What scanner should I buy?

raven5 · n00b Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 19

Looking for suggestion from those who have used a flatbed scanner with Gentoo.

I want to begin using a scanner in my artwork -- so it doesn't need to have a sheet feeder, but it does need good color matching and good resolution.

Any suggestions for what brand to buy, software to use with it, or other links to go look at would all be deeply appreciated.

b1f30 · Apprentice Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 262 Location: USA

raven5 · n00b Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 19

Thanks for the advice.

I looked at both Canon and Epson.

I bought the Epson Perfection 4490, mainly because I have lots of 35mm slides I also want to scan.

It has a version of scanner software for linux which is downloadable, this made me happy

.

But then found out it won't work for my machine. ~x86 keyword masks the package in my case.

I can still use the scanner with Windows

but would rather stick with all things Gentoo.

Is there some other way to drive the scanner?

ljubo · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:32 pm Post subject:

I have EPSON Perfection 3490 PHOTO and I can confirm that it works SANE's SnapScan Backend without any problems. Speed is the same as in MS Windows.
I have also tried EPSON AVASYS driver for Linux, and unlike SnapScan, it has problems with backtrace.
For scanning I use XSane.

@raven5
Unfortunately, EPSON Perfection 4490 is not yet supported by SANE. You can see the list of supported EPSON scanners here.
You can try above mentioned EPSON AVASYS Linux driver which has support for your EPSON Perfection 4490 PHOTO scanner.
EPSON Image Scan! software is in portage, including sane-epkowa backend and firmware (EPSON AVASYS).

raven5 · n00b Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 19

Thanks.

I didn't make it clear in my previous post but iscan is masked by the ~86 keyword for me, as I have an AMD machine.

So looks like I'll be using windows with it for a while.

timeBandit · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:

VueScan is an excellent alternative. It runs on Linux and supports many hundreds of scanners. Its particular strength is scan quality and color accuracy, which you mentioned was important to you. Downside: commercial software. You can download it from the website and try before you buy.
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