sane + Microtek = bad

[worker201]

Here at the office, I have a pretty nice scanner. It's a Microtek ScanMaker 4900. 4800x2400 dpi, 48 bit color, USB port, and all that. However, this scanner is totally unsupported by sane. I've used it in Windows, and it has this little proprietary viewer that comes up whenever you try to import from Photoshop. Which makes me think that the scanner controls are hardcoded into that little frontend, and sane cannot legally use their proprietary code. Such a shame. And I was all excited about learning how to run a scanner in Linux

What's even worse, though, is that the Microtek website is completely devoid of Linux anything. They don't even have a page that says "no Linux support available". This is a decent scanner at a decent price, but sorry, Microtek, I won't be buying one of your products ever again.

[Void Main]

I have a Microtek scanner that worked with Linux. I think it is a Scanmaker E3 with a SCSI card. It's old though and doesn't work any more. I almost picked up a cheap HP scanner the other day at OfficeMax. It's a good thing I didn't because I did a little searching and it looks like it wouldn't have worked with Linux. I meant to start a topic asking for scanner recommendations. I am wanting a nice cheap scanner (sub $100) that will work well with Linux (Gimp->Acquire). Any recommendations?

[worker201]

I don't know what the market for price is like these days. I heard that Epson is the way to go for Linux, and judging by the sane support page http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html (which is amazingly complete) they are well supported. As far as I can tell, the gimp import function is a sane frontend, so if your scanner is sane-friendly, you should have no troubles.

[Void Main]

Wow thanks! I'm going to have to do some research on prices. You are right, a lot of Epsons on there with complete functionality.