Scanner support

[Ofnuts]

It seems that scanner support in Gimp (ie File ➤ Create ➤ Scan...) just requires the proper scanner software in one of the plugins directory.

On my Ubuntu, for "distro" Gimp, I find that there is a link in /usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plugins to /usr/bin/iscan and that's enough (I can add scanner support to my self- compiled version by adding that same link at the right place).

However iscan looks and functionality leave much to be desired, so is there another app that can act as a Sane scanner for Gimp? I assume it should do the right thing when Gimp calls it for registration?

[rich2005]

Without forking out cash on vuescan, nothing I know other than xsane which might be a problem with an epson.

This my shiney new-ish kubuntu 20.04 installation. Trying to keep it slimed down so only have the Gimp appimage installed.

Using xsane: The sane package installed from the repo but since xsane pulls in a regular Gimp as a dependency, unpacked a deb and put xsane in manually. In usr/bin with a symbolic link to the Gimp user profile. https://i.imgur.com/RmHEIGK.jpg

This using my Brother printer/scanner with wireless connection: https://i.imgur.com/yAtKMCX.mp4

[Ofnuts]

(07-01-2021, 11:10 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Without forking out cash on vuescan, nothing I know other than xsane which might be a problem with an epson.

This my shiney new-ish kubuntu 20.04 installation. Trying to keep it slimed down so only have the Gimp appimage installed.

Using xsane: The sane package installed from the repo but since xsane pulls in a regular Gimp as a dependency, unpacked a deb and put xsane in manually. In usr/bin with a symbolic link to the Gimp user profile. https://i.imgur.com/RmHEIGK.jpg

This using my Brother printer/scanner with wireless connection: https://i.imgur.com/yAtKMCX.mp4

So, Xsane works and looks a lot better, will give it a shot. Thx.

[programmer_ceds]

(07-01-2021, 12:07 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: So, Xsane works and looks a lot better, will give it a shot. Thx.

I haven't tried Vuescan but using SimpleScan and xsane the scans from my old (but still fully functional) HP Scanjet 4400c exhibit a lot of variation in colour cast - even between consecutive scans of the same document. I assume that the HP scanning software has some way of checking the colour balance on each scan as it gives very little, if any, variation. The only way that I have found to use it reliably is with W2K (yes the scanner is that old) installed under VirtualBox and the HP software installed under W2K - a bit of a pain but the results are worth it.

[Ofnuts]

(07-01-2021, 03:55 PM)programmer_ceds Wrote:

(07-01-2021, 12:07 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: So, Xsane works and looks a lot better, will give it a shot. Thx.

I haven't tried Vuescan but using SimpleScan and xsane the scans from my old (but still fully functional) HP Scanjet 4400c exhibit a lot of variation in colour cast - even between consecutive scans of the same document. I assume that the HP scanning software has some way of checking the colour balance on each scan as it gives very little, if any, variation. The only way that I have found to use it reliably is with W2K (yes the scanner is that old) installed under VirtualBox and the HP software installed under W2K - a bit of a pain but the results are worth it.

Tried simple scan yesterday and it's a really efficient way to scan docs directly to a PDF(*), but does it work as a scanner for Gimp?

There is a huge variation in file size when converting an document to PDF, depending on application used. Possibly some compression setting for embedded JPEGs, but Gimp doesn't see to allow tweaking this.

PS: SimpleScan saves documents at 100PPI, which is the default setting when loading PDFs in Gimp. Coincidence?

[rich2005]

(07-01-2021, 05:40 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: ...snip.. There is a huge variation in file size when converting an document to PDF, depending on application used. Possibly some compression setting for embedded JPEGs, but Gimp doesn't see to allow tweaking this.

There is a bug report (more of a discussion) somewhere. The Gimp PDF internally is a ppm image. The developers not able to do anything about it at present.

Gimp PDF are just too big. Scan to a tiff and use

Code:

tiff2pdf -j -q 50 -o small.pdf scanned.tiff

Which embeds a jpeg image, quality setting -q Using colour magazine page: Makes a big difference, Gimp PDF = 16 MB / from tiff PDF = 1 MB