Help with Epson 2580 Scanner

[No Such Luck]

Hi All:

After reading several favorable reviews, I just purchased an Epson 2580
scanner. The scan time is quick, the quality is good, and the size of
the scanner is pleasantly small. However, there is a serious deficieny
that I have encountered, and I was wondering if anyone had similar
trouble, and possibly a solution.

It appears as though there is a 5mm border around that glass that is
physically "unscannable". The documentation for the 2580 confirms this.
Therefore, if I am scanning an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, I must
manually place the paper in the center of the glass (a very inexact
science). Yes, there are guides to follow along the sides, but all
other scanners allow you to line up an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper by
quickly (and easily) aligning it against two sides of the glass (i.e.,
top-left corner of the glass).

What is the point of having a portion of the glass surface that is
unscannable? I can't believe Epson would do this to an otherwise
perfect scanner. Has anyone else faced this problem, or have a solution
for it?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

Hi All:

After reading several favorable reviews, I just purchased an Epson 2580
scanner. The scan time is quick, the quality is good, and the size of
the scanner is pleasantly small. However, there is a serious deficieny
that I have encountered, and I was wondering if anyone had similar
trouble, and possibly a solution.

It appears as though there is a 5mm border around that glass that is
physically "unscannable". The documentation for the 2580 confirms this.
Therefore, if I am scanning an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, I must
manually place the paper in the center of the glass (a very inexact
science). Yes, there are guides to follow along the sides, but all
other scanners allow you to line up an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper by
quickly (and easily) aligning it against two sides of the glass (i.e.,
top-left corner of the glass).

What is the point of having a portion of the glass surface that is
unscannable? I can't believe Epson would do this to an otherwise
perfect scanner. Has anyone else faced this problem, or have a solution
for it?

The glass is deliberately oversized so that you can accurately scan
images from sheets which are not exactly the size of the active area or
where the image on the sheet has a border area around it. Not everyone,
and I am sure that in time you will include yourself in this category,
wants to scan right to the edge of every page or use pages that are just
8.5x11" in size.

If it worries you so much, just cut a couple of small strips of card
that are 5mm wide and stick them around the border - problem solved. But
make sure they are removable once stuck down, because you will
eventually want something to be flat right up to the edge and need some
overhang.

 

[CSM1]

Hi All:

After reading several favorable reviews, I just purchased an Epson 2580
scanner. The scan time is quick, the quality is good, and the size of
the scanner is pleasantly small. However, there is a serious deficieny
that I have encountered, and I was wondering if anyone had similar
trouble, and possibly a solution.

It appears as though there is a 5mm border around that glass that is
physically "unscannable". The documentation for the 2580 confirms this.
Therefore, if I am scanning an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, I must
manually place the paper in the center of the glass (a very inexact
science). Yes, there are guides to follow along the sides, but all
other scanners allow you to line up an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper by
quickly (and easily) aligning it against two sides of the glass (i.e.,
top-left corner of the glass).

What is the point of having a portion of the glass surface that is
unscannable? I can't believe Epson would do this to an otherwise
perfect scanner. Has anyone else faced this problem, or have a solution
for it?

Thanks for any help.

Why worry about that small of the area, the smallest printer margin for a
lot of printers is 0.25 inches or 6.35 mm.

You can make a paper or plastic strip that is the 5mm wide and place that
strip against the side of the glass. Maybe that is easier that guessing.

A paper cutter will make fast work of cutting a strip.
5mm is 0.196850393700787401574803149606299 inches or about .2 inches.

 

[No Such Luck]

Why worry about that small of the area, the smallest printer margin
for a

lot of printers is 0.25 inches or 6.35 mm.

Thanks for the reply. For my application, it is extremely important
that the scanned 8.5" x 11" hardcopy paper match exactly (spatially,
speaking) to the resulting scanned image file at any dpi. For example,
if you were looking at the scanned image on the screen, I'd want it to
look exactly like the original hardcopy (same margins, etc.) The way
the 2580 is setup, lining up the paper manually makes this difficult.

Lining up the paper on the scanner bed in the first place should be a
trivial task. It is for most scanners.

Also, what does printing have to do with anything I asked?

You can make a paper or plastic strip that is the 5mm wide and place that
strip against the side of the glass. Maybe that is easier that guessing.

A paper cutter will make fast work of cutting a strip.
5mm is 0.196850393700787401574803149606299 inches or about .2
inches.

This seems like a bit of a hack, and I'll consider it only as a last
resort, unless there is absolutely no eloquent fix to this deficiency.

 

[JimL]

Thanks for the reply. For my application, it is extremely important
that the scanned 8.5" x 11" hardcopy paper match exactly (spatially,
speaking) to the resulting scanned image file at any dpi. For example,
if you were looking at the scanned image on the screen, I'd want it to
look exactly like the original hardcopy (same margins, etc.) The way
the 2580 is setup, lining up the paper manually makes this difficult.

Lining up the paper on the scanner bed in the first place should be a
trivial task. It is for most scanners.

Also, what does printing have to do with anything I asked?


This seems like a bit of a hack, and I'll consider it only as a last
resort, unless there is absolutely no eloquent fix to this deficiency.

Just use some masking tape on the glass. Works fine for me.

 

[No Such Luck]

Just use some masking tape on the glass. Works fine for me.

This might be an acceptable solution to a single, stand-alone, in-home
scanner. However, it is in no way an acceptable correction to a
large-scale effort, consisting of possibly hundreds of scanners.

 

[No Such Luck]

The glass is deliberately oversized so that you can accurately scan

images from sheets which are not exactly the size of the active area or
where the image on the sheet has a border area around it. Not everyone,
and I am sure that in time you will include yourself in this category,
wants to scan right to the edge of every page or use pages that are just
8.5x11" in size.

That's what software cropping is for. The mode of operation should
always be to scan everything automatically, and crop what you don't
want. Not the other way around (perform a scanner bed-induced autocrop,
and not be able to recover data that you need).

If it worries you so much, just cut a couple of small strips of card
that are 5mm wide and stick them around the border - problem solved.

Like I have said, this is NOT a portable large-scale solution. I, nor
anyone I know, is going to be willing or able to do this to possibly
hundreds of scanners. That's why I'm hoping that there is a software
solution out there.

But
make sure they are removable once stuck down, because you will
eventually want something to be flat right up to the edge and need some
overhang.

Why would I need this overhang, again? In that case, I would.... crop
the scanned image! The scan UI has a crop feature. I see no need for
the glass to be presumptuous and perform a crop automatically, when the
user is able to himself. This is ridiculous.

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

That's what software cropping is for.

How does software cropping help you get the part of the image that has
fallen off the right of the scan aperture because you wanted to
reference the margin against a hard edge on the left side of the scan.
As I said, not everyone wants to scan 8.5x11 sheets all the time, but
they often want to scan the maximum area possible with minimum wasted
border area.

Like I have said, this is NOT a portable large-scale solution.

Sure is. Couple of strips of 5mm thick card are extremely portable -
even in large quantities!

I, nor
anyone I know, is going to be willing or able to do this to possibly
hundreds of scanners.

Well, it is a once only operation for the usable life of the scanner -
which compares pretty favourably to the thousands of operations of
feeding and aligning each individual page to be scanned on each scanner.
I can't see what your problem is.

That's why I'm hoping that there is a software
solution out there.

You are hoping in vain - the hardware itself doesn't scan that area, so
it will be an impressive software solution that makes it do so!

Why would I need this overhang, again?

To ensure that actual scanned area is flat. The alternative is that the
scanner must be designed with a flush fitting or raised edge to the
glass surface - but you will have noticed the plastic bevel that holds
the glass in place.

In that case, I would.... crop
the scanned image!

Which is fine if your image has borders to crop. What if it doesn't -
do you through away scanned area from the remaining two sides.

The scan UI has a crop feature. I see no need for
the glass to be presumptuous and perform a crop automatically, when the
user is able to himself. This is ridiculous.

The glass isn't performing a crop. The glass is providing a margin
around the actual scan area such that the image to be scanned is not
lifted off the glass surface right up to the actual scanned edge.
Instead the image can be bent upward and over the bevel in that marginal
area. Cropping is fine if you are prepared to sacrifice the scan area
on the other edge.