Canon Stupidity

[mnewman]

Warning, in case the title was not indicative enough, what follows is a rant:

My dear spouse is in the process of opening her law office. (She just got her law license from the Thai Lawyers Council.)

As part of the process we are buying furniture, office supplies and, yes, a multi-function printer (my sage advice totally ignored).

She decided on a Canon MF4420w after receiving assurances from the sales person that Mac drivers were included.

Wrong. The CD in the box is Windows only.

So, supportive me spends much time finding the drivers online. Here's the link for the scanner driver and software:

Details - ScanGear V1.60 for Mac OS X 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8 (Intel)

Please tell me what happens when you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the [I Agree - Begin Download] button. I tried it with Safari, Chrome and Firefox on two different computers. Please tell me it's not me.

I found the necessary drivers elsewhere. As expected, the Canon scanning software is a confusing mess. Fortunately, the scanner is recognized by Image Capture. But, using either the Canon software or IC, I always got the following error when trying to scan:

Cannot scan because of the following:

- Scan type set on the scanner is incorrect
- Scanner is busy
- Error occurred in the scanner
- Scanner is in Sleep mode

Check the scanner status and try again.
Scanner driver will be terminated.

Error code: 2100010

None of the above applied, except maybe "Error occurred in the scanner". But, what sort of error? Good luck on finding some meaning attached to that error code.

Turns out that the problem is this:

Before starting a scan from your computer, you must press the "Scan" button on the multifunction device and then select "Remote Scanner" from the multifunction device's menu. Then the multifunction-but-very-stupid-device will patiently wait while you go back to your computer and start scanning. I guess the brilliant software engineers who thought of this figured that you'd be at the scanner anyway putting your thing-to-be-scanned on the platen, so why not add two totally unnecessary button presses to the process.

There. I've had my rant. Back to work.

[agentx]

Is is not just Canon.....it is the way network scanning works or device woudl be locked out of other functionality.

If you plug device in using USB you should be able to scan direct with Image Capture with no issues.

[mnewman]

It's not networked. It's connected to the computer via a USB cable. On the Mac, both printer and scanner sharing are turned off.

If there's a way to scan directly from Image Capture I haven't found it.

What's the secret?

[agentx]

Oh that is odd i have had loads of Canon devices installed over the years and overall the Mac Support, usability and performance has been good. Even i have one in my home office which has been faultless for 3 years ! What OS you running ?

I would remove printer/scanner and re-add from System prefs.
There should be an options for Print/Scan. Check your options.
Fire up image capture it should be there and you can then scan.....

[acme.mail.order]

If you decide to change hardware I have installed a few Brother MFC-series network multifunction machines without any problems. Scan-to-computer never works but scan-to-pdf-in-email works very nicely.

[mnewman]

It's there in Image Capture. It just doesn't work unless you hit the "Scan" button on the printer before you scan.

My Mom had a Canon multifunction device that worked as expected. She could scan from that awful CanoScan software without doing anything on the device. That's why this much newer piece of hardware's retrograde behavior seems so odd.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers. Still no joy.

It's actually not a huge deal, just an awkward way to have to scan.

Incidentally, we have no intention of networking this device. It's a one person office with one computer and one printer/scanner.

[agentx]

That is odd. Usually the other way round you hit the scan button and nothing happens on computer ;-)

Have you selected "No Application" for scan button in System Prefs > Print & Scan ?

[mnewman]

My Print & Scan doesn't look anything like that.

The machine is on 10.8.1. There is no separate tab for "Scan". Only printers show up, no scanners.

It's the same with my Mac Mini running 10.8.1. I have a Canon scanner attached to that machine via USB, but the scanner doesn't appear in Print & Scan.

I can scan with it quite normally.

[agentx]

On 10.8.1 as well and the reason fro "scan" option is my Multifunction is supported directly by Apple's Canon Driver software.

All very odd and could be just the way it is with that device....which is rather annoying.

[mnewman]

I will run Software Update in the morning with the printer attached. Maybe there is an Apple driver for this device.

[agentx]

checked i dont think there is yet.

[NovaScotian]

I've been using VueScan for many years now. It recognizes every scanner I've ever connected including the ancient Canon I'm using now.

[fracai]

For what it's worth, the file that would be downloaded (from looking at the page source) is: http://pdisp01.c-wss.com/gdl/WWUFORe...BR&lang=EN

[mnewman]

This thread really isn't about getting the scanner to work, it's about multiple problems with Canon's approach to providing a product to customers, which is why I posted it in Coat Room rather than elsewhere.

Nova Scotian: As I said, there is no problem getting the scanner recognized. It shows up in Image Capture. The problem is that you cannot scan directly from the desktop; you have to press the "Scan" button on the device and then select a destination before you can scan from IC, the Canon software, or whatever. But, there is no hint in any of the documentation that this rather awkward and inconvenient approach is required.

fracai: I found and installed the drivers. I just think it odd that Canon would publish a web page that doesn't work. Not everyone knows how to look at source code to figure out what file needs to be downloaded. (And, I suspect, not everyone would be able to figure out that you need to install separate drivers for the printer and scanner.)

[mnewman]

I tried VueScan. It says, "no scanner attached", and recommends quitting VueScan, restarting the scanner and running VueScan again. Still no joy.

To be fair, this scanner (Canon MF4420w) is not listed on the VueScan site as being supported.

[NovaScotian]

Hamrick is very responsive to emails.