Getting an old (3 yrs?) scanner to work

[barthrh]

I have a Canon FB1210U scanner. The only driver software Canon shows is for OS 9. The scanner is not recognized in 10.4.

I had hoped to be able to scan straight from Acrobat or Photoshop. But because OSX can't see the scanner, it's not there to scan from as a source. I tried Vuescan, but that's a 2-step process from page to file, to Acrobat (for OCR). My goal is to scan all the documents & articles I collect so I can bring 'em up anytime with spotlight. Imaging, essentially.

How do I do this? Would the OS9 drivers work? Would OSX apps see them? Am I stuck with either a 2-step process or having to buy a new scanner? That would truly suck, as my scanner is really very good and there is no reason to toss it! Do OCR apps like Omnipage contain their own scanner drivers?

I seem to have found a FreeBSD driver that I could compile, but it's not clear that it would work.

 

[CanadaRAM]

If you don't have time for the VueScan 2-step process, then you don't have time to #^$% around trying to build an alternative for an incompatible scanner.

See if the original driver will work in Classic, or in 9 if your Mac is 9 bootable.

Or just pays the $89 and get a new OSX compatible scanner.

 

[barthrh]

Is a driver running in Classic mode visible to OS X apps? So if the driver does indeed run in Classic (I think it does), then will Acrobat/Photoshop see the scanner?

 

[numediaman]

You might want to try SilverFast. A free version comes free with many scanners.

I have troubles with my Epson scanner in that when I try and use the scanner within Photoshop it often gives me a "scanner not found" error message. I then try again and again -- eventually it works.

I then installed SilverFast and puts its icon on my dock. SilverFast is more reliable -- though it leaves a file on your desktop (or where ever you choose the default location to be), and you then have to open PS separately.