Author Topic: Software for use with scanner? (Read 34,463 times)

tomos · « **on:** June 03, 2008, 08:31 AM »

Need:
USABLE

software that will work with my/any scanner (I have an old Benq SZW 4300U)

I dont want to do anything fancy, straightforward scanning, mostly greyscale.
The Benq software has gotten worse with time -
was having problems with their older software & updated to newer version that "works" better but whose interface is even worse which I hadnt thought possible

So, something free or reasonable priced would be great, nothing fancy required, just a usable interface please !

tomos · « **Reply #1 on:** June 03, 2008, 08:36 AM »

it also wins a prize for the "ugliest interface I've ever seen"

[attachthumb=#]

steeladept · « **Reply #2 on:** June 03, 2008, 08:54 AM »

Ack! I agree. Is this a TWAIN compliant device? If so, most 3rd party scanner software will work well with it.

tomos · « **Reply #3 on:** June 03, 2008, 09:18 AM »

Quote from: steeladept on June 03, 2008, 08:54 AM

Ack! I agree. Is this a TWAIN compliant device? If so, most 3rd party scanner software will work well with it.

yes, TWAIN
problem is I dont know any 3rd party scanner software & am looking for tips

I've downloaded iCopy from source forge but think that's more aimed at making a photocopier of your scanner
http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=graphicssoft&cdn=compute&tm=99&f=00&tt=14&bt=0&bts=1&zu=http%3A//icopy.sourceforge.net/

It's difficult to search for - keep getting "scan your drive for this or that..."
Scanner Copier (also OS) looks like might be better - can scan multiple pages to one document
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scanner-copier/

steeladept · « **Reply #4 on:** June 03, 2008, 09:49 AM »

The only one I have any knowledge of is ScanSoft Paperport software. I have never used any personally, but I know there is a bunch of alternatives. This just happens to be the one many of my company's secretaries like.

dspelley · « **Reply #5 on:** June 03, 2008, 02:11 PM »

Take a look at VueScan http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html. Says it supports 750 flatbed and film scanners.

I think it's about $40 with a Pro version for about $80.

I don't know much about these, but here's a couple of others I found doing a "TWAIN Software" Google search.

Scanitto

http://www.masterslabs.com/en/products/scanitto/overview.html

Documalis

http://www.documalis.com/free/us_documalis_free_scanner.htm

tomos · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2008, 04:44 PM »

thanks steeladept and dspelley

I think VueScan has a great reputation esp for scanning photos, negatives, - there's another one that's supposed to be good at that,
Silver-something (-fast?) - VueScan seems quite reasonable cost considering reputation but not really the direction I was looking for..

PaperPort is supposed to be great as you say steeladept for office use but @ $199 it's definitely overkill for what I want.
Scanitto is reasonable cost but may as well try the free one's out first!
Documalis has a free version - I find it very difficult (=gave up trying) to find cost of standard or pro versions -
so I'll start with the free version see how I get on
download page is (seeing as I took a while to find it too...)
http://www.documalis.com/free/us_documalis_telechargements.htm#bas

thanks again people

tomos · « **Reply #7 on:** June 03, 2008, 08:34 PM »

Documalis out the window

I had great hopes there for a simple document scanner (even though I was originally looking for a bit more) - it seemed to work but wouldnt save as PDF, wouldnt scan when set to jpeg, insisted on doing a "preview" every time even though I couldnt see anything it would have allowed you to change at that stage of the process (you set the settings in preferences first) I gave up at that stage ...
To complicate things there's a certain amount "Lost in Translation" - poorly translated in spots, not at all in others
If you've fluent French try it out in original, you might do better than me

4wd · « **Reply #8 on:** June 03, 2008, 11:35 PM »

FreeKapture - Save or Print, can't get much simpler.
FreeOCR - If you want to do a little OCR, requires .NET 2.0 - it can do other languages besides english.

If you want output to PDF just use one of the many free PDF printer drivers, eg.
BullZip
Go2PDF

Most software that accesses the scanner via the TWAIN drivers will require you to do a preview, however, once that preview is done you can usually just change documents and keep hitting the scan button, eg.
XNView - Scan a load, close the scanner window, then just save/print all the resultant images in XNView.

tsaint · « **Reply #9 on:** June 04, 2008, 12:10 AM »

Scan2pdf - donationware - at http://www.koma-code.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=82

steeladept · « **Reply #10 on:** June 04, 2008, 01:16 AM »

Quote from: tomos on June 03, 2008, 04:44 PM

PaperPort is supposed to be great as you say steeladept for office use but @ $199 it's definitely overkill for what I want.

It's that much!?! Goodness, no wonder everyone likes it when they have it. I didn't look as you can tell. I know PaperPort LE came with many scanners a while back, but I never imagined it would cost that much. Perhaps they still have a PaperPort LE (or equivalent) version you can download for free? Just a thought.

hornet · « **Reply #11 on:** June 04, 2008, 06:49 AM »

I recently had problems with HP's Solution Center when instaling another HP all-in-one.

The scanner worked ok but HP's program would not work with it - registry mismatch.

I tried a number of other programs - most were so called photo copier programs. But they allowed you to select the scanner and the printer. Which meant I could scan a document and file it as a pdf (which is what I wanted).

I used:

icarbon
photocopier
copying machine (ex meusoft)

Files were downloaded from Snapfiles Pro as free software.

Regards,

Harry.

tomos · « **Reply #12 on:** June 04, 2008, 07:18 AM »

thanks to all for the new tips!

this morning tried ScannerCopier (see post #3) which is called Copier when installed
looked very promising - can select area you want scanned, simple clear interface,
it can do a preview but is unable to actually scan with my scanner...
more

@Steeladept, with PaperPort they do actually have a non-"pro" version hidden away on their website (hate when people arent upfront about prices & what they offer

but seems the norm these days) for 99.99
Definitely didnt see any free version

will try another this evening..

steeladept · « **Reply #13 on:** June 04, 2008, 08:20 AM »

Sorry. Like you, I didn't see it either. I think it was just a special version that came with some brands of scanners. It was worth a shot though.

icekin · « **Reply #14 on:** June 04, 2008, 10:11 AM »

I use PrecisionScan Pro which came with my HP scanner, and I personally think its excellent, but I am not sure if it will work with non-HP scanners.

Shades · « **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2008, 05:25 AM »

EZTwain http://www.dosadi.com/eztwain1.htm, a basic (as in look) scanner software application that will work with all scanners that support TWAIN.

tomos · « **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2008, 07:23 AM »

Quote from: Shades on June 11, 2008, 05:25 AM

EZTwain http://www.dosadi.com/eztwain1.htm, a basic (as in look) scanner software application that will work with all scanners that support TWAIN.

I've gotten distracted from this quest but will get back to it -
thanks Shades, will try that

Darwin · « **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2008, 01:19 PM »

Tom - $99.99 IS the cost of the non-pro version of PaperPort. The Pro version is $199

Darwin · « **Reply #18 on:** June 11, 2008, 01:24 PM »

An alternative to PaperPort, with which I have no experience whatsoever, is Paper Valet: http://www.chocksettsoftware.com/products.asp

A nod to Brett, who posted a link to this here.

Darwin · « **Reply #19 on:** June 11, 2008, 01:29 PM »

PS Don't bother looking at the users forum - SPAM central. Wow! Online pharmacies and busty blondes - what do these have to do with the paperless office? Well, I guess you have a virtual office environment along with a virtual pharmacy and a virtual... you get the picture

Anyway, as Brett pointed out, this does appear to be abandonware BUT the feature set and Brett's endorsement are compelling nonetheless, unless you're running Vista, Tom? In that case, all bets are off!

awraynor · « **Reply #20 on:** August 16, 2008, 01:43 AM »

Docsvault at Docsvault.com is the closest thing to PaperPort I have found and at half the price.

4wd · « **Reply #21 on:** August 20, 2008, 12:54 AM »

For anyone interested in PaperPort, here's a site where you can get PaperPort v11 for ~US$53 and PaperPort Deluxe v8 for US$29.95 - both NEW.

Fresco Bookshop

There are some comments on CNet saying that PaperPort Deluxe v8 was better than the following v9 and v10.

Either way, it's a cheap alternative.

NOTE: Not affiliated, (I'm even in a completely different country

), just found while Googling around

Wyman · « **Reply #22 on:** August 09, 2009, 02:17 PM »

I've started using Screenshot Capture when scanning documents because it is so much faster than the software (MP Navigator) that came with my scanner (Canon Pixma MP 780) or OmniPage. Thank you!

I need help with one task. I'd like to scan several pages of a document into a single PDF. Can I do that with SC? If so, how?

Your advice would be appreciated. As a college teacher I have lots of documents to scan and I was getting depressed about the amount of time it took.

mouser · « **Reply #23 on:** August 09, 2009, 02:22 PM »

Quote

I'd like to scan several pages of a document into a single PDF.

I will be adding the ability to combine several images into one pdf in the next week or so, but there may be more flexible free tools to do this already.
If someone finds one that supports drag and drop, it would be VERY easy to configure it to work with Screenshot Captor and let you just drag files into it.

Here's one that looks like it might do it:
http://www.derring.com/swiftpdf/

Wyman · « **Reply #24 on:** August 10, 2009, 07:09 PM »

Good -- nice program, thanks for the tip. But instead of saving each image, then dragging and dropping into another program, and saving again, I'd like to just put the next page into the scanner (or use the automatic document feeder), click, and repeat until a multipage document is assembled and ready to save. I can do this now with other scanner software, but the wait time is too long while it processes each page. ScreenCapture is so nice and fast!