Do you own a scanner? Do you ever find yourself at work needing to scan something and having to walk through a cumbersome byzantine process with your copier? You end up with either an IT guy1 “helping” you do the obvious or reading a horribly designed instructional placard by someone who has zero sense of communication design but feels empowered by PowerPoint. Why is the process of scanning so awkward? I think it’s filed in the same drawer with “How to work your office phone”. I’ve been freelancing in at least five different offices this past year and I’d say that roughly 20% of my fellow employees know how to transfer. Let’s not even talk about trying to get on WiFi or printing. I’ll start shaking.
Like all good Apple devotees I try to upgrade often. To keep up with the demands of software or in some cases just to be able to run certain software. I needed something more powerful for freelancing so I purchased a Macbook Pro 13″ in October 2009. Our home desktop was a MacPro Dual G5 and it served us well for years until CS5. CS5 is an amazing upgrade to the entire Adobe suite but it requires an Intel processor. I decided to purchase a new MacMini and could not be happier (stay tuned for a future post about that). Then I decided to try to scan something.
State-of-the-art 2001
In 2001 I needed a scanner and decided to purchase the Canon N67OU. A USB powered small scanner that did the job. I didn’t know that much like my 10+ ink-jet that I use to print photos and my business cards, I would never have the need to upgrade. It’s a decent scanner and since it’s not suffered the fate of some peripheral connections like Serial, SCSI or Parallel, I can still use it. IF there are drivers for it. Enter the problem.
Read the snappy color brochure PDF. Supports Mac OS 8.6 to 9.X and Mac OS X running in Classic mode only. A color monitor with at least 256 colors and a CD-ROM.
Today, November 7, 2010
Rarely do I ever need to scan anything. Occasionally the random sketch but then sometimes I might just use my iPhone’s camera. This morning I needed to scan a few pages of a document, turn it into a PDF and email it. From home. Rather elementary you might say but this is where the adventure began. You see, Photoshop no longer installs TWAIN plug-ins by default. Even worse than that is Canon does not even support OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Look at Canon’s driver download page. Version 10.4 is the latest. No doubt they have stopped supporting their older models. But truthfully, how often do you upgrade your scanner? So with no drivers officially from Canon I had to dig deeper.
You are never the only one in a scenario like this. The SANE Project released SANE (Scanner Acces Now Easy). A completely un-sexy and completely not consumer facing collection of software that standardizes access to (here is where we get nerdy) raster image scanner hardware such as flatbed scanners, hand-held scanners, video- and still-cameras, frame-grabbers, etc. It’s free, public domain and governed under a software license very similar to WordPress, the blogging software I use to publish this website that you are reading. The conversations, distribution and evolution of the software is open to everyone with minor restrictions. You can get more info about the license here. I’m warning you though. All of this is developed by engineers. The information is there but it’s not sexy. Just look at their attractive logo to the left.
Getting your scanner to work.
If you are not put off by the fact that Adobe does not make it easy for you, the company that made your scanner does not make it easy for you and that you might have to nerd out for a moment, then follow these steps. I’ll assume that you are running Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.x). I’m assuming wildly that you are on a Mac. If not, that OK. SANE has other platforms here. You’re on your own though for instructions
- Download the SANE software for your version of OS X here. Download the libsub, backends, preference pane and the interface. Gettext is not needed.
- Install them in this order: #1 libsub, #2 backends, #3 preference pane, #4 interface
- Reboot
- Plugin your scanner and first test with Adobe Acrobat 9. Go to Document > Scan to PDF… (The reason we do this first is coming. Slow down)
- There will be a pause and your scanner should be an option to select.
- Go to Geometry in the window and change your page size. By default it scanned a small box for me.
- Adjust the DPI to something useful for you.
- Success! You have scanned a page into Acrobat.
32-bit mode? Who knew?
The SANE interface is now available to applications to call in the same way Acrobat just did for you. The only problem is if you run Photoshop 12 now it will run in 64-bit mode. SANE does not run in 64-bit mode. Sure you can download the optional plug-ins from Adobe that include TWAIN but I could not get anything to appear even though the plug-in was in the correct folder.
Drum roll…
You have to run Photoshop 12 in 32-bit mode! WTF?!? I did not even know you could or would even want to. It’s easy. Go to the Photoshop application file, Get Info and check the box that says Open in 32-bit mode (see screenshot of the window).
When you start Photoshop now and for to File > Import, you will see SANE and the same interface that you recently saw when you did your test scan in Acrobat will appear.
It’s not easy but at least you don’t have to buy a new scanner. Pass this knoweldge on. If you decide that this is too much effort you can try a popular application call VueScan. I’ve never used it but you will find people talking about this when you Google this problem. They say with the Pro version you can scan directly into an application like Photoshop. I prefer not to have to run too many more applications than necessary.
If you have any trouble please contact me.
Happy scanning.
1 Most IT personnel tend to me males. In this country at least.
I hope this time of the year, chilly for many of you, has given you time to enjoy family, friends, and loved ones and reflect on the year before and the year to come.
