Scanner

luckat

I'm thinking of buying a scanner - my first - and would like to know what's the best one to buy in various ways.

My setup: I have a G4 PowerBook running Tiger; it has 1GB of RAM and (currently) an 80GB hard drive, though I'm thinking of switching to a 180GB HDD.

I'd like to get a scanner for occasional home use - which doesn't mean it should be a really crappy one, just that it doesn't have to be super-professional. I'll be doing things like scanning Victorian family photos and daguerrotypes.

So I'd like one that is easy to put away - not too bulky - when not in use, and that will be compatible with my Mac. It should also be compatible with my wallet, which is not itself too bulky. And I don't know what are the parameters for scanners - what DPI, etc, etc I should be looking for. It should also be easily compatible with my Mac (which has USB2 and FireWire).

Any suggestions? And what *should* I be looking for in tech specs?

eirlink

I bought a HP scanjet 2400 few months back for very reasonable money from Argos.

I needed it for same reason, to get old photos /prints into iphoto. i has its own HP software which came with it and it works terrific with the mac.

Im connnected via USB which is fast enough for scanning. Installing day one was a breeeze and ive never had a glitch since. At this stage ive imported about 500 photos and still goin without a hitch. One thing , on an aside , is the painfree way everything just " works " when connecting to macs, which is the way it should be.

As for price i paid € 59.99 for it ( cat no= 670/0438 )...great value for what it does and reliable too

...you decide.

Dont be at yourself

I've got a HP psc 1317 sitting beside me right now, which does scanning, printing and copying, all at great quality. Works fine with Tiger too.

korramatta

If you looking at Lexmark multi-functional one's, make sure its compatiable with OS X, I did that mistake with Lexmark x2480!

luckat

Got the HP 2400 and I'm scanning in bunches of photos and documents, but it has a tendency to crash after 10 or so. Any ideas?

Sad Professor

I have the HP scanjet 2400 as well. Scanner works great but I had nothing but problems with the HP software. I tried the latest version from the HP site but it was equally useless. Maybe it doesn't work well with intel macs. Or maybe it's just crap software.

Vuescan works fine however but it's shareware. I haven't been able to get Image Capture to recognise the scanner so I don't know if that works any better.

eirlink

my 24oo works fine with the mac although mines a PPC version and not one of the intels, so im not sure if thats the cause. Have you downloaded all the apple updates, maybe that would help.

luckat

What Apple updates, please, eirlink?

formatman

recommend bringing back the HP ..

and buying an EPSON , they have full commitment to writing software for the MAC , alot of their scanners will work under OSX without additional drivers also

eirlink

luckat wrote:

What Apple updates, please, eirlink?

its a long shot but might help..click on the apple symbol ( top left) and then software update.

When you say crash...what exactly are the sympthoms?

luckat

The software just quits, bang.

I'm beginning to think it's haunted - it's often when I'm trying to scan the back of photos, with handwriting by much-loathed people.

eirlink

Try the following in the following order.

1. make sure the HP software is in your applications folder on you main HD
2. open applications folder and look for HP folder in it
3. open HP folder and click on HP software update
4. 2.2.3 is latest version
5. if you need to do an update, do so now. ( restart is required, save any open work)
6. restart mac
7. Repair disk permissions via Disk Utility
8. Make sure mac is fully updated via Apple icon>software update
9. Uninstall HP software ( USE ITS OWN UNINSTALLER) in HP folder...dont be tempted to drag the HP folder to the trash icon.
10. Reinstall HP software
11. Repair Permissions again
12. Send e-mail to HP
13. Unlucky for some...buy an Epson.!


PS i remember vaguely reading somewhere that font recognition with 2400 / osx was problematic. if i come across it ill let you know.Ive never scanned in text so maybe that it..

Sad Professor

luckat, have you also tried downloading the latest version of the HP software? You can get it here, at the bottom of the page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=219&lc=en&cc=ie&dlc=en&product=297430&lang=en#

Since you've a PPC you might have more luck with it than I did.

luckat

Eirelink, I've downloaded the update and installed it and repaired disk permissions.

I haven't, however, uninstalled and reinstalled, because I was a little uncertain where you meant me to reinstall from! From the original disk, and then install the update again?

(My HP scanner software was, in fact, in the Macintosh HD/Applications folder; normally I put all non-Apple software instead into a separate Applications folder in my User folder, which works better - it's faster for the computer. But I hadn't got around to moving it, and now I'm not sure if I should...)

eirlink

luckat wrote:

Eirelink, I've downloaded the update and installed it and repaired disk permissions.

I haven't, however, uninstalled and reinstalled, because I was a little uncertain where you meant me to reinstall from! From the original disk, and then install the update again?

(My HP scanner software was, in fact, in the Macintosh HD/Applications folder; normally I put all non-Apple software instead into a separate Applications folder in my User folder, which works better - it's faster for the computer. But I hadn't got around to moving it, and now I'm not sure if I should...)

Ok, try the reinstall from original disk and install onto Macintosh HD ( as before ) and then update again. Following this do a repair permissions.

leave the HP software folder in the Mac HD / apps folder..dont move it across to user one.

Id drop HP a mail and see if that helps. \still think its something to do with character - font recognition.....

luckat

Eirelink, and everyone, thanks for the help. It seems to be working fine now.

I don't think it's font recognition that was the problem, because apart from some handwritten notes on photos from the 1900s, it was all photographs I was scanning.

Thanks for the sites and methods of getting updates. Everything worked brilliantly.

eirlink

luckat wrote:

Eirelink, and everyone, thanks for the help. It seems to be working fine now.

I don't think it's font recognition that was the problem, because apart from some handwritten notes on photos from the 1900s, it was all photographs I was scanning.

Thanks for the sites and methods of getting updates. Everything worked brilliantly.

...glad you up an runnin'