[sane-devel] Sane User Guide

[Roger]

> On Mon, Apr 03, 2017 at 12:07:22PM +0100, rowanknox wrote:
>   I'm not really sure if I'm in the right place for this message, but I'm
>   sure I'll be put right if not.
>
>   After some months of attempts I have finally got the Samsung SCX-4100 to
>   scan to Ubuntu 14.04.
>   I am now in a position to start using Sane but find the dialogue complex
>   and confusing so I have been looking for a basic Step-by-step User Guide
>   or Manual, but with little success.
>
>   Is there such a thing & if so where would I find it please?
>
>   For instance where is the 'Save To' dialogue? &  I've currently got an
>   aborted scan with a message "Error during read:device busy" despite having
>   closed it down & rebooted. etc etc
>
>   Nic


If I'm not mistaken, best results are obtained when scanning the image as it 
is; completely avoiding any contrast, color saturation and/or sharpening 
augmentation by the scanning program.  Use Gimp or other dedicted tool for 
these contrast/color/sharpening, as these tools accel at doing so.

If I use XSane, I keep all image (color) adjustments set to default or zero (as 
I do with VueScan), and at most only using the ICC/ICM scanner profile during 
scanning.  Of course also specifying media type; reflective, positive, or 
negative.

The main rational for instituting the contrast/color/sharpening tools within 
scanner programs, are for those whom just needing something to work now and 
magickly, versus having any concern about quality.  Even selecting the scan 
region could be called extra work, as cropping within Gimp is likely far 
better.  The only reason I select the scan region, is to omit non-essential 
image parts for reducing the resulting file size.  Additional cropping for 
image clean-up is reserved for Gimp here.  And stick to PNM/TIFF image file 
format.

The Book of Gimp (2013) goes into some good detail on using XSane, and explains 
what all those funny tick boxes do, for which I was oblivious for more than a 
decade until just recently reading the book.  The book goes into some basic 
work-flow, and somewhat describes the above.  (The book also explains how to 
minimize color changes within XSane's interface.)  Many whom use VueScan for 
photography, strictly adhere to the previously mentioned workflow, while also 
scanning explicitly to either VueScan's RAW or to TIFF image formats.

A good place to buy this book, or computer books in general, is oreilly.com.  
The Book of Gimp is probably the best read I've seen on Gimp (or anything 
related to computer graphics) as of yet.

-- 
Roger
http://rogerx.freeshell.org/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 488 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/sane-devel/attachments/20170404/996145c1/attachment.sig>