help gimp find the camera

[isayhello2u]

I have  acquired an old used koolertron book scanner  (without a manual or software -so far have not been able to obtain either)    my window 11 pc  thinks its a usb 2.0 web camera.   but i would like to take photos directly from gimp   (i always update so im sure its the newest version of gimp)    I can take photos with microsoft camera app then upload to gimp.  but i would like to take a photo more directly as  im working with paper too large and fragile for a normal scanner   even a hand held one.    Gimp create can find my hp printer/scanner and my cannon/scanner  but can not find any usb connected camera.     I saw a reply on a similar question that said something about twain.   but im very end user computer illiterate  and need something that says  something like  step one go here and step two click that   step three type this  etc so on and so forth.   is there any one who can advise me?

[PixLab]

Camera and scanner are 2 different things.
Twain,exe is in GIMP for the Microsoft's Windows OS, AFAIK it's an old 32-bit application/plugin for scanner only!, Not cameras, but scanners.
You cannot tether from a camera to GIMP directly because GIMP cannot find a connected camera.
Roughly, If GIMP can find some scanners via twain.exe, GIMP was not made to find cameras and twain is not made either to find a camera.

[rich2005]

Interesting but probably futile.

The koolertron site has no mention of a document scanner, microscopes etc but no scanner, also very sparse on support.

I did find this: Koolertron GH-DOSN Document Scanner with a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbJNW-HuM2U and refers to some software called camscanner.

There is a site for that, https://www.camscanner.com/download - a long shot but might be worth a try. it might come with a twain driver that Gimp can access.

Old hardware without support is always a Windows problem, I have a Canon LiDE30 scanner circa 2005, no drivers for it after Win7. I can not even give it away. However, still works in linux.

[isayhello2u]

(08-12-2023, 08:08 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Interesting but probably futile.

yes they no longer make it.   I found its software  program and some drivers for it using internet archives wayback machine.  the programs controls are in chinese  so i'm still trying to determine what some of them do.   I also found some free software for a similar but newer document scanner out of my price range  that allows me to make some  use of some of the koolertron's features  but it likes to fill up its companion folder with  text error messages for things the koolertron does not have like auto focus not found.  thank you for the camscanner  program  it does work with the koolertron but not with gimp.  however  i can run both programs at the same time.  save the camscanner file and then open it into gimp.   so at least it made my digital life easier if not perfect.    Thank you.

[sallyanne]

@ Pix
GIMP was not made to find cameras

I have been able to find photos from a connected camera through gimp - Just need to go to the computer and connected devices.
Find it easier nowadays to use a SD card.

[PixLab]

(10-13-2023, 03:28 AM)sallyanne Wrote: @ Pix
GIMP was not made to find cameras

I have been able to find photos from a connected camera through gimp - Just need to go to the computer and connected devices.
Find it easier nowadays to use a SD card.

Yes it's normal, your computer find the SD/memory card and you can go to the DCIM/Camera folder, because it sees it as an external drive/USB storage, that's why it shows up in the File > Open... GIMP's files' browser, it's very different than scanning or tether

As an example, plug your phone, you will be able to access internal storage and its SD card, but you won't be able to take a picture with it or access applications you have in it, unless you install on your computer a third party software like scrcpy to take full control of your device (to play games or take pictures from your smartphone to your desktop, for example)

Code:

sudo snap install scrcpy