VueScan Newsletter - June 2022

Hello!

A big thank you to all of you for subscribing to our newsletter!

When we started it a few years ago we wanted to make sure it was useful and informative for everyone.

We know how much unsolicited email we receive, with much of it being irrelevant and wasteful of our time, and we think that this probably applies to many people.

Our aim was to ensure that our newsletter was interesting for everyone – without it being overly technical we want to provide as much background information as we can.

We hope that we have found a happy balance, but please let us know if you have suggestions for any content you would like to see.

As we you know, our VueScan development program is driven by user requests, and the same applies to this newsletter.

So please continue to contact us with your product suggestions and comments, and any suggestions for content for this newsletter are very welcome!

If you are a Facebook user, please make sure you follow us - and we really appreciate any reviews for us. As a small company it really helps us, so, once again, thank you. (And thank you for telling your friends and colleagues about us.)

Remember you can contact us for technical support (we need a Problem Report) and any general enquiries, suggestions or feedback here.

Enjoy this newsletter and we look forward to hearing from you!

Beverley.

Please remember: If you have changed your email address, PLEASE do not email us!

Remember! You do not have to tell us about an email address change for your use of VueScan, it is only relevant for the newsletter.

You can subscribe to the newsletter with your new email address here

You can unsubscribe the old email address here

You can contact us with questions or for technical support here

Thank you and happy reading!

VueScan Updates

Since the last newsletter, we’ve released VueScan 9.7.87, 9.7.86, 9.7.85, 9.7.84, 9.7.83, 9.7.82, 9.7.81 and 9.7.80.

You can access all version changes here

What’s new in version 9.7.87

Added support for 145 HP scanners

What’s new in version 9.7.86

Added support for 52 Epson scanners

What’s new in version 9.7.85

Fixed problem with watermarks in Basic Edition
Fixed problem with some AirPrint/Scan scanners
Fixed problem with some models of Plustek OpticPro A320E
Optimized eject direction of film strips on some PIE/Reflecta scanners
Fixed problem with duplex scanning on Canon P-208 scanners
Fixed problem with some Fujitsu document scanners

What’s new in version 9.7.84

Enabled Document Feeders (ADF) with Standard Edition
Enabled extra-long page scans with some Epson Document Feeders
Added support for the Basic Edition

What’s new in version 9.7.83

Added support for 20 new Brother scanners
- Brother MFC-J2340DW
- Brother MFC-J2740DW
- Brother MFC-J3540DW
- Brother MFC-J3940DW
- Brother MFC-J5340DW
- Brother MFC-J5345DW
- Brother MFC-J5740DW
- Brother MFC-J5800CDW
- Brother MFC-J5855DW
- Brother MFC-J5955DW
- Brother MFC-J6540DW
- Brother MFC-J6555DW
- Brother MFC-J6740DW
- Brother MFC-J6940DW
- Brother MFC-J6955DW
- Brother MFC-J6957DW
- Brother MFC-J7100CDW
- Brother MFC-J7300CDW
- Brother MFC-J7500CDW
- Brother MFC-J7600CDW
Fixed occasional problem with multi-page PDF scans
Fixed problem with older PIE scanners using Firewire
Faster scans with PIE PrimeFilm XE at 5000 dpi

What’s new in version 9.7.82

Added support for 11 new Brother scanners
- Brother DCP-J1050DW
- Brother DCP-J1140DW
- Brother DCP-J526N
- Brother DCP-J914N
- Brother DCP-J926N
- Brother MFC-J1010DW
- Brother MFC-J1012DW
- Brother MFC-J1170DW
- Brother MFC-J739DN
- Brother MFC-J904N
- Brother MFC-J939DN
Added support for Canon D550
Added support for Canon D570
Added support for Epson ST-C2100
Added support for Epson ST-C4100

What’s new in version 9.7.81

Faster and sharper zooming and scrolling of ‘Overview’ and ‘Cropped area’
Hold Control key (Command key on Mac) to zoom with scroll wheel
Scroll up and down with scroll wheel
Hold Shift key on Windows and Linux to scroll left/right with scroll wheel
Use macOS trackpad or mouse to scroll up/down/left/right
Use macOS Pinch gesture on trackpad to zoom in and out
Sharper display of splash screen and ‘Help | About’ on high-DPI displays
Fixed a few problems with occasional crashes

What’s new in version 9.7.80

Higher-resolution buttons in bottom right of display
Clearer and sharper display on high-DPI displays
Solved problem with occasional crashing or freezing

Introducing Basic Edition!

28th April 2022

We have an exciting announcement today. VueScan has existed now for 24 years (coming up on our 25th anniversary!) and in that entire time we’ve primarily had two editions: the Standard Edition and the Professional Edition.

For many years we’ve had potential customers tell us that the two editions were too expensive for them and that they just needed to do some simple scanning and wanted to continue to use their existing hardware.

So we released the Basic Edition.

It’s is a lower-cost option for customers who just need to get their scanner working again and don’t need a lot of features or complexity. If you need to scan in a signed-document, scan a few old photos, or just keep your scanner working for that occasional time you need to use it, the basic edition might be for you.

The basic edition allows you to use a flatbed scanner to scan JPEG images. It won’t allow you to use a document feeder or film scanner, and won’t allow you to do things like manipulate multipage PDFs. But we think that it is important to provide an option for those customers who just need a light-weight option.

You can find out information about the exact feature set and pricing on our pricing page here

You can read this information on our website

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) Will there ever be additions or improvements to fixing old, faded slides?

A) Please try the ‘Filter | Restore fading’ option. The dye layers in color negatives and (especially) Ektachrome slide film fade at different rates over the years since the film was first developed. This corrects for the different fading of the three dye layers by finding the most neutral (most gray) colors and correcting so that the colors end up looking more natural. This is most dramatic when scanning 20 year old Ektachrome that have faded to red – with this option they end up looking natural again.

Q) What does the ‘Filter | Restore colors’ option do?

A) This option tries to find ‘key colors’, for instance blue skies, green grass and flesh tones, and transform the overall colors with a 3x3 transform matrix to increase the number of key colors. This option is a last resort for correcting colors and should only be used if the ‘Filter | Restore fading’ option doesn’t give satisfactory results.

Q) When I’m scanning paper, it sometimes looks grey instead of pure white. How can I correct this?

A) Either set ‘Filter | Flatten’ or set ‘Input | Media’ to ‘Color text’.

Q) How can you possibly add support so often for so many new scanners?

A) Most new scanners use the same basic command set as existing supported scanners. Most of the work is finding the USB Product ID for new scanners as well as the capabilities of each scanner (i.e. does it have a flatbed, a document feeder, a duplex document feeder, a transparency adapter, etc.)

Q) Sometimes my scanner isn’t found on the network. Is there a way to work around networking and firewall configuration issues?

A) You might check that your firewall or router between your computer and scanner isn’t blocking mDNS responses from the scanner from being returned to VueScan (UDP port 5353). The computer and scanner also need to be on the same subnet.

Lastly, make sure you aren’t using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), either on your computer or in a router. A VPN will interfere with finding scanners on the network.

If VueScan still can’t find your scanner, look up the USB Vendor ID and USB Product ID in the supported scanners list, then set ‘Prefs | Network scanners’ to “Manual” and put this info and the IP address into the three fields below this. The USB Vendor ID and USB Product ID tell VueScan what kind of scanner is connected at this IP address.

Customer Corner

A massive thank you to Jeremy Daalder from Image Science in Australia who wrote this review of VueScan.

Image Science Logo

“We’re a fine art studio in North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. We help artists and photographers with all aspects of fine art printing and colour management. We’re a full service fine art studio offering the most exquisite & accurate printing, scanning and art reproduction services, and have done so for over 20 years. We also sell related equipment and consumables - colour accurate monitors from Eizo and BenQ, fine art inkjet materials from Hahnemuhle, Ilford, Canson and Museo, Calibrators from Calibrite & much more. In depth knowledge & the sharing of that knowledge has always been a core part of our business. We ourselves use what we sell, every day in production, and we offer superb knowledge on & support for everything we sell.

Vuescan is another piece of software we regard as an essential tool in our toolbox. Let’s face it - just about every person working in the visual arts has to scan something, sometime. Indeed, just about every human has to!

Vuescan is normally the best solution to just about every scanning problem. Inexpensive and compatible with just about all scanners out there (both film and document/artwork), it is capable of excellent, professional results, and can tremendously speed up your workflow.

If you’re still stuck in the software hell that is things like ‘Epson Scan’ or ‘Canoscan’ - do yourself a favour and try Vuescan. You’ll never look back!” (Review updated based on version 9.7.82 in March 2022)

Read the review online here

Customer Comment

Thank you to everyone who comments on Facebook or emails us! We really appreciate hearing from you and knowing that we are making a contribution (even if small!) to helping you with both your work and personal projects.

“Your product is outstanding. I love it.”

“By far the most capable piece of software that interfaces with just sooooo many scanners. I have three scanners, one an old SCSI Polaroid 4000, HP all in one and a Plustek 7200, one piece of software required!!. In 20MB!!!”

“My pathetic old 32 bit Canon LiDE 90 may not be supported on “64 bit only” macOS anymore, but it still works with VueScan on my Linux machine just fine! Amazing! Thank you for developing such a GREAT piece of software!”

“I just want to congratulate you on your excellent communication.”

“Excellent product, excellent company.”

“Reliable, Dedicated, Deserving of Trust. Thank you Hamrick!”