Scanning

[ygoe]

How can I scan images from my scanner with Affinity Photo 1.5.1 on Windows 10? The File menu doesn't have an Acquire item and the help contents don't know anything about that topic.

[v_kyr]

See this thread here. - On Windows systems you probably have to use your scanner software or some other third party tools for scanning images, which you can afterwards load into AP.

[ygoe]

Alright, I used Photoshop (64 bit) for scanning now. But that's a bad foundation for eventually replacing Photoshop with Affinity Photo. I could use IrfanView or paint.net. (I don't have any software from my scanner maker except the TWAIN and WIA drivers.) Strange that all of them can scan, but Affinity says it can't be done. I agree that scanning is (and has always been) a very poor technology. Nonetheless it is sometimes required. I should probably use my digital camera instead, it has a better resolution anyway.

[v_kyr]

There are hopefully some third party tools for Windows which probably can acquire your scanner drivers (in the same way as IrfanView etc. can do). Though most of these will be more or less simple tools without much control of scanning settings or finetuning options ...

• Windows-Scanner

For other more advanced scanning options here, tools like SilverFast or VueScan should offer more. - You should look if your scanner brand (Scanner Marke/ der Hersteller) really doesn't offer any additional scan software here beside the TWAIN drivers.

[pixelrain]

Your scanner doesn't have its own scanning software ?

[ygoe]

It's a Samsung MFP (colour laser and scanner), some 8 years old. I'm not sure whether it has special software, but my impression is that any company can either do hardware or software well, not both. I'd probably still rather use IrfanView than some Samsung software. Last time I wanted to download Samsung "SmarThruOffice" it had an expired or revoked digital signature and Windows wouldn't let me open it.

 

And I'm not asking for tons of options here. Let me specify the scan resolution and ideally give me a preview and let me select the area to scan in full resolution. What else could there be? A scanner scans paper and gives me the pixels, there's not much more to it. This is not a duplex batch monster. I do the post-processing in the image editing application.

 

Not sure if you're aware of the two options there are: TWAIN and WIA. TWAIN is from the early 16-bit 90s and might not work in 64 bit anymore. That provided a full dialog window with all the options and it looked different for each driver and device. WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) is a bit newer and is a Microsoft scanner driver model which should replace TWAIN. There's a default dialog which lets me set the resolution, colour type and gives me a preview. It looks the same everywhere. AFAIK paint.net and Ps only support WIA by now whereas IrfanView is still on the TWAIN track. Both paint.net and Ps are 64-bit applications of production quality, so that argument doesn't quite hold. I can't say anything about Mac OS / OS X / macOS as I have no experience with that.

[John Rostron]

Vuescan will support the MFP 65X scanner. The basic version at $40 will scan documents, but not slides. I set the default output as jpeg, and Affinity as the default program for jpegs so the output of VueScan opens automatically in Affinity. You couldon't use tiff if you preferred.

 

John

[v_kyr]

Samsung should have at least some sort of scan software support for your printer/scanner combo (wie z.B. bei Samsung sowas hier) which might still work under Win 10 in compatibility mode or maybe via your actual or newer drivers. You can do a search on their website after your concrete Samsung hardware model, in order to see if that (hopefully) might be still supported.

[ygoe]

Of course there are workarounds. But my point is that I'd like to see it integrated in Affinity Photo, just like in any other image editing application. Just put in on that list where the arrow heads for Designer are. ;-)

[- S -]

...And I'm not asking for tons of options here. Let me specify the scan resolution and ideally give me a preview and let me select the area to scan in full resolution. What else could there be? A scanner scans paper and gives me the pixels, there's not much more to it. This is not a duplex batch monster. I do the post-processing in the image editing application.

 

There's the Microsoft Scan app in the above post from v_kyr.  Alternatively, the app in that link is more-or-less the same as the built-in Windows scan feature.  To access it, go to Control Panel > Devices and Printers, then either right-click the scanner, or double click it to access the scanner functions.  Isn't this all you're asking for?

 

[R C-R]

For what it is worth, even this Adobe PS support page recommends using a dedicated stand-alone scanning application as the preferred method for acquiring scans. The alternative is to use ImageKit (Mac) or WIA (Windows). But for both methods, it says that the driver software is supported by the scanner manufacturer, so neither one will work if the driver software is not compatible with the OS.

 

In that case, for PS you may be able to use a manufacturer's older TWAIN interface, but only if you start PS is 32 bit mode. Obviously, that isn't possible with Affinity since it is 64 bit only.

 

From what I have read on other web sites, much like MEB said in the other topic, WIA support from scanner manufacturers is hit or miss, often buggy, & sometimes so poorly written that it will crash the app trying to use it. Apparently, for whatever reason ImageKit support is much better on the Mac side, which may be why AP for Mac includes the "Acquire Image..." File menu item but the Windows version does not.

 

In other words, if Affinity did support WIA, there is a good chance that it would not work right unless you were lucky enough to have a scanner whose manufacturer provided high quality support for it.

[pixelrain]

It's a Samsung

 

Say no more ... :P

 

I've asked because usually manufacturer's own apps use the hardware better, or have more options for scanning; which is a big plus if you ask me.

 

There is also NAPS2, which is open source, there is also a portable version if you prefer this; maybe you will find it useful.

[v_kyr]

Of course there are workarounds. But my point is that I'd like to see it integrated in Affinity Photo, just like in any other image editing application. Just put in on that list where the arrow heads for Designer are. ;-)

 

:)  Ah Ok and yes then you should address this "acquire scanner image" capability under the wanted features section for AP!

[Wolfgang Kynast]

Of course there are workarounds. But my point is that I'd like to see it integrated in Affinity Photo, just like in any other image editing application. Just put in on that list where the arrow heads for Designer are. ;-)

 

I'm afraid it is not that simple.My quite new Epson ET 2550 has Twain and WIA drivers. I can use both from Irfan View 32, but the WIA driver has a lot less functionallity than the Twain driver. In fact, the WIA is only approriate for very simple tasks.

Irfanview 64 can load the Twain driver via something called IrfanViewStubClient-a separate process.

 

Corel PSP X8-32bit uses the twain driver just fine, but rejects the WIA driver as "not enough compatible"

Corel PSP X8-64bit does not display any scanner driver.

 

I feel that WIA drivers are doubtly usabel at time. The only way for AP to go would be to use something to call the TWAIN drivers via something like the IrfanViewStubClient.