Epson 3200 as copier

[John]

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

 

[Charles Kinghorn]

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

 

[John]

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

 

[Ed Hamrick]

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

 

[Charles Kinghorn]

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

 

[Charles Kinghorn]

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

Charles

 

[John]

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.

 

[John]

I should add that I have been assuming you are copying text only. My

suggestions would apply in only that situation.

Not just text.

 

[DaveT]

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

 

[John]

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.

Thanks for confirming that it's not me or my scanner. When you
scanned a blank sheet of xerox paper did you get a good amount of
grayscale?

J

 

[DaveT]

Thanks for confirming that it's not me or my scanner. When you
scanned a blank sheet of xerox paper did you get a good amount of
grayscale?

J

I didn't try a totally blank sheet, but the scans were of small
newspaper clippings, some as small as 2 x 2 inches, against the white
reflective top cover. Using the SmartPanel "Copy," all showed a faint
but definitely noticeable background in the reflective top area and
gray background on the newsprint which was yellowed a bit, these are
quite old.

Asking to lighten up the whole scan helped, but still gave me fuzzy
half-toned text characters.

If I did a "scan to file" as a b&w text document, using the
"professional" mode, I was able to pick a threshhold that produced a
clean white background. Using this to a separate file and then a
separate print utility worked well and apparently eliminated the
half-toning which I assume is somebody's attempt to produce a gray
scaled output. It looks like they are treating all documents as
continuous tone, photo-like pieces and only diddling the contrast --
or something.

The latter process is certainly a work-around, but if my wife wants to
run in and zap a recipe out of a newspaper, it's like needing a half
semester course of instruction to accomplish what should be two or
three clicks. I would have thought that the "text" mode in that
built-in copy function would have done a one bit depth automatically.

Like you, I was glad to see this thread, that it's not my imagination,
but it is annoying. Even the fact that according to the rather
limited manual info, the "text" mode scans at 240 DPI seems pretty
lousy for a 3200 DPI scanner! I suppose that's done to keep the
speeds up.

I tried scanning a 35mm color negative, it appears the hardware does
good stuff; I'd just like some of the 3 CDs worth of software to
function a little more logically!

Good luck, let's hope somebody out here in cyberspace has some helpful
info.

DaveT

 

[John]

I concur WRT the documentation. Pretty lousy.
I initially tried text mode but sometimes I scan stuff with diagrams.

I ended up with 2 methods for copying:
* Smart Panel, Copy to Application
* Using Vuescan - I had it already
- problem of dark background required setting white point to 55%

I purchased the Epson to scan photos & medium format negatives
but secondarily to use it to 'photocopy'. Oh well...

Good luck to you!

J