BACKEND FOR UMAX SCANNERS

The sane-umax library implements a SANE backend that provides acces to several UMAX-SCSI-scanners, parallel-scanners are not supported! At present, the following scanners are known to work at least a bit with this backend:
 

Supported scanners
Name Vendor SCSI-ID Versions Line- art Half- tone Grey- scale Color RGB Bits/pixel Maximum resolution
UMAX Vista S6 UMAX Vista-S6 all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Vista S6E UMAX Vista-S6E all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Vista S6E UMAX UMAX S-6E all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Vista S6E UMAX UMAX S-6EG all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Vista S8 UMAX Vista-S8 ? ? ? ? ? 1,8,24 400 x 800
UMAX Supervista S12 UMAX Supervista S-12 all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 1200 x 1200
UMAX Supervista S12 UMAX UMAX S-12G all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 1200 x 1200
UMAX Supervista S12 UMAX UMAX S-12 all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 1200 x 1200
UMAX Astra 600S UMAX Astra 600S all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Astra 610S UMAX Astra 610S all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX Astra 1200S UMAX Astra 1200S all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24,30 600 x 1200
UMAX Astra 1220S UMAX Astra 1220S all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24,36 600 x 1200
UMAX UC630 UMAX UC630 below 1.6 ok ? bad bad 1,8,24 300 x 300
UMAX UC630 UMAX UC630 1.6 or above ok ? ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 300
UMAX UG630 UMAX UG630 all ok ? ok -- 1,8 300 x 300
UMAX UG80 UMAX UG80 all ok ? ok -- 1,8 300 x 300
UMAX UC840 UMAX UC840 below 1.6 ok ? bad bad 1,8,24 400 x 400
UMAX UC840 UMAX UC840 1.6 or above ok ? ok ok 1,8,24 400 x 400
UMAX UC1200S UMAX UC1200S ? bad bad bad bad 1,8,24 400 x 400
UMAX UC1260 UMAX UC1260 ? ? ? ? ? 1,8,24 400 x 400
UMAX Mirage IIse UMAX Mirage IIse ? ? ? ? ? 1,8,24 700 x 1400
UMAX Vista T630 UMAX Vista-T630 all (?) ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 600
UMAX PageScan UMAX PSD all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 300 x 300
UMAX PowerLook II UMAX PL-II all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 600 x 1200
Linotype-Hell Jade LinoHell Office all ok -- ok ok 1,8,24 1200 x 1200
Escom Image Scanner 256 UMAX UG80 all ok ok ok -- 1,8 300 x 300

If you own a UMAX-scanner other than the ones listed above, it may work with SANE. It depends on the informations the scanner returns to the umax-backend. If the data-block is large enough, the backend prints a warning and continues, but it is possible that not everything works fine. I suggest you hold one hand on the power-button of the scanner while you try the first scans!  

FRONTEND FUNCTIONS AND OPTIONS:

This backend dynamically enabeles the options that are supported by the scanner in dependence of the scanning-mode and other options. Here is an example of the frontend xscanimage with all but the advanced options visible: 

Scan modes:

Mode Remark
Lineart 1 bit/pixel black/white mode
Halftone 1 bit/pixel dithered black/white mode
Greyscale 8 / 10 / 12 bits/pixel grey mode
Color 24 / 30 / 36 bits/pixel RGB mode

Scan sources:

Flatbed
Transparency adapter (UTA)
Automatic document feeder (ADF)

Options:

Option Remark
Analog gamma correction analog gamma correction doesn't reduce the number of used colors! Value between 1 and 2, only supported by Supervista S12
Highlight only supported by some scanners
Shadow only supported by some scanners
Contrast only available in halftone-mode
Brightness only available in halftone-mode
Threshold only available in lineart-mode
Custom gamma table digital gamma correction, for color/intensity enhancement! Side-effect: may reduce the number of used colors!
Quality calibration For a quality white calibration. ONLY WORKS IF SCANNER IS ABLE TO DO THIS, DRIVER DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DO CALIBRATION: DRIVER WILL HANG!
Negative scan Inverts color-intensity, for scanning negatives
10-bit mode scanner sends back 10/30 bits/pixel instead of 8/24 bits/pixel! Only supported by Astra 1200S (NOT SUPPORTED FROM ANY BACKEND IN THE MOMENT!)
12-bit mode scanner sends back 12/36 bits/pixel instead of 8/24 bits/pixel! Only supported by Astra 1220S (NOT SUPPORTED FROM ANY BACKEND IN THE MOMENT!)
Lamp warmup enable extended lamp-warmup 

Advanced Options:

Option Remark
Smearing don't know for what it is *** DON'T USE IT ***
Scan-speed slow speed makes bad noises *** DON'T USE IT ***
Set exposure time Enable selection of exposure time, if not enabled, scanner uses default values.
Cal. exposure time Define exposure time for calibration, only supported by some scanners.
Scan exposure time Define exposure time for scan, only supported by some scanners.
Set lamp density Enable selection of lamp density, if not enabled, scanner automatically selects a value.
Cal. lamp density Define lamp density for calibration, only supported by some scanners.
Set scan lamp density Enable selection of lamp density for scan, if not enabled scanner uses the value that was used for calibration.
Scan lamp density Define lamp density for scan, only supported by some scanners.
Shading type Define type of calculating shading data for quality white calibration.

CONFIGURATION:

The configuration file for this backend resides in
/usr/local/etc/sane.d/umax.conf.

Its contents is a list of device names that correspond to UMAX scanners. Empty lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are ignored. A sample configuration file is shown below:

#scsi Vendor Model Type Bus Channel ID LUN
scsi UMAX * Scanner * * * * *
/dev/scanner
# this is a comment
/dev/sge

The special device name must be a generic SCSI device or a symlink to such a device. To find out to which device your scanner is assigned and how you have to set the permissions of that device, have a look at sane-scsi.

SCSI ADAPTER TIPS:

The SCSI-adapters that are shipped with some Umax-scanners are not supported by Linux and most other platforms, so you typically need to purchase another SCSI-adapter that is supported by your platform. See the relevant hardware FAQs and HOWTOs for your platform for more information.

The UMAX-scanners do block the scsi-bus for a few seconds while scanning. It is not necessary to connect the scanner to its own SCSI-adapter. But if you need short response time for your SCSI-harddisk (e.g. if your computer is a file-server), I suggest you use an own SCSI-adapter for your UMAX-scanner.

See also: sane-scsi

FILES:

  • The backend configuration file: /usr/local/etc/sane.d/umax.conf
  • The static library implementing this backend: /usr/local/lib/sane/libsane-umax.a
  • The shared library implementing this backend : /usr/local/lib/sane/libsane-umax.so
    • (present on systems that support dynamic loading)

    ENVIRONMENT:

  • SANE_DEBUG_UMAX
  • see sane-dll
  • see sane-scsi
  • see backends
  • see frontends

    • If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for this backend. E.g., a value of 128 requests all debug output to be printed. Smaller levels reduce verbosity:
     

    SANE_DEBUG_UMAX values
    Number
    Remark
    0 
    		 print important errors (printed each time) 
    1 
    		 print errors 
    2 print sense
    3
    		 print warnings 
    4 print scanner-inquiry
    5 
    		 print informations
    6 print less important informations
    7 print called procedures
    8 print reader_process messages
    10 
    		 print called sane-init-routines 
    11
    		 print called sane-procedures
    12
    		 print sane-infos
    13
    		 print sane option control messages

    Example:

    export SANE_DEBUG_UMAX=8

    BUGS:

  • X-Resolutions > 600 dpi sometimes don't work right!
  •  Calibration by driver does not work with Astra 6X0S and Vista S6E.

    •  

    AUTHOR:Oliver Rauch, parts of the low-level-driver by Michael K. Johnson

    SANE-homepage, backends, Patches