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September 2003
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By Lothar Frommhold © September 2003 |
Up to now I did all my scanning using a many years-old Epson 636 scanner, a SCSI
connection, and the CFM TWAIN software package under Warp 4, Warp 4.5, and more
recently eCS 1.xx - all excellent combinations! However, all these years I was looking
for a scanner with a resolution comparable to that of standard film (24x36 slide
and negative material), which I could afford. Of course, at the same time, I wanted
to use the scanner for letter-size scanning, to replace my old Epson (which, incidentally,
still works flawlessly as designed).
Recently,
the Epson Perfection 3200 Photo caught my eye. It has a resolution of 3200 dpi and
has some size-limited (4"x9" ) transparency feature built in which, however,
would serve my needs well. It sells for about $400 USD on the web. Trouble is, that
model connects through a USB port, but not a SCSI port, and the TWAIN capability
was not loudly advertised so that originally I did not think that I could use that
model at all.
Then the scanner software Tame /2 appeared, which is an OS/2 frontend of the
(remarkable!) *nix scanning software SANE. When I discovered that the README included
with the Tame /2 package lists a similar USB scanner, the Epson Perfection 3200
(without the "Photo") as a supported unit, I was ready to try my luck.
It is noteworthy that SANE and therefore Tame/2 support several other Epson USB
scanners - but probably not yet other brands USB scanners; I hear that support for
other USB scanners is under development.
in the config.sys of my computer (a Thinkpad A31p running eCS v.1.13). I don't know if all these things are really necessary; I just tried these things and apparently was lucky. BASEDEV=USBD.sys /R... BASEDEV=USBHID.sys BASEDEV=USBMSD.sys DEVICE=x:\OS2\boot\USBRESMG.sys
I then unzipped Tame /2 to what was supposed to be a temporary directory and
typed "
The whole installation barely took fifteen minutes and was problem-free, a most pleasant experience altogether. PMView, which was previously installed on my computer, was automatically integrated with the Tame/SANE package during installation for displaying the scans, without further ado on my part. The SANE/Tame/OS2 group has done a marvelous job. It is worth noting that many SCSI scanners are likewise currently supported by Tame/2, along with several other Epson USB models; see the very detailed list of supported scanners at os2world or Hobbes.
References:
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