USB Scanner for OS X?

spotbugspotbug
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I need a new scanner and I want one that works well with OS X (without requiring PS7, btw).



Anybody else recently bought a scanner for use with OS X and already gone through the research on this? I sure would appreciate not having to wade through all the different brands and models trying to figure out which ones work well with OS X. Any recommendations?



I'm looking to spend around $100.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    you could have a look at <a href="http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html"; target="_blank">VueScan</a> and find out what scanners it supports. my brother had a lousy scanner from canon which only had drivers for OS 9. I buyed Vuescan X, plugged the scanner in, and it worked flawlessly !
  • Reply 2 of 11
    jaskejaske Posts: 73member
    Canon has two, reasonably priced USB-powered, OS X-native scanners. You can find the info on Apple's OS X pages.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Tip: Stay away from UMAX...

    I bought a UMAX scanner a year before OSX came out and they still haven't released drivers for it. And VueScan doesn't support USB scanners from UAMX.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    I use my agfa SnapScan e50 scanner with os X and it works very well, just as it did in os 9.

    I belive agfa has gotten out of the scanner business, however. If you are lucky, you might be able to find an agfa scanner somewhere on the net and hopefully it would be cheap.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    [quote]Originally posted by jaske:

    <strong>Canon has two, reasonably priced USB-powered, OS X-native scanners. You can find the info on Apple's OS X pages.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Ah, thank you. It didn't even occur to me to look on Apple's OS X pages. I'll check it out.



    edit...



    jaske, do you happen know which page at Apple has this information? I can't find it.



    edit 2...



    Never mind, I found the link off the main OS X page. It goes to the OS X news page. The news page doesn't have any info about Canon's new OS X native scanners, however. I'll just go to Canon's site to get the info. Thanks again.



    [ 08-04-2002: Message edited by: spotbug ]



    [ 08-04-2002: Message edited by: spotbug ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 11
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    [quote]Originally posted by Tulkas:

    <strong>Tip: Stay away from UMAX...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah, I think I'll stick with the "big names" this time around.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    [quote]Originally posted by jaske:

    <strong>Canon has two, reasonably priced USB-powered, OS X-native scanners. You can find the info on Apple's OS X pages.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/devices.html"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/devices.html</a>;
  • Reply 8 of 11
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    [quote]Originally posted by Defiant:

    <strong><a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/devices.html"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/devices.html</a></strong><hr></blockquote>;



    Which lists everything but scanners. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 9 of 11
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    If anybody's interested, I just ordered a Canon CanoScan N1240U from Amazon.com. The total was $101.02 (no tax and UPS Ground was free).



    If you go to Canon's site and click on the specs for the scanner, it says "Mac OS (Classic only)". However, if you follow the "compatibility" link for Mac OS X (from their main scanners page), you'll see that they have native drivers for models N670U, N676U and N1240U available for download now.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    jaskejaske Posts: 73member
    The two Canon scanners are the CanoScan LiDE 20 USB, and the LiDE 30 USB. More info is at:

    <a href="http://consumer.usa.canon.com/whatsnew/index.html"; target="_blank">http://consumer.usa.canon.com/whatsnew/index.html</a>;



    From the tech specs:

    "Scanner driver compatible with Mac OS X native mode is included. Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0 is required separately to use the driver in native mode."



    I have the Canon N650U scanner that does not have OS X twain drivers as of yet. And, I doubt that it will. Canon clearly wants people to purchase new scanners, and will probably only produce OS X drivers for relatively "recent" models. That being said, VueScan works well for now. But I probably will purchase one of these two models soon. And, I would love OS X drivers, but I don't blame a company for being concerned with profits.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    [quote]Originally posted by jaske:

    <strong>The two Canon scanners are the CanoScan LiDE 20 USB, and the LiDE 30 USB. More info is at:

    <a href="http://consumer.usa.canon.com/whatsnew/index.html"; target="_blank">http://consumer.usa.canon.com/whatsnew/index.html</a>;



    From the tech specs:

    "Scanner driver compatible with Mac OS X native mode is included. Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0 is required separately to use the driver in native mode."

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    See this page for OS X compatibility info: <a href="http://consumer.usa.canon.com/osx/scanners.html"; target="_blank">Canon OS X scanner driver and tools release info</a>



    Despite what the tech specs say, according to that web page, the N670U, N676U and N1240U have native drivers available now and the N650U (and others) will have drivers available in October. LiDE 20 and LiDE 30 have drivers available in September. I suspect you'll need PS7 to use them until the tools are available in September for about half of the scanners.
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