have that canon and the os x drivers did get yanked...before i could grab them of course. i called them and they just said, 'keep checking back at the driver's page'

[KidRed]

Originally posted by Ken_F2:
<STRONG>

Using another vendor's drivers to scan in one or two applications...and not taking full advantage of the scanner, its functionality, or its features, is not what I would call a perfect solution.</STRONG>

I guess I wasn't clear enough, I HAVE FULL EPSON SCANNER SUPPORT INCLUDING EPSON'S SOFTWARE THRU TWAIN SUPPORT IN PS7. Exactly the way it works in 9, is the way it works now in X because of the marriage of the Cannon and Epson drivers. I get every feature of the scanner, full functionality so yes it IS A PERFECT SOLUTION. I use it NATIVELY thru TWAIN import in PS7.

[KidRed]

Originally posted by KidRed:
<STRONG>

I guess I wasn't clear enough, I HAVE FULL EPSON SCANNER SUPPORT INCLUDING EPSON'S SOFTWARE THRU TWAIN SUPPORT IN PS7. Exactly the way it works in 9, is the way it works now in X because of the marriage of the Cannon and Epson drivers. I get every feature of the scanner, full functionality so yes it IS A PERFECT SOLUTION. I use it NATIVELY thru TWAIN import in PS7.</STRONG>

[Oh yea- Epson released a TWAIN driver yesterday, and my above method should work with any app with TWAIN support]

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by KidRed:
<STRONG>

[Oh yea- Epson released a TWAIN driver yesterday, and my above method should work with any app with TWAIN support]</STRONG>

I just bought an Epson 1250 photo scanner and using their developer builds of the driver, I will keep my fingers crossed. If it doesn't work in X, I can always use my iMac in os9 to get it to work. I have faith, even though I waited for 9 months for Epson to support my 870 photo printer.

Thanks to all for their input!

~steve

[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: SMacTech ]

[sja777]

I have a CanoScan N670U which works extremely well under OS X with "GraphicConverter 4.4" and "Canon ScanGear CS-U 6.2" (which can still be downloaded via Versiontracker).

This combination blows VueScan out of the water ... both in functionality, speed and in price: VueScan: $40 vs. GraphicConverter: $30 (if you haven't got it) and Canon ScanGear: free.

[yellowdog]

Originally posted by Ken_F2:
<STRONG>

Using another vendor's drivers to scan in one or two applications...and not taking full advantage of the scanner, its functionality, or its features, is not what I would call a perfect solution.</STRONG>

It turns out the Epson TWAIN driver didn't work for one reason -- the folks at Epson forgot to include the TWAIN Data Source Manager. Duh.

The Canon installer installed one, that's why the Epson TWAIN driver started working. However, you don't need to install the Canon scanner driver to get the Data Source Manager.

Here's how to get the Epson TWAIN driver working:

1. After installing the Epson TWAIN driver, point your browser to http://www.twain.org/carbon_dsm.htm
2. Fill out the form with any old name and email and submit it.
3. Download the SDK disk image in the page that follows after you submit the form.
4. Mount the disk image and double-click it to open it. Open "Carbon TWAIN SDK", then "TWAIN" within that. Inside that folder you will see a shared lib called "TWAIN Source Manager.Shlb".
5. Copy "TWAIN Source Manager.Shlb" to /Library/CFMSupport on your Mac OS X system drive.

That's all there is to it! Note that the data source manager you installed is 1.9b3. You might want to periodically check back at www.twain.org to see if a more recent version has been posted.

Try it - it works great with all programs that can aquire Twain sources.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by yellowdog:
<STRONG>

It turns out the Epson TWAIN driver didn't work for one reason -- the folks at Epson forgot to include the TWAIN Data Source Manager. Duh.

The Canon installer installed one, that's why the Epson TWAIN driver started working. However, you don't need to install the Canon scanner driver to get the Data Source Manager.

Here's how to get the Epson TWAIN driver working:

1. After installing the Epson TWAIN driver, point your browser to http://www.twain.org/carbon_dsm.htm
2. Fill out the form with any old name and email and submit it.
3. Download the SDK disk image in the page that follows after you submit the form.
4. Mount the disk image and double-click it to open it. Open "Carbon TWAIN SDK", then "TWAIN" within that. Inside that folder you will see a shared lib called "TWAIN Source Manager.Shlb".
5. Copy "TWAIN Source Manager.Shlb" to /Library/CFMSupport on your Mac OS X system drive.

That's all there is to it! Note that the data source manager you installed is 1.9b3. You might want to periodically check back at www.twain.org to see if a more recent version has been posted.

Try it - it works great with all programs that can aquire Twain sources.</STRONG>

The Epson 1250 Perfection scanner did not work for me in OS X and in fact caused my 2nd kernel panic when I rebooted to see if that would cause it to work. I will take a look at the data source manager you mentioned above to see if it fixes it.
The Apple System Profiler sees the scanner, but the Epson Scan to disk doesn't. I ended up installing it on my iMac under OS9.2 and it worked quite well. It is not a problem for me to do it that way, as the scanner does take up too much desk space, so placing it away next to the iMac across the room is fine, for now.

[ReggieX]

My Agfa snapscan e20 has downloadable software from Agfa, works better than the OS 9 version because they added some features.

[Technicolor]

Depending on what kind of scanning you're going to be doing you can get a cheap Agfa scanner on Ebay. Sometimes you can still find a brand new one for under $100. Agfa has good scanner support under OSX as you probably already know.

[Northform]

I would wait since Jaguar is going to have scanner support (like 10.1's digial camera support).

[Simon X]

Epson have also just released a PhotoShop plug in to scan directly in the app. So the old way of using the Canon Data Source Manager is no longer needed as their plug in does the job. Works fine for me, and I haven't even bothered to remove the Canon Data Source Manager. Scanning with the Epson software works just as it did in Classic. So much faster than VueScan.

[moki]

Originally posted by AJ:
<STRONG>Get a Canon N1240U. Excellent results, works, and vary good drivers (though I think they have been removed). Oh, it is quite cheap too.

USB powered, so one less cable.

AJ</STRONG>

that's what I'm using -- the beta versions of the drivers work ok, but you can only scan in via Photoshop. This isn't a problem for me, but it might be for those who don't own it.

[sja777]

moki wrote:

the beta versions of the [Canon] drivers work ok, but you can only scan in via Photoshop. This isn't a problem for me, but it might be for those who don't own it.

They work for me via GraphicConverter 4.4.

[kent m]

Although it won't yet scan under os9 I'm very pleased with my cannon scanner. I don't have to reboot into os9 as it will scane very nicely using a photoshop plug-in from osX under classic.

The software interface is simple and direct and very clean, which is more than I can say for most scanner software. I'm happy to wait until Cannon comes out with an Xdriver, which I imagine will be soon, now that PS has gone X with 7.

best of luck,
Kent

Originally posted by SMacTech:
<STRONG>I want to purchase a scanner and use it with OS X. What is your opinion of the best one to buy?</STRONG>

[mgl]

Originally posted by SMacTech:
<STRONG>

The Epson 1250 Perfection scanner did not work for me in OS X and in fact caused my 2nd kernel panic when I rebooted to see if that would cause it to work. I will take a look at the data source manager you mentioned above to see if it fixes it.
The Apple System Profiler sees the scanner, but the Epson Scan to disk doesn't. I ended up installing it on my iMac under OS9.2 and it worked quite well. It is not a problem for me to do it that way, as the scanner does take up too much desk space, so placing it away next to the iMac across the room is fine, for now.</STRONG>

FWIW, the beta driver has worked fine for me with the 1250 and 10.1.x. No problems at all.

Mike

[Bruce O'Neal]

i don't do a whole heck of a lot of scanning, but i am appalled that apple's os x does not support my hp 3400c. it seems that apple is not encouragind vendors to write drivers for scanners. this is certainly a problem!

[AJ]

Originally posted by Bruce O'Neal:
<STRONG>i don't do a whole heck of a lot of scanning, but i am appalled that apple's os x does not support my hp 3400c. it seems that apple is not encouragind vendors to write drivers for scanners. this is certainly a problem!</STRONG>

Appalled at Apple? Hang on...something isn't right there...surely you mean HP?

AJ

[Love Calm Quiet]

Yes, I'm not sure HP is continuing its (formerly great) support of Mac drivers.

I've always *loved* their ease of install / function.

But with a new 3300mfp, there were major *stupid* hassles, even with 9.
(made me wonder what mfp stood for)

Finally, on a brand-new Mac I got it to print fine in both OS X and Classic.

(Had to leave town before testing the scanning)

Anyway, be careful assuming that HP is performing with drivers for print/scan on a par with previous years (and previous operating systems). Caveat Emptor

[ls -al]

Click thru for larger image...

[AJ]

Originally posted by moki:
<STRONG>

that's what I'm using -- the beta versions of the drivers work ok, but you can only scan in via Photoshop. This isn't a problem for me, but it might be for those who don't own it.</STRONG>

It has been mentioned before - Graphic Converter 4.4 works with TWAIN now, and VueScan works fine with this scanner.

It will be interesting to see how much Jaguar supports scanners out of the box (even though it probably isn't Apple's job to do this). It seems that Epson scanners are supported as of "now".

[pbarton]

I can confirm that the Agfa OSX drivers are top notch. Too bad Agfa decided to leave the consumer scanner market. However, Agfa's drivers have been finalized since October of 2001. (Right after release of OS 10.1). If they could do it, what is taking everyone else so long?

[Kristoff]

What is the deal with Canon?