[sane-devel] Several comments on Canon N670U support

[kilgota at khayyam.math.auburn.edu]

I have now tested sane-1.08 with plustek-sane-0_44_2 on my Canoscan N670U.
Compilation was routine and fast. I did have to edit the configutation
file in /etc/sane.d to point at /dev/usb/scanner0, because I am using
devfs and there is no such device here as /dev/usbscanner. But after this
it does find the scanner.

I can report that basically this package works for me, but:

1. There is a typo in the file Plustek-USB.txt, where the N670U is given

Product ID 0x220B (wrong)

and it should be 0x220D

This error is only in that readme file, but it could deceive the ignorant.

2. The light in the scanner does not turn itself off when the scan is
finished.

3. The zoom features work; I can scan any small rectangular area of the
image which I choose, but the brightness and contrast need to be adjusted
drastically afterwards, in order to get an image which looks like the
original. Scanning a small rectangular image gives a very dark image.
Scanning the entire original image, however, does not have this problem.
I used as a test for this the glossy paper which came with the scanner and
says on one side, "Choosing Canon was a smart move" and has a picture of a
girl wearing an earphone, at the bottom left. Try zooming in on the girl
and scanning an image which avoids all of the text. The colors are also a
little bit off; the background comes out somewhat blue instead of white.

4. I get the impression from reading the mailing list that there is a
confusion about what is required for supporting a USB scanner vs. what is
required for supporting a parallel port scanner. In my opinion, the
instruction files and documentation for both USB and parport scanners
should have big fat warning signs near the very beginning of the
respective files. This would include at least the files Plustek-USB.txt
and  /backends/plustek_driver/INSTALL.

5. I didn't try the buttons. Do they work, too?


Theodore Kilgore