[sane-devel] Timetable for sane-backends 1.0.19

[jazz_johnson at verizon.net]

On Friday 16 November 2007, m. allan noah wrote:
> This is the proposed timetable for the release of sane-backends 1.0.19:
>
> 2008-01-06 Feature freeze
> 2008-01-20 Code freeze
> 2008-02-03 Release
>
> The dates may move a few days if required. This is a longer
> 'pre-freeze' period than normal, but it seems justified given the
> longer development period and the pending holiday season.

> If there are any new backends that should be included in that release
> and haven't been committed to CVS yet, please tell us NOW. We will
> endeavour to help new backend authors get their code included.


My hs2p backend for the Ricoh IS450/420 seems to be working OK for me.
If it would be useful to others, I'd be happy to have it released for 
inclusion in either  internal or external drivers.  Just let me know what 
steps to take. I've followed the steps given in the backend-writing.txt 
howto. The hs2p backend tarball is available at
http://www.acjlaw.net:8080/~jeremy/Ricoh/hs2p_sane_backend/hs2p.tar.bz2

---

The only issue I've found with the IS450 is a possible problem with the gamma 
control. If I scan a text document in grayscale mode and do not apply any 
gamma correction, the image is too washed out. If I let Xsane apply automatic 
software gamma correction, the image is perfect. However, normally I scan 
documents using a shell script which started life as "scan-pdf version 3" 
which I downloaded off the internet and have since modified to suit my needs. 
If I use my shell script to scan documents in grayscale mode using a Fujitsu 
sp15c scanner, the resulting pdf image needs no gamma correction; but if I 
use my IS450 scanner on the same document, the resulting image is too washed 
out unless I apply a gamma correction (but my shell script has no code for 
automatic gamma correction). Maybe the Fujitsu sp15c corrects gamma 
automatically but the IS450 doesn't, or maybe the optics on my IS450 needs 
adjustment. I just don't know. There's no problem with Xsane since it apply 
automatic software gamma correction.