Canon scanner: seeking advice

[tguignar]

I need to buy a new flatbed scanner, for use with my iBook (dual-USB, white) on Mac OS X.

I'm quite attracted to the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 USB scanner. It seems to be sleek and won't take so much space on my desk.

Now, I have found no satisfactory user review of this item running on Mac OS X. Would YOU recommend this item?

Let me get this clear: I know the scanner is supported by OS X, at least drivers are available and I have read user comments stating that they seem satisfied with this scanner. But I have bought several hardware in the past (back in the OS 9 days) and very often I was disappointed with the "support" offered. Badly-written crashing apps, loosly ported from PC, relying on dozens of bug-ridden extensions...

What I need is a sleek, unobtrusive, straight interface (NO fancy icons). And nothing proprietary, better TWAIN.

Do you know if Canon's solution could "comply" with my requirements?

Thanks. Sorry for making such a fuss of it, but I really want something I can use.

T.

[robm]

Hi
I have the LIDE20. It's OK. It is quite fast, except for when it starts to descreen, but that is to be expected. It doesn't work with Image Capture, but I have had one scanner attached to my Powerbook that did (Epson1640SU) and I am not sure of Image Capture is so great - it is too simple.
The Canoscan Scangear software comes with a Photoshop-plugin for X, that I use with Photoshop and with Graphic Converter. It works as expected, and the options are decent, one can adjust almost everything. Strangely enough I did not get Photoshop to recognise the scan software with a shortcut.
furthermore you can make settings for 'copy' and 'mail', one can basically configure programs to open on a touch on this button. Oh, and there is one thing there that I couldn't resolve: it then wants to show my scan in f****ing Pictureviewer in Classic, and i've looked, but I see no way of changing that preference - you can't set it anywhere.

[tguignar]

Originally posted by robm
Oh, and there is one thing there that I couldn't resolve: it then wants to show my scan in f****ing Pictureviewer in Classic, and i've looked, but I see no way of changing that preference - you can't set it anywhere.
What do you mean by this? The app tries to start Pictureviewer (thereby booting Classic) after each scan?? If it does, then this is definitively NOT the kind of thing I want to have on my comp.

Or does Pictureviewer start only when you double-click on the scanned files? If so, maybe one could link the files with another app (there is some field in the ressource fork that links a document to its "parent" application, which can be edited).

Thanks for the reply!

[friedmaj]

I have the same scanner. It works fine, except it tries to launch Photoshop in Classic after every scan, even though I have Photoshop 7 for OS X. I have my preferences set to ask before starting Classic, so I just say no and it gives up. It is annoying, though.

[robm]

you're right, it wants to open the Classic programs when you operate the scanner with the buttons that are on its front.
What I do, is start up Photoshop and use the scanner from within the application, and it's fine, the scanned image opens in Photoshop and allows you to save it etc. But it's annoying, that classic thing.

[tguignar]

Originally posted by robm
you're right, it wants to open the Classic programs when you operate the scanner with the buttons that are on its front.

Oh, OK. No problem with that, I was never a big fan of these button things. If it works fine within Photoshop and GraphicConverter, I'm a happy man.

I guess I will now go and click on that "buy now" button...

Thanks for your feedback, folks!

[robm]

you won't be disappointed. And it's so light! I even packed it in my backpack one day (I did make sure I locked it) and carried it around. And for those 80 euros or so ... good value.

PS: you're not fussy at all. You are right demanding clarity. The scanner-box e.g. reads: Mac OS X 10.1 etc. (classic mode only): now what is that supposed to mean? (in the meantime we know). But it is absolutely unclear and confusing.
That's why these forums are great. BTW this model is also listed on Apple's list of supported scanners.

[saint.duo]

I have the Lide30, works great in X, and with photoshop. Somehow, I changed the front buttons to open in Preview (I think i had to select the app inside of the bundle to make it register).

It's thin, light, and fast enough for me. I usually scan random photos and sketches with it, and it does the job nicely for me.

[anthlover]

Scanenrs used to be expensive. $500, $1500 etc. now many including the Canoscan start at $65 dollars, its hard to go wrong for basic reflective scanning
-----------------------------

I have Had the Prior CanoScan 650/670. They have 1 year warranty.

I bought for myself and others. In Total 4. The software is fine. The Images are good....

I also had to call there support for warranty service twice, to get replacements after around 10 months, and 15 months, thats 2 of 4 units. They just died, Lucky one was under warrarnty, one of them was not.

I love the Canoscan desgin, size and speed for 200 to 300 dpi work. They of course go much higher.

I am slighly leary of buying any more because of the failures.

I am not sure how much better any of the other sub $100 dollar scanners hold up, most are larger.

*** Keep in mind for High resolution speedy scans and Good Transparinices you will need to look elsewhere.

Cannon and Epson and others make Firewire/USb2 units that are much better quality. In the Epson its the Perfection 3600, lists for like $399, probably available for less. I do not rememeber the Equivalnat Cannon.

The Epson Model I mention not only does Transpacies, but has an Optical density over 3 (3 is the min.)

The Epson unit has 3.4 OD required to get good tranasparcies. In Cheaper scanners you will not even get an optical density number because it will be sucky.

[djkowall]

I have the CanoScan N650U which I use with my old Gateway 350 running M$ '98. Until now, I never thought to try it with my iMac running 10.2.6. Would this be possible? I don't have a lot of scanning needs, but, it would be nice to put my custom invoices into my iMac instead of firing up the peecee everyday just to print out my daily invoices. I tried to create a new invoice template using AppleWorks, but I can't seem to get it to look the way I want.

Thanks for any input on this compatibility issue.

Donna

[djn1]

Originally posted by djkowall
Thanks for any input on this compatibility issue.
I use VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html) with a Lide30 and the software lists the N650U as a supported device.

[tguignar]

So, you guys convinced me and I bought a CanoScan LiDE 30 the other day. I downloaded the ScanGear software and installed it only as a Photoshop-Plugin. After restart, the scanner was recognized without any problem and I scanned a couple of pics.

The quality is OK (I am not a specialist at all, so for me it is enough) and the scanner is quite fast, but a bit noisy. I love its design and I'm also satisfied with the ScanGear software.

The scanner is also supposed to be used in upright position (plastic base included), in order to save room on my desk. I tried it and... :( *baah* No thanks. The plastic base is shabby (is it the right word?), the scanner seems always to be on the verge of falling and no, photos do not hold correctly between the scanner and the lid. This "feature" is perfectly useless.

* * *

Just for the story: I also tried to use it together with my girlfriend's comp (a refurbished 7200 with a Sonnet G3 chip, and a no-name USB PCI card which is used for the printer, everything running under OS 9.1). I installed the plug-in for Photoshop and
GraphicConverter.

Under GraphicConverter, it seemed to work well, but after each scan, the picture window in GC was impossible to bring in front (that is, it stayed "unselected") for a couple of minutes (no visible rule here), so it was not possible to save the scanned pic, let alone edit it. Under Photoshop, this was not an issue, however I could not print correctly (I found out that the CanoScan "button manager" extension conflicted with the printer driver, so I removed it) and each time I scanned about 5 pics, the scanner would stop in middle position. The only way out of this was to force quit ScanGear and then restart the computer.

So the only way to reset the scanner in case of a problem (the head staying in the middle position) seems to be a computer restart. Unplugging and plugging the scanner does no good. And of course, there is no reset button on the scanner.

This is not a big problem for me, since I intend to use it primarly with my iBook but I wanted to write this down in case someone tries to use it under OS 9. The nonresponding scanner problem could also come from the third-party USB card, so maybe this is not an issue with built-in USB macs.

But the story confirms my first impression: all-in-one buttons are definitely NOT a feature. They are a nuisance. I just hate these little background extensions, wasting memory and causing conflicts just in case an hypothetic user presses one of these buttons... but of course, this may be a matter of taste :)

[lerkfish]

Originally posted by djkowall
I have the CanoScan N650U which I use with my old Gateway 350 running M$ '98. Until now, I never thought to try it with my iMac running 10.2.6. Would this be possible? I don't have a lot of scanning needs, but, it would be nice to put my custom invoices into my iMac instead of firing up the peecee everyday just to print out my daily invoices. I tried to create a new invoice template using AppleWorks, but I can't seem to get it to look the way I want.

Thanks for any input on this compatibility issue.

Donna


yes, I'm using that scanner now with OSX 10.2.6

BUT I'm using Vuescan to scan, which is far superior (IMHO) for basic scans to the canoscan toolbox, plus its completely compatible with OSX without having to boot classic.

[trevbuck]

Thanks everyone for their imformation on scanners. I have an old UMAX 1220U which only works in classic....( wont be buying UMAX again).

Anyway my girlfriends dad has just bought a Titanium and I erased it and installed Jaguar on it for him ( no OS9 at all).

So for this set up , WITHOUT Photoshop , what's the best entry level scanner which will work with OSX straight out of the box & without a big investment in software.?

I'm thinking Epson or Microtek maybe....
Canon Lide 20 or 30 maybe...but will they function without Photoshop?( or will they work with Ph Elements 2?)

regards

Trevor Buckenara
Australia

[tguignar]

Originally posted by trevbuck
Canon Lide 20 or 30 maybe...but will they function without Photoshop?( or will they work with Ph Elements 2?)

Yes, you can use them w/o Photoshop, of course. The ScanGear plug-in can be called within other software with acquiring plug-in support, including shareware (such as the very good GraphicConverter from lemkesoft.de (http://www.lemkesoft.de)).

Anyway, the scanner comes with a simple software called "Canon Toolbox" with enough basic editing capabilities (OS X version also available). I have not tested this soft, thus.