Jump to content

New user; scanner dialog questions


Orthoducks

Recommended Posts

I'm evaluating Paint.NET as a tool for capturing and cleaning up scans of printed matter. So far it appears to be everything I want, with one exception: the scanning process.

There are two problems. The first is the "Which device do you want to use?" dialog which appears before every scan. I'm used to having a separate "select source" command which lets me avoid this step: if I don't ask to change the source, I don't get asked to do so. (My system has only one source, making the dialog pointless in any case.) Is there a way to make the dialog not appear every time?

Second, the Acquire dialog Paint.NET shows me is different from the one that other applications like Irfanview use, and is much less capable. It has no brightness and contrast settings, for example, and no resolution control. I believe the dialog I'm accustomed to is an accessory to the scanning device's driver, and the one Paint.NET shows me is Paint.NET's very own. How can I make Paint.NET use the standard dialog?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, I believe that the scan dialog you're seeing with Paint.NET is the Windows dialog.  And, like the print dialog, it...leaves something to be desired.  You may find your best bet is to acquire the images in bulk using an external program like Irfanview (a program often recommended around here), then use Paint.NET to edit those acquired images.
 
You could try out PdN4 - I don't know whether the scan dialog has been updated or not.
 
Also, if your scanner supports TWAIN, try out the TWAINable plugin. (better link below)
 
Good luck!

Edited by david.atwell
Snipped link because EER posted a better one.

 

The Doctor: There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
Amy: But how did it end up in there?
The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.
River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I downloaded the beta, but it froze when I tried to open the scan dialog. That's probably because the scanner is not currently attached to my computer; I won't have access to it again until the weekend.

 

I'll try the plug-in then, too.

 

If neither works, I'm afraid that Paint.NET will be a "good, but no cigar" option for me. The whole point of using it is to have something faster and easier to use than the current Paintshop Pro (which I bought, relying on experience with old versions, but returned after trying it). If I have to resort to tricks like scanning in one application and editing in another, that defeats the purpose. And there would be no scanning "in bulk"; my scanning is done on an as-needed basis, one page here and three there.

 

Whateer happens, I'll post the results after I've had a chance to try the beta and the plug-in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was able to try this (both the beta and Twainable+) today. So far the results are not good.

 

The beta doesn't crash when I try to open the Acquire dialog with the scanner attached, but it works the same way as the released version.

 

I had a couple of problems with Twainable. First, when I loaded my document into the document feeder and tried to scan it, Twainable+ read only the first page. It stopped with the first page open in Paint.NET, and the second sheet half way through the scanner, so that I had to open the scanner up to get it out.

 

Second, the page it did scan was blank. (No, the orignal was not blank, and was not fed backward!)

 

Finally... this isn't a Twainable problem, but it's a problem for me... I can't find a command to reduce the color depth of a scanned image.

Edited by Orthoducks
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't find a command to reduce the color depth of a scanned image.

At least with my scanner, this is a setting on the scanner itself and not something I can access from my computer.

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pdnnoob, this is a side issue, but what you say seems very strange. Are you saying that you set the color depth with a physical control on the scanner? I've used a half dozen different scanners over the past 15 years or so, and I've never encountered one that worked that way. I have always set the resolution in the driver's UI.

 

I've used several image processing programs too, and I've never seen a serious one that did not have a command for reducing the color depth of an image. (I'm excluding Microsoft Paint as a serious image processing program.) Even Irfanview does that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...