Color Scan unsuccessful (however grayscale works)

[Ross B.]

This is a bug report for scanning color documents into Affinity Photo on Mac. Moderator: I was registered on the legacy Serif forums, which did not automatically transfer to Affinity forums.

1. I can reproduce when attempting color scans. (Note: Black & White, aka, gray-scale scans, however, import correctly.)
2. Yes, this happens with a new document.
3. Environment...

• OS & Version: Mac OS X Catalina (10.15.2)
• Expectation: Color scan will import / acquire from flatbed scanner correctly in Affinity Photo (attached: see color preview in 'Acquire Image' dialog)
• Actual Problem: Color scan is rendered in 'color bars' [sic] (attached: notice that the acquired Affinity Photo document renders in color bars)
• To Reproduce: Launch Affinity Photo on Mac, and access "Acquire Image..." from the "File" menu with a color sample loaded into the flatbed scanner; click the 'Scan' button (attached: screen capture with "Acquire Image" dialog showing the sample
•  Screenshot attached. The scanner is Xerox WorkCentre 6515 with Mac OS drivers installed.

Thank you,

Ross B.

---

Serif user since PagePlus X4 (in 2009), Ten Year Serif Anniversary
Desktop Publisher since Mac OS 7.5.1 (1995)

[Ross B.]

Note: As OP, Affinity Photo version is 1.7.3 since Mac App Store updates automatically.

[Ross B.]

See also: Scanner Problems from July 18 with an Epson ET-3750 scanner / printer. Canon scanner seems to work fine?

[JackA]

Thanks for that. Does sound like the problem I had with the Espon.

I work round the issue by using the Epson scan utility which works fine and then load the output from that into AP.  Bit of a hassle but it works.

Affinity Support ... will you be investigating this further, please?

 

Jack

[walt.farrell]

On 12/24/2019 at 6:03 PM, Ross B. said:

Moderator: I was registered on the legacy Serif forums, which did not automatically transfer to Affinity forums.

That's correct, because there is no connection between the legacy software and Affinity, and no connection between the legacy software forums and the Affinity forums.

[Chris B]

Hey Ross B.,

Apologies for not replying sooner. We somehow missed this post

Affinity solely relies on the drivers installed—we do or have nothing special to assist with this.

We usually recommend using the scanners own software or another app that often comes up is VueScan. You should be able to set Affinity as the default app to open a TIFF so once VueScan has scanned the image, Affinity will automatically open.

[JackA]

I get what you're saying, but you now have 2 different reports of the same problem, using different devices.

I repeat what I said on my original post  Scanner Problems from July 18 with an Epson ET-3750 scanner, the scan works fine in Photoshop Elements but not AP.

This would suggest AP is not acquiring the image correctly, at least from some devices. The scan may be operating correctly but not the acquire.

Jack

[Chris B]

But it could be that the macOS driver doesn't play very well with the hardware. 

As a quick test, try going to System Preferences > Printers & Scanners and add your scanner (if it isn't present) and then attempt to scan. If this works, then perhaps there is something we need to look into. If it doesn't work well, then it is the macOS driver and there isn't anything we can do. 

If it does work, could you record a short recording so I can take it to the developers? 

[JackA]

Bizarrely it's working. There was a software update a couple of days ago from Epson that targeted their scanning utility. As I explained in my original post I can't use the supplied driver because if corrupts two sided printing (on the Mac). This software update, it said was only for the scanning utility.

Ok .. I seem to be up and running. Strictly from a curiosity point of view I'd be interested in knowing why the driver worked for Photoshop Elements but not Affinity. Can't help the feeling there was some clash there.

Jack

[Chris B]

Photoshop doesn't use the standard macOS print dialog AFAIk so they could be using their own driver(s) or the manufacturer software if it is available as a plugin or something—this could be true for the scanning side of things too.

I really can't speak for what they do though.

I'm pleased it's working and I'm sorry I took so long to get back. I'd be interested to see if this is working for @Ross B.