Scanning and scanners

[Xarpho]

The thread for all scanners, creating the interesting PDFs and JPGs from yesterday, today, for tomorrow.

Speaking as someone who scans ephemera and other fleeting material, what is the best scanner software alternative to EPSON Scan? The finicky thing looks dated even on Windows 7 and won't even start up unless the scanner is active and connected.

 

[Kosher Dill]

what is the best scanner software alternative to EPSON Scan?

Silverfast is highly regarded, if it's compatible with your specific scanner. I personally don't have much use for the "Photoshop right in your scanning workflow" tools though, so I'm probably not the target audience.

 

[Penis Drager]

These were fun when I was a kid:

 

[Slav Power]

I find NAPS2 to do a great job at scanning things, even though it's essentially abandoned and hasn't been updated since 2019. It can also be used to edit PDF's, so if you need to write something on a single page from an entire PDF you can just print that one page, write on it, scan it and splice it together with the rest. Oh yeah, it also does OCR.

 

[Stasi]

I posted about this in another thread but the HP software for my printer/scanner combo required an online registration for some bizarre fucking reason and I literally could not scan anything unless I got an account. Pressing the buttons on the device did nothing and pressing the scan button in the software redirected you to the cloud/online registration. Absolute lunacy.

I ended us using Windows Fax and Scan. Worked out of the box with the scanner with zero issues. There might be more sophisticated solutions with better features but it worked great for what I needed (scanning a bunch of old family photos to back them up digitally) and I didn't have to install any extra bullshit.

 

[LilShotaBoy]

Seconding Windows Fax & Scan. Works fine for me.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

I posted about this in another thread but the HP software for my printer/scanner combo required an online registration for some bizarre fucking reason and I literally could not scan anything unless I got an account. Pressing the buttons on the device did nothing and pressing the scan button in the software redirected you to the cloud/online registration. Absolute lunacy.

Yea idk wtf happened with HP but it never used to be like that. Granted, it was still bad, they forced you to use the HP Smart app for everything HP related once Win10 came into the scene, but now it's as if HP thinks you're fucking retarded and can't do shit on your own without their help. I had to help my parents go through the account setup for that shit since they keep buying HP printers cause they look professional or something. Even the printers themselves are those "smart" ones that have all this cloud and linking with the HP smart shit.

Luckily in the business world you don't have to deal with that kind of crap because office jobs just use black'n'white toner printers that just do one and ONLY one thing that only needs the generic printer driver to work (or you can just grab the driver directly from the HP site without the bloat software that usually comes with installers)

 

[Joshuan Moon]

I posted about this in another thread but the HP software for my printer/scanner combo required an online registration for some bizarre fucking reason and I literally could not scan anything unless I got an account.

Consumer grade printers are almost all scams and guaranteed ewaste. Inkjet printers are absolute garbage and they started attaching scanners onto them to make them seem like they have more utility but really they just use that as a way to entrench the scam.

A dumb printer and a dumb scanner will pretty much just do what you tell it without complaint. I've had a stand alone laser printer and a stand alone scanner for over a decade and they're still running strong. I don't have to worry about things refusing to work should I need to make a B&W copy and the printer tells me to fuck off because the color ink is dry and the printer wants me to spend more money.

As for the question in the OP. Epson Scan is still the winner. The need to have the scanner on and plugged in is annoying but it's such a useful program. I'd rather it be ugly and useful than pretty and useless like most current applications. In the past I would use Adobe Acrobat pro to scan documents and Photoshop to scan images. Of course those cost money so that's already a negative.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Sorry for bumping but I've had it in terms of finding a reliable scanning program. Epson Scan 2 (I upgraded to W10 finally) always says "in use or unavailable" unless I restart the whole computer, Paint.net doesn't want to recognize my scanner, and VueScan works as proof of concept but applying a giant non-translucent watermark makes it useless.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

Sorry for bumping but I've had it in terms of finding a reliable scanning program. Epson Scan 2 (I upgraded to W10 finally) always says "in use or unavailable" unless I restart the whole computer, Paint.net doesn't want to recognize my scanner, and VueScan works as proof of concept but applying a giant non-translucent watermark makes it useless.

Which model of scanner are you using? Have you tested it under Linux or Mac?

 

[Core1036]

I have my Kyocera Ecosys M5526cdw for a while already, it is almost perfect except for the scanning. I used to have it plugged into USB but I use it over the network now and whenever I have to scan something to a Linux box it ususally ends up being a pain unless it's on USB.
Seriously how come the companies that make MFDs not figured this shit out? You either have to set everything at the machine and hope it scans in properly, use a Windows host, or connect by USB.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Which model of scanner are you using? Have you tested it under Linux or Mac?

Epson PerfectScan V600. Like I said--it works if I restart the computer and then use Epson Scan 2, can't figure out a workaround any other way. It's clearly recognized by the computer because VueScan will see it but VueScan is not a viable option since it won't scan usable prints.

 

[lichen]

I've been using Vue Scan. It's paid software but I'm happy with the results.

I've been scanning books lately though I tend to stress a lot about how straight the pages are so it's always slow going. I'd enjoy having a larger scanner for vinyl covers and thing of that size, but anything beyond a standard consumer printer is pretty expensive for a dumb half hobby.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

Epson PerfectScan V600. Like I said--it works if I restart the computer and then use Epson Scan 2, can't figure out a workaround any other way. It's clearly recognized by the computer because VueScan will see it but VueScan is not a viable option since it won't scan usable prints.

That's already an old scanner. Have you tried on a Mac or under Linux? My scanning experience is way better there than in Windows.

On the other hand, $80 dollars for VueScan doesn't seem too much money if you scan a lot. You can also check SilverFast, it has a free trial and a $50 tier if you want to try it.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

Epson PerfectScan V600. Like I said--it works if I restart the computer and then use Epson Scan 2, can't figure out a workaround any other way. It's clearly recognized by the computer because VueScan will see it but VueScan is not a viable option since it won't scan usable prints.

If it's just a TWAIN scanner then you can perform a scan via IrfanView in File -> Select Scan/TWAIN Source

It appears it's just a USB scanner? Does it show up under Device Manager as an imaging device? If not then you could try manually creating a device for it through Action -> Add legacy hardware -> Install the hardware that I manually select from a list -> Imaging Devices -> Hopefully Epson should show up. If Epson doesn't show up, download the driver from here, and extract its contents using 7-Zip then click Have Disk and point it at the extracted installer folder.

Windows Fax and Scan is a surprisingly decent scanning tool as well.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

That's already an old scanner. Have you tried on a Mac or under Linux? My scanning experience is way better there than in Windows.

On the other hand, $80 dollars for VueScan doesn't seem too much money if you scan a lot. You can also check SilverFast, it has a free trial and a $50 tier if you want to try it.

I think the scanner the Perfection V600 replaced was an even older scanner that dated back 20+ years.

It is hooked up to the computer via USB.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

I think the scanner the Perfection V600 replaced was an even older scanner that dated back 20+ years.

It is hooked up to the computer via USB.

I use an AGFA with an scsi port still at my job. The damn thing just works despite being from the early 90's, we have it hooked to a Mac and despite being old and slow, it produces an amazing picture quality.

I blame the rise of the multi-function printers for the decline of decent hardware and software for scanning.