VueScan
VueScan is inexpensive third party scanning software which supportsmany (if not almost all) film scanners, and many flatbeds too.Visit www.hamrick.com. One feature is that if you don't have any drivers for your scanner, and if your scanner is supported, in many cases it will work. Try the free trial. There are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
If you have an iPad, iPhone or Android phone or tablet, you can use VueScan Mobile Free for scanning. This is a completely free program that works with the built-in camera and most networked HP, Canon, Epson, Brother and Samsung scanners. Outputs scans in a variety of formats. With VueScan, you are free to zoom into the image. When you use other software packages, such as EPSON Scan, zooming into an image will force a re-scan of the selected image. The trade-off here is that the zoomed-in image in VueScan has a small resolution. But, it is perfectly capable of letting you select your shots precisely.
VueScan's major claim to fame is its simple and accurate colorcorrection from color negatives. This is often difficult, and VueScangenerally makes it easy. VueScan supports the scanner's special hardware,like batch scanning, auto-focus, any infrared channel for dust andscratch suppression, and multi-scan to reduce scanner noise in the darkareas of slides. VueScan can often multi-scan with scanners that do notsupport this, using multi-pass scans. VueScan can often retrieve the fullbit depth of data from scanners that otherwise only output 24 bits.
VueScan is a standalone program. A TWAIN interface is not provided, itinstead accesses the scanner hardware directly at low level. VueScan isoften faster than the scanner's original software, both scan and focus.You can still use the scanner's original software if desired.
- VueScan works with just about every computer out there, supporting Linux, Mac and all versions of Windows up to Windows 10. More importantly, it supports 1,500 flatbed and film scanners, even if drivers are no longer available for the computer you’re running.
- VueScan is a scanning program that works with most high-quality flatbed and film scanners to produce scans that have color fidelity and color balance. Its very easy to use, and also has advanced features for restoring faded colors, batch scanning and other features used by professional photographers.
Selecting negative film type helps correct the specific orange filmmask color, and VueScan provides over 200 film types. But it's a harderproblem because any irregularity in film exposure or film processingshifts the color balance of the film. Correction of color negative filmis rather difficult in general practice, but VueScan specificallyaddresses this problem.
VueScan is an easy program to use, it is largely automatic, and itsdefaults are preset for the goal of achieving best results with the mostaccurate color. If it seems difficult to use, you're likely diddling toomuch, trust it more, try the defaults. All you really need to set is scanmode and perhaps film type, and it can do the rest. You can size thepreview and histogram window as large as you like.
You may sometimes want to tweak Brightness to affect midrangebrightness (VueScan Brightness works as a multiplier to Gamma, same asany histogram Midpoint control). But otherwise, the main tone setting youmay want to change is the Color Balance. Depending on the image content,one of these may be better than the others.
White Balance adjusts the RGB settings to try to make the image lookwhite, often very desirable. Auto Levels adjusts the RGB settings fromthe histogram maximum data values, which then map to white. If the scenelighting was sodium lamps or an orange sunset, Neutral probably worksbest. Images without neutral colors such as gray or white, perhaps imagesof all green foliage or flowers, may not like White Balance mode, butmore nearly typical images (people and places) likely will love it. Thenthe Auto Black and White Points clip away the specified percentage of thetotal pixel values. VueScan's defaults clip minimally, if at all, toretain the full data, to NOT discard shadow detail, giving all the rangethat a negative can give, perhaps a flatter image than you are used to,but it's all there.
Vuescan Freeware
You can set the Auto Black and White Points for greater contrast byclipping more, say 0.5% at Black. My own preference is to use thedefaults for its magic (good color balance), and tweak contrast later inPhotoshop (retaining that data allows choices). For typical scenes,following up with Photoshop Auto Levels (0.5%) is often fantastic. Thatclipping often enhances image contrast and colors perfectly, butsometimes it's the wrong thing to do. It does discard some shadow detailthat VueScan tried to retain.
VueScan is not an image editor; you can use Photoshop for that.VueScan's strength is to provide very good color, easily. That is nosmall feat, especially from negatives.
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Vuescan Freeware Programs
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Vuescan Download Freeware Vollversion
It’s amazing how quickly manufacturers abandon support for older hardware devices. This is nowhere more evident than when it comes to scanners. The gradual shift from 32- to 64-bit computing threatens to leave even more perfectly serviceable scanners in the box marked “obsolete”, but there may be a future for your old machine yet – at a cost.
VueScan works with just about every computer out there, supporting Linux, Mac and all versions of Windows up to Windows 10. More importantly, it supports 1,500 flatbed and film scanners, even if drivers are no longer available for the computer you’re running. Consequently, it enables you to dust down your trusty old scanner and continue using it despite the manufacturer’s attempts to force an upgrade.
It’s incredibly simple to use, with a neat wizard-based approach to scanning for the novice, and an Advanced button for those with a bit more experience. The results are impressive, and it’s worth considering even if your scanner is currently supported by Windows. You can output to JPEG, TIF, PDF and even access OCR-capabilities for extracting text from scanned images – English is provided by default, download other language files from here. VueScan can also output your scan directly to your printer, effectively turning your existing equipment into a serviceable photocopying machine.
The trial version is fully functional, although watermarks are placed across any scanned images, so you’ll have to buy it before you can get the most out of it. A four-computer licence costs US$40 for the Standard Edition or US$80 for the Professional Edition.
Version 9 introduces both 32- and 64-bit builds, and promises to be faster and more responsive than previous versions. The user interface has also been revamped to make it easier to use, giving up more screen space for the scanner preview and consists of a single file, which can be copied on to USB flash drive for running as a portable application if you wish.
Verdict:
An essential purchase if your scanner is no longer supported by the manufacturer and you can’t get it to work on your new computer.