EPSON Perfection V330 Photo Scanner + ABBYY and ArcSoft software

[IainB]

This is a quick initial review, in case anyone might find it of use/help.
I recently migrated all my stuff to Windows7.
Yesterday I bought a new flatbed scanner (EPSON Perfection V330 Photo Scanner) to replace the HP ScanJet 3400C which I have been obliged to throw away as HP do not support this scanner in Windows7 (they only barely supported it in XP). Its HP drivers and software made it an excellent scanner under Windows98, but it is not good for much now. A case of new and better technology (hardware and software) replacing the older, obsolete technology.

I bought the EPSON V330 because it gets very good reviews for its performance in high resolution scanning, document and OCR scanning, image (photo) scanning and OCR, and photo negative scanning. If there is any text in the scanned item (document or image) then it can be OCR'd into text (e.g., to a word document), or text-searchable and copyable output (e.g., PDF files).

It comes bundled with this software:

• EPSON Scan: for just scanning stuff.
• ArcSoft MediaImpression: for modifying images and making vids out of photos and vid files (not used yet).
• ArcSft Scan-n-Stitch: e.g., for stitching panoramic photos together (not used yet).
• ABBY FineReader 9.0 Sprint: for scanning stuff to documents or files.
• ABBY Screenshot reader: for capturing and OCRing (as required) screen captures.

I would like to report that the V330 + software seems to work perfectly so far. It does an excellent job on text/document and OCR scanning, and imaging and OCR scanning. So far, I have not played about with the ArcSoft software or with the photo and photo negative scanning, but I shall.

The software I have tried out is pretty clever:
ABBY FineReader: scans documents to PDF and saves it as OCR'd text (searchable and copyable).

ABBY Screenshot reader: is an amazing screen capture aid. You tell it whether you want to capture an image or the text in the window/screen view you are working on. Then some crosshairs appear and you select the area you want to copy the image/text from, and it gets copied to the clipboard. If you have told it to capture text, then the OCR of any text seems to be 100% to 99.9% accurate, even for slightly blurry images.

An example of an image capture is below, followed by an uncorrected copy of what text was retrieved from the same selected area as per the image capture.
This is the captured image:
______________________

______________________

This is the captured text:

ABBY Screenshot reader
I would like to report that the V
scanning. I have not played abc
The software is pretty clever:
ABBY FjnjB§^: scans
ABBY Scj^ejlSboj; reader:
working on. Then some cxpsjsj^aj
text, then the OCR of any text
An example of an image capture

NB: any OCR errors are from the little red zigzag underline of my spellchecker. The bold text has been created by this forum's text formatting tool, because some of the captured text has text formatting parameters in it.

[cranioscopical]

Thanks for posting. It's always good to know of something that works well under 7, for those of us who have yet to commit to it.

Don't you hate it when perfectly good hardware must be sacrificed on the altar of obsolete drivers?

[IainB]

@cranioscopical: Yes, though  am extremely pleased with the EPSON V330 flatbed scanner (and especially the bundled software), HP's strategy annoyed me no end as it seemed to be quite deliberate forced obsolescence by HP. "No upwards compatibility. Tough luck if you don't like it."

The hardware was great and would probably last forever.
The software (HP Precision Scan LTX or something) was excellent.
The scanner resolution was a bit dated by modern standards - max 1200dpi - but good enough for most stuff.

HP decided to cease support/upgrade of the drivers and LTX software a while back, so those things wouldn't work in XP, and I had to rely on Microsoft drivers - which worked just fine, but I lost that useful LTX functionality.

Reminded me of the '70s book by Vance Packard "The Waste Makers".
I have been googling for ideas on repurposing old scanners, but there's not many ideas except making a bright desk lamp or a simple box camera. I shall probably check if there are any useful part inside, and then scrap it.

[cranioscopical]

There's certainly consolation to be found in improved hardware but it's annoying to be forced into it.

You might find some local volunteer group that would be pleased to have it.

[tomos]

Good to get a scanner recommendation Iain   (I'm probably going to have to upgrade myself at some stage soon)

I wonder would a programme like vuescan be able to read your older hp scanner - hmm, it says it does, but also says

You need to install an HP scanner driver to use this scanner on Windows.

which seems to mean it's no good with newer OS's as you say...
http://www.hamrick.c...p_scanjet_3300c.html

[IainB]

@tomos: Thanks, yes, I had already googled and turned up 2 third-party possibilities - VueScan and 1 other (I forget the name and could not quickly find it in my browser history when I looked just now).
Of those 2:
(a) VueScan: was a dead-end because it required "an HP driver" for the ScanJet 3400C, and there is no such thing for Windows7 (QED).
(b) The 1 other: similarly required a driver, but it was some obscure open source driver that, when I went to look it up, apparently did not support the ScanJet 3400C. Another dead-end.

So it seems that HP really have succeeded in killing off this model of scanner. Only a software developer who understood the arcane art of scanner drivers could hack their way out of this one, and that's not me.

@ cranioscopical:

"You might find some local volunteer group that would be pleased to have it."

Well, I could, but I don't think I'd give a white elephant to a charity to dispose of for me. That could be a bit unfair really...   

I actually give stacks of stuff to local charities - my own and other people's stuff. You see, I live in an apartment block and I regularly scour the recycling bins and rescue all sorts of useful stuff and take it to the charity shops for them to give away or sell. They only want electrical appliances that work. (It's amazing what good stuff - often in as-new condition - some people throw away. I often shop in these charity shops as well.)

You have got me thinking though. I think I might look around for a local volunteer group that could help me to rehabilitate people who have had to go through the forced obsolescence of their trusty HP ScanJet 3400C flatbed scanner...   

[cranioscopical]

I don't think I'd give a white elephant to a charity to dispose of for me

-IainB

A lot of people are still running XP, won't it work under that?
I wasn't thinking of giving it to a charity for disposal, rather finding a volunteer group of some kind that might find it useful.
It's probably a lost cause 

]help me to rehabilitate people who have had to go through the forced obsolescence of their trusty HP ScanJet 3400C

-IainB

Help them to take arms against a C of troubles?

[IainB]

@cranioscopical:

"Help them to take arms against a C of troubles?"

Har-de-har. Very punny. You get a C+ for that one.     

[cranioscopical]

@cranioscopical:

"Help them to take arms against a C of troubles?"

Har-de-har. Very punny. You get a C+ for that one.     

-IainB (February 22, 2011, 12:30 AM)

I c'd the point.

[IainB]

Just posted this here as it is relevant:
Re: free ABBYY Screenshot Reader

I had my wires crossed on this. Have just straightened them out after reading my installation notes and double-checking program versions:

The thing is, the Christmas giveaway version is actually quite an old version.

• Believing it to be the latest version at the time, on 2011-12-14 I installed the FREE ABBY Screenshot Reader "RETAIL" (Christmas giveaway) software from http://fr7.abbyy.com...enshotReader_ESD.exe
  It turned out that this "RETAIL" version is apparently an older version (v9.0.0.1331) to the one I had already installed with my EPSON scanner (see below).
  So I uninstalled it without hiccup on 2012-01-22, as it was duplication with file of approx. 330Mb and it duplicated a licence server service (you cannot seem to run the ABBY software without having that service running). One less overhead.
  
  
• The apparently newer version (v9.0.0.1354) was actually installed almost a year earlier on 2011-02-20, as part of the EPSON scanner install +ABBY FineReader 9.0 Sprint software.
  I posted about the excellent scanner and associated software (including screenshots of the ABBY Screenshot Reader OCR output) in DCF:
  EPSON Perfection V330 Photo Scanner + ABBY and ArcSoft software on: 2011-02-20, 20:21:30.
  

The conclusion to all this is:

• (a) If you do not already have the ABBY Screenshot Reader, then get the FREE ABBY Screenshot Reader "RETAIL" (Christmas giveaway) software from http://fr7.abbyy.com...enshotReader_ESD.exe (if it is still available).
  It is an excellent and useful piece of software.   
  
  
• (b) If you (like me) already have ABBY software installed/bundled with a scanner install, then check to see what version of ABBY Screenshot Reader you might have had installed with it, before (like me) making the mistake of downloading a possibly older Christmas giveaway version.
  My scanner-installed version was v9.0.0.1354 (a newer version).
  The 2011-12 Christmas giveaway version was v9.0.0.1331 (an older version).

-IainB (August 09, 2012, 10:21 PM)