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Hamrick VueScan 8 - Scanner Software Replacement

From Sue Chastain,
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The Bottom Line

VueScan adds advanced features and superior control to more than 400 scanners. VueScan is especially useful for scanning slides and negatives, fine-tuning the color in your scans, and for batch scanning of multiple photos.
Pros
  • Enhances most scanners by providing more features for batch scanning, image correction, and more.
  • Works with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux — and almost every scanner available.
  • Custom settings can be saved and reloaded.
  • Frequently updated with features and enhancements.
  • Doesn't change system files or registry, and won't interfere with your scanner's native software.
Cons
  • Beginners who stray into the advanced settings could get lost in the many options.
  • Documentation is detailed, but users could benefit from more project-oriented tutorials.
  • No PNG save option.

Description

  • VueScan is a stand-alone replacement for most scanners' TWAIN software interface.
  • VueScan can generate RAW files, allowing you to try various settings without rescanning.
  • Offers a guided mode for beginners, or advanced users can manually adjust all settings.
  • Input any type of document — photo prints, slides, negatives, magazine pages, text documents, etc.
  • Output TIFF, JPEG, PDF, Raw files, OCR text, or thumbnail index pages. Automatic save & file naming.
  • Adjust color balance, black/white point, brightness, and individual RGB brightness.
  • Filter for color fading, infrared cleaning (with capable scanners), grain reduction, and sharpening.
  • Precisely crop for any size input — manually or automatically — with accuracy to 3 decimal places.
  • Custom settings for specific projects can be saved to a file and reloaded at any time.
  • Available in Standard Edition (US$49.95) and Professional Edition (US$99.95). Free 30-day trial.

Guide Review - Hamrick VueScan 8 - Scanner Software Replacement

I recently embarked on a project to scan my family's collection of more than 1600 slides from the 1970s-80's and my own printed photos. I felt I had chosen an excellent flatbed scanner for photos, 35mm slides and negatives, but I got a surprise when I opened the first box of slides and discovered they were not in 35mm format after all. Almost all of them were in "Instamatic" format, with some 120 and 35mm slides mingled throughout. Unfortunately, my scanner's software only worked with 35mm slides. VueScan to the rescue!

If not for VueScan, my project would not have been possible with the scanner I'd bought for the project. With the batch processing and infrared cleaning options in VueScan, not only was the project possible — it was a breeze. After a few trial passes to adjust my settings, I was able to save my options to a file and reload them each time I started a slide scanning session. Once my settings were loaded, I only needed to load the scanner's slide tray and press the scan button. VueScan did the rest, saving each file with a custom name and serial number, while I worked on other things.

VueScan is a stand-alone program, which means you can't scan directly into an image editor as you can with most scanning software, but it does give you the option to immediately send a saved scan to another program for editing. I found that I preferred my scanner's own software for scanning photo prints, but for slides and negatives, VueScan is truly a God-send.
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