Epson 3200 as copier

I'm having two issues when trying to use my scanner as a copier.

In first attempt I used the Copy utility that came with Epson's
Smart Panel. Copying a Letter sized sheet it cuts off about
0.5 inches off the right and the bottom. I tried reducing the
size with both the utility and with the printer preferences but
it still cuts off. When I use the standard Scan utility I see the
complete sheet of paper.

My second attempt was with Vuescan. The white area of the
sheet comes up with pixel values in the 240's and when I print
it out on my Laserjet (B&W), I get a hazy background. I've
been trying all sorts of setups playing mostly with the whitepoint
but I haven't been satisfied.

I contacted Epson on #1 but not expecting any results.

For #2, however, do I have a problem with my scanner or
is Vuescan not up to the task for this situation?

TIA

J

For standard text copying, use the standard Epson Scan and then in
professional mode (and maybe home mode) at 300 dpi. Then set the Image Type
to Black & White, Best Scanning Quality, and the B&W Option to text
enhancement technology. You then manually crop as much of the text or page
you want to copy.

Doug
--
Doug's "MF Film Holder" for batch scanning "strips" of 120/220 medium format
film:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfish...olderintro.html

For #2, on VueScan's Input tab, for Bits per pixel, select 1 bit B/W.
You will have to select Some or All options to get this option. Media
type = Text may also solve your problem.

Charles Kinghorn

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:44:17 GMT, John <John@john.net> wrote:

>I'm having two issues when trying to use my scanner as a copier.
>
>In first attempt I used the Copy utility that came with Epson's
>Smart Panel. Copying a Letter sized sheet it cuts off about
>0.5 inches off the right and the bottom. I tried reducing the
>size with both the utility and with the printer preferences but
>it still cuts off. When I use the standard Scan utility I see the
>complete sheet of paper.
>
>My second attempt was with Vuescan. The white area of the
>sheet comes up with pixel values in the 240's and when I print
>it out on my Laserjet (B&W), I get a hazy background. I've
>been trying all sorts of setups playing mostly with the whitepoint
>but I haven't been satisfied.
>
>I contacted Epson on #1 but not expecting any results.
>
>For #2, however, do I have a problem with my scanner or
>is Vuescan not up to the task for this situation?
>
>TIA
>
>J

Thanks. BitsPerPixel=1bit BW & MediaType=B/W photo was the
fastest and worked the best, though I have to set the WhitePoint
to 55%.

I'm still a bit concerned that scanning white is not coming out white.

J

Charles Kinghorn wrote:

> For #2, on VueScan's Input tab, for Bits per pixel, select 1 bit B/W.
> You will have to select Some or All options to get this option. Media
> type = Text may also solve your problem.
>

"John" <John@john.net> wrote:
> I'm still a bit concerned that scanning white is not coming out white.

Click on a neutral color with the right mouse button (or while
holding the control key on Mac OS).

Regards,
Ed Hamrick

I don't see why the White Point would be a factor here, since 1 bit
B/W is either on or off, black or white. There can't be any shades of
gray, which would require a bit depth of at least 8 (could be less,
but VueScan offers only 8). There must be some other setting affecting
you. I don't know which one, however, because I have never seen this
problem.

Whoops! I wrote all of the above before I saw your Media Type setting.
It should be Text. The B/W Photo setting is messing things up.

Charles

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:06:43 GMT, John <John@john.net> wrote:

>Thanks. BitsPerPixel=1bit BW & MediaType=B/W photo was the
>fastest and worked the best, though I have to set the WhitePoint
>to 55%.
>
>I'm still a bit concerned that scanning white is not coming out white.
>
>J
>
>Charles Kinghorn wrote:
>
>> For #2, on VueScan's Input tab, for Bits per pixel, select 1 bit B/W.
>> You will have to select Some or All options to get this option. Media
>> type = Text may also solve your problem.
>>

I should add that I have been assuming you are copying text only. My
suggestions would apply in only that situation.

Charles

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:06:43 GMT, John <John@john.net> wrote:

>Thanks. BitsPerPixel=1bit BW & MediaType=B/W photo was the
>fastest and worked the best, though I have to set the WhitePoint
>to 55%.
>
>I'm still a bit concerned that scanning white is not coming out white.
>
>J
>
>Charles Kinghorn wrote:
>
>> For #2, on VueScan's Input tab, for Bits per pixel, select 1 bit B/W.
>> You will have to select Some or All options to get this option. Media
>> type = Text may also solve your problem.
>>

> Click on a neutral color with the right mouse button (or while
> holding the control key on Mac OS).

It's not so much with the Color Balance but setting the White point
to get a relatively 'clean' printout. When I have the White point
set at 1% I get pixel values around 245. By setting it to 55% I
am able to get most of it while maintaining a certain amount of
grayscale for images.

> I should add that I have been assuming you are copying text only. My
> suggestions would apply in only that situation.

Not just text.

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 22:44:57 GMT, John <John@john.net> wrote:

>> I should add that I have been assuming you are copying text only. My
>> suggestions would apply in only that situation.
>
>Not just text.

So far, I have been disappointed with the 3200 as a copier. In
copying B&W text to a B&W laser printer -- which I think is probably
what 90% of users would do as a copy, no setting of the "Smart" copier
appears to get away from imposing some sort of gray-scale processing.
Even printed text comes out half-tone screened and somewhat fuzzy.
Granted, my laser printer is a 300 dpi HP 4L; perhaps that's forcing
coarser half-toning.

I was hoping this thread would lead me to an overlooked configuration
detail, but alas, apparently not so.

I was able to do Scan-to-file and take a TIFF at 600 dpi, then open
that with the image viewer on my Win2K box and print -- although I had
to put it into "edit mode" and select "actual size" to avoid filling
the page with the small newspaper clippings I'm trying to duplicate
and archive. That seems like a mighty round-about way to get there.

This AM, I tried outputting to my new Canon i960 color printer with
better results, but that seems like an expensive and less archival way
to go.

Does anybody know of a third party copier utility that does less
"thinking" for itself and has more configurable defaults? I'd really
like to be able to have a single, simple to use copier utility. It
bugs me that my old 300 DPI Umax on a Win311 box does a better B&W
copy in three button clicks!

DaveT