OT: HP 7310 All-in-one scanner/printer and HP's software

[The Less Blob]

My old Cannon (purchased in about 1998) scanner died earlier this year and I bought one of the above (because my printer has seen better days too). I tried to do some scanning this weekend for the VCC, but it seems that with the software HP gives you, the process for scanning a comic takes AT LEAST 10X longer than with my Cannon and the software that came with it. Each scan seems to be a chore with the HP and there are numerous steps that gunk up the works. On my old Cannon when I got into a rhythm I could probably scan 15+ books in 10 minutes, give or take.

 

The scanning itself doesn't seem slower (though in almost 10 years I would have hoped the tech would be faster!), it's just all the extra steps the software takes and the seeming inability to remember settings.

 

What's a good software out there that is quick and simple for banging out things like comic scans. I don't need the extra bells and whistles. Is regular old Adobe going to do the trick?

 

Thanks.

[sckao]

 

I have the exact same HP 7310.

 

It's a lot faster using the WIA driver. I also don't preview. I set up my presets and have it scan the entire platen. Then I scan directly to Photoshop and crop it there.

 

Image size it down to 700 pixels or 800 pixels wide, hit it with some leveling/contrast if it's not set correctly, unsharp mask and then save it out. Bulk upload to Photobucket.

 

It used to be a VERY slow process, but now it's pretty fast. (Less than a minute generally per scan.)

 

 

 

 

[The Less Blob]

What's a WIA driver?

 

So, old Photoshop, I'll try that.

 

Yeah, I used to skip the preview too, once I knew I didn't have them upside down.

 

Thanks.

 

If you can do them in a minute, that gives me some hope!

[sckao]

What's a WIA driver?

 

So, old Photoshop, I'll try that.

 

Yeah, I used to skip the preview too, once I knew I didn't have them upside down.

 

Thanks.

 

If you can do them in a minute, that gives me some hope!

 

The TWAIN driver is supplied by HP. The WIA Driver is a Microsoft driver that doesn't contain as many features.

 

Are you on a PC or a Mac?

 

 

 

 

[The Less Blob]

PC

 

any good (free) downloadable scanning software out there? i don't have photshop and don't want to spend more money.

 

the cannon program was so simple and easy and quick.

[sckao]

PC

 

any good (free) downloadable scanning software out there? i don't have photshop and don't want to spend more money.

 

the cannon program was so simple and easy and quick.

 

The WIA Driver is actually supplied by Microsoft. (It's their built-in driver.)

 

If you remove your HP Twain driver and reboot, Windows should detect the scanner by itself and try to install its own driver. It'll say something like WIA-HP OfficeJet 7300

 

I've found that the WIA driver doesn't pause in the middle of a scan like the Twain Driver does on my system. (I was on XP Professional and now I'm on Vista.)

 

 

[davidpg]

I'll be doing the same thing. I can't stand the way my HP All-in-One does anything.

[The Less Blob]

Thanks, I will be providing all of this information to tech support (my wife).

[Warlord]

What's a WIA driver?

 

So, old Photoshop, I'll try that.

 

Yeah, I used to skip the preview too, once I knew I didn't have them upside down.

 

Thanks.

 

If you can do them in a minute, that gives me some hope!

 

WIA = Windows Image Acquisition

[Warlord]

I'll be doing the same thing. I can't stand the way my HP All-in-One does anything.

 

I use the Scan To functionality of the HP 7310. It is awesome.

Slap the item on the flatbed, hit the Scan To button about 3 times, and off goes your scan to your PC.

 

The first time you use the Scan To you have to choose the app that you want to send your scan to, ie, Photoshop or a File or Paint or whatever. Every time through it after that the choice you made previously is the default so you just hit the button a few times to repeat what you just did on the scan before.

 

If you can't do 2-3 scans per minute you are working too hard! Don't bother using the scan function from your PC... use the Scan To function from the scanner control panel!