[ubuntu-studio-devel] Simple scan

[Len Ovens]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2013, lukefromdc at hushmail.com wrote:

> SImple-scan gives color scans on my machine with a networked
> Kodak esp5250, a notoriously difficult device to set up but for
> which cheap ink is easily found. I also have Xsane installed, in
> fact its what I usually use simply because I have always used it.
> I just tested simple-scan right now because of your report of a
> problem. My machines are all synced to the 13.10 repos right now.
>
> What kind of scanner aee you using? If they are anything like the
> printers they are often part of some may be buggy or have buggy
> drivers. If Xsane worked and simple-scan did not, however, that
> sounds like an application bug.

I am running 12.04.3 on the machine that has the scanner. Maybe newer 
versions support colour. Even still, for someone doing a wedding album 
that needs to scan in baby pics or something, I would think they would 
want a fully controllable scanning app. Xsane allows setting up various 
levels that simple scan doesn't. I think these levels are applied before 
encoding to jpg (or whatever). I don't know if either app allows saving in 
some raw format though.

My scanner is a combo, but I never use it for printing. It was a 
side-of-the-road-freebee. I picked it up just for the scanner. Epson 
CX4600. The scanner has very nice looking output at high res (to my eyes), 
but I would expect a working photographer/graphic artist to have something 
better. Some of them may work like a camera and save the picture on the 
scanner for later download or work with a camera teathering application 
too.

> I had to set up that Kodak ESP 5250 in ubuntu, was one HELL of a job
> but I now have both printing and scanning working. The 64-but kernels
> cannot recognize that printer through USB even though 32 bit kernels did
> through Oneiric. Has to be a wireless connection, then it works but getting
> the SANE backend to work on a network scanner is complex.
>
> I bought it for cheap ink, knowing the c2esp package existed-and that in
> the worst-case scenario I could print everything to jpegs on camera cards
> and let it read those.

Same question though, Do we need two scanning programs (something quick 
and simple for desktop use and something full featured for "pro" use) Or 
just one and if so which one?

I am sure that different levels of equipment may work with different apps. 
I expect some of the top models look to the computer like cameras. I had 
not thought of networked models at all, most are USB, there may still be 
some parallel or even rs232 models around, but I am less worried about 
those as my experience is that profesionals tend to keep up with 
technology pretty good. Firewire is (or was) pretty standard for top of 
the line camera interfaces. I am not sure if any scanners use FW though.

In the end, we are stuck with whatever linux supports. But I would like to 
make the best with what we have.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net