Scanning in Affinity

[ShipDriver66]

Is work ongoing to add scan import to Affinity?

 

[DWright]

Hi @ShipDriver66,

Welcome to the forum

I am not aware that we have any plans to add native scanner support into our Affinity apps

[Rob123456789]

That is incredibly disappointing to hear that this isn't a consideration. Most other software including The GIMP, Corel Paint Shop Pro, and Photoshop all provide this functionality.

[cayenne]

2 minutes ago, Rob123456789 said:

That is incredibly disappointing to hear that this isn't a consideration. Most other software including The GIMP, Corel Paint Shop Pro, and Photoshop all provide this functionality.

That's certainly interesting.

I'd never known that PS did scanning....but even so, I think I'd still rather depend on a dedicated tool for scanning.

I'm presuming scanning film negatives, and there are great tools like Silverfast that are great for scanning film negatives and color positive films (I use it)....tools like these allow you to get in there and "tune" your file before scanning so as to get the best you can from your film media...and do preliminary dust and scratch fixes, etc.

If you're just looking at document scanning, well, even then, I'd think the dedicated tool would be best.

Not that I have ANYTHING against added functionality of any tool...but in this case, I think its usually one of those cases where "jack of all trades" philosophy doesn't fit as well here as in other cases.

 

Anyway, just my $0.02,

cayenne

[Paul Mc]

2 hours ago, Rob123456789 said:

That is incredibly disappointing to hear that this isn't a consideration. Most other software including The GIMP, Corel Paint Shop Pro, and Photoshop all provide this functionality.

None of those applications actually support scanning directly. They provide an API which allows a TWAIN or WIA compatible driver to be accessed from the menu and then have the scanned image imported into the workspace. It can make for a smoother workflow but most of those interfaces can be fairly basic and not access all the functionality that a dedicated app can. Like @cayenne says, applications like Silverfast and VueScan can bring a lot of extra functionality to the process that reduce the fixing you might have to do later. (I scan a lot of old negatives and getting the scanner configured well can save hours of post processing). The only downside (IMHO) is that you have to launch a separate program to scan (although mine launches automatically on a scanner button press) and there is an intermediate file taking up some disk space.

[John Rostron]

If you have your Operating System configured appropriately, then when you have scanned your image in VueScan or SilverFast, it will open automatically in Photo. Not quite like scanning directly from Photo, but it is an effective workaround. But, as @Paul Mc says:

13 hours ago, Paul Mc said:

there is an intermediate file taking up some disk space

John

[Rob123456789]

On 8/26/2020 at 7:22 PM, cayenne said:

That's certainly interesting.

I'd never known that PS did scanning....but even so, I think I'd still rather depend on a dedicated tool for scanning.

I'm presuming scanning film negatives, and there are great tools like Silverfast that are great for scanning film negatives and color positive films (I use it)....tools like these allow you to get in there and "tune" your file before scanning so as to get the best you can from your film media...and do preliminary dust and scratch fixes, etc.

If you're just looking at document scanning, well, even then, I'd think the dedicated tool would be best.

Not that I have ANYTHING against added functionality of any tool...but in this case, I think its usually one of those cases where "jack of all trades" philosophy doesn't fit as well here as in other cases.

 

Anyway, just my $0.02,

cayenne

Hi Cayenne. As John mentions just after your post - these programs provide a means to 'hook' in to the scanner functionality by using TWAIN or WIA drivers. For example in Photoshop you go to File > Import > WIA... and then it calls up the scanner driver/interface, you perform your san and it imports in to Photoshop as a new canvas. At this point the file is not saved, but you can edit it (if required) and then save or export it as desired.

I'm sure it isn't THAT much effort to provide this, especially given the fact that their legacy product Serif PhotoPlus has the ability to do it via File>Import>Acquire.